Coiba Island National Park, Panama
Before dawn we started to look for Crux (Southern Cross). Once we were moving it became visible as the clouds cleared. In the East we could clearly observe Scorpio slowly appearing on the horizon. We dropped anchor close to Granito de Oro, a small island that holds an impressive coral reef among this protected marine ecosystem.
The low tide was ideal to get a closer look at the fish. The reef was very active. The sergeant majors and scissortail damselfish schooled around the snorkelers as we advanced.
The rainbow wrasses seemed to be looking for a safer spot among the coral, but they always ended up in the same part of the reef. It was difficult to concentrate, since we would find one colorful and interesting fish after another. A white-tipped reef shark swam by and it was heading to a singular place in the reef. Three sharks, a green moray, seventeen reef cornet fish, and over ten Crevalle’s jacks were patrolling around a couple of rocks at the bottom.
After spending the morning on this small piece of white sand paradise, we repositioned closer to the ranger station, where we had a barbeque lunch and the rest of the afternoon was quite relaxing. As the crew played soccer, some people went kayaking, some others went again into the water to snorkel and some decided to go birdwatching in the gardens of the station. The birding group got great sightings of Crimson back tanagers, yellow faced grassquits, red legged honeycreepers and black hawks among others. They even saw an endemic species of mammal, the Coiba Agouti and an American crocodile that lives in the estuary on the back of the island.
Dawn and dusk, sunrise and sunset were spent at the same National Park as we continued our way to Costa Rica.
Before dawn we started to look for Crux (Southern Cross). Once we were moving it became visible as the clouds cleared. In the East we could clearly observe Scorpio slowly appearing on the horizon. We dropped anchor close to Granito de Oro, a small island that holds an impressive coral reef among this protected marine ecosystem.
The low tide was ideal to get a closer look at the fish. The reef was very active. The sergeant majors and scissortail damselfish schooled around the snorkelers as we advanced.
The rainbow wrasses seemed to be looking for a safer spot among the coral, but they always ended up in the same part of the reef. It was difficult to concentrate, since we would find one colorful and interesting fish after another. A white-tipped reef shark swam by and it was heading to a singular place in the reef. Three sharks, a green moray, seventeen reef cornet fish, and over ten Crevalle’s jacks were patrolling around a couple of rocks at the bottom.
After spending the morning on this small piece of white sand paradise, we repositioned closer to the ranger station, where we had a barbeque lunch and the rest of the afternoon was quite relaxing. As the crew played soccer, some people went kayaking, some others went again into the water to snorkel and some decided to go birdwatching in the gardens of the station. The birding group got great sightings of Crimson back tanagers, yellow faced grassquits, red legged honeycreepers and black hawks among others. They even saw an endemic species of mammal, the Coiba Agouti and an American crocodile that lives in the estuary on the back of the island.
Dawn and dusk, sunrise and sunset were spent at the same National Park as we continued our way to Costa Rica.
