Coiba National Park
After sailing 190 nautical miles, the Sea Voyager arrived at Coiba National Park. A nice pod of pantropical spotted dolphins had escorted our ship while it was approaching the area. A little drizzle had fallen, granting us a fresh morning. Coiba is one of the biggest marine parks of Panama. With an extension of 271,000 hectares, this park has only 51,000 hectares of main land and little islets and the rest is marine area. Coiba National park is part of a marine corridor that connects Cocos Island, in Costa Rica, Malpelo Island, in Colombia and Galápagos in Ecuador.
Before being declared a National Park, Coiba island was used has a penal colony since 1919. This fact kept Coiba from being visited by tourists so its forest and wild life have been kept pristine. It’s the home of endemic species of Howler monkeys, agoutis and many others. Adding to this, it’s the home of the second biggest coral reef of the Eastern Pacific. It became a National park and was protected by law since the year 2003. No development can be done on the island or it’s surroundings. This will assure the conservation of the park.
Having this in mind, right after breakfast we grabbed our snorkeling and went ashore to a nice Gary Larson comic worthy islet known as “Granito de Oro”. What a marvelous place for snorkeling! Different species of fish showed up, curious to identify the rear creatures that needed a special apparatus for breathing while swimming. Similar to a parade, the fish went passing one by one in front of us. We could see that it was a healthy coral reef since we could observe from the bottom of the food chain to the top of it. The presence of white-tipped reef shark indicates that the area belonged to them. Even though they are nocturnal animals, we could observe as they swam around looking for a good place to rest.
Back on board, the Sea Voyager weighed anchorand repositioned in front of the ranger station on the main island of Coiba. After having a delicious barbecue, we went to explore the surroundings. Different species of birds decided so expose themselves in order to prove that the mainlands are also rich in biodiversity. Some of the species were Crimson backed tanagers, blue and gray tanagers, and yellow face grassquits. It had been just a spectacular day. The trip could have stopped here, but another 120 nautical miles had to be covered in order to reach the next destination of our voyage.
Costa Rica is waiting for us!
After sailing 190 nautical miles, the Sea Voyager arrived at Coiba National Park. A nice pod of pantropical spotted dolphins had escorted our ship while it was approaching the area. A little drizzle had fallen, granting us a fresh morning. Coiba is one of the biggest marine parks of Panama. With an extension of 271,000 hectares, this park has only 51,000 hectares of main land and little islets and the rest is marine area. Coiba National park is part of a marine corridor that connects Cocos Island, in Costa Rica, Malpelo Island, in Colombia and Galápagos in Ecuador.
Before being declared a National Park, Coiba island was used has a penal colony since 1919. This fact kept Coiba from being visited by tourists so its forest and wild life have been kept pristine. It’s the home of endemic species of Howler monkeys, agoutis and many others. Adding to this, it’s the home of the second biggest coral reef of the Eastern Pacific. It became a National park and was protected by law since the year 2003. No development can be done on the island or it’s surroundings. This will assure the conservation of the park.
Having this in mind, right after breakfast we grabbed our snorkeling and went ashore to a nice Gary Larson comic worthy islet known as “Granito de Oro”. What a marvelous place for snorkeling! Different species of fish showed up, curious to identify the rear creatures that needed a special apparatus for breathing while swimming. Similar to a parade, the fish went passing one by one in front of us. We could see that it was a healthy coral reef since we could observe from the bottom of the food chain to the top of it. The presence of white-tipped reef shark indicates that the area belonged to them. Even though they are nocturnal animals, we could observe as they swam around looking for a good place to rest.
Back on board, the Sea Voyager weighed anchorand repositioned in front of the ranger station on the main island of Coiba. After having a delicious barbecue, we went to explore the surroundings. Different species of birds decided so expose themselves in order to prove that the mainlands are also rich in biodiversity. Some of the species were Crimson backed tanagers, blue and gray tanagers, and yellow face grassquits. It had been just a spectacular day. The trip could have stopped here, but another 120 nautical miles had to be covered in order to reach the next destination of our voyage.
Costa Rica is waiting for us!
