Otoque & Bona, Panama
After spending a wonderful day on Coiba Island, we headed southeast during the night sailing smoothly towards Panama Bay. The day dawned at one of the most unique sites of the Pacific coast of Panama, the enchanted islands of Otoque and Bona. Located right outside the navigation area of the Panama Canal, these islands sit in the middle of an upwelling zone which bathes these islands in nutrient-rich waters. As a result, big colonies of seabirds find a paradise where food is abundant and they can develop their lifecycles.
Brown pelicans, magnificent frigatebirds and brown boobies find an appropriate nesting site to raise their young. Other individuals such as blue-footed boobies, yellow-crowned and black-crowned night herons, great-tailed grackles, little blue herons great egrets, green kingfishers, eastern tropicbirds also find a really good place to call home.
This upwelling phenomenon brings into the bay a great amount of nutrients which results in the abundance of numerous species of fish that provide food for large number of seabirds. For this reason the islands are very popular among fisherman, birdwatchers and of course, nature-lovers like us.
Then, with a lot of enthusiasm we headed towards one of most incredible places on earth. I consider the Panama Canal one of the wonders of human kind in terms of engineering and construction. Almost a hundred years after being built, it still uses the same mechanisms, and on top of all that, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset with the most amazing background. A very pleasant and unexpected surprise was a group of capybaras that we spotted before we entered in the first locks.
After spending a wonderful day on Coiba Island, we headed southeast during the night sailing smoothly towards Panama Bay. The day dawned at one of the most unique sites of the Pacific coast of Panama, the enchanted islands of Otoque and Bona. Located right outside the navigation area of the Panama Canal, these islands sit in the middle of an upwelling zone which bathes these islands in nutrient-rich waters. As a result, big colonies of seabirds find a paradise where food is abundant and they can develop their lifecycles.
Brown pelicans, magnificent frigatebirds and brown boobies find an appropriate nesting site to raise their young. Other individuals such as blue-footed boobies, yellow-crowned and black-crowned night herons, great-tailed grackles, little blue herons great egrets, green kingfishers, eastern tropicbirds also find a really good place to call home.
This upwelling phenomenon brings into the bay a great amount of nutrients which results in the abundance of numerous species of fish that provide food for large number of seabirds. For this reason the islands are very popular among fisherman, birdwatchers and of course, nature-lovers like us.
Then, with a lot of enthusiasm we headed towards one of most incredible places on earth. I consider the Panama Canal one of the wonders of human kind in terms of engineering and construction. Almost a hundred years after being built, it still uses the same mechanisms, and on top of all that, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset with the most amazing background. A very pleasant and unexpected surprise was a group of capybaras that we spotted before we entered in the first locks.
