Coiba Island National Park, Panama
After sailing through the night from Costa Rica, the Sea Voyager arrived to Coiba National Park. The sun welcomed us to Panama with a spectacular sunrise. The sun rays began to reveal the pristine primary forest that has been protected by law since 2004. Since 1919 to 2004, Coiba Island was a penal colony, making this area unattractive for travellers. This helped in the protection of the diversity of species that inhabit the area.
The park has an extension of 270,125 hectares (aprox. 675, 312.5 acres), in which 80% is marine area and the other 20% is main land. It was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO due to the unique characteristic and importance to the world. Gathering the second biggest coral reef of the Eastern Pacific, Coiba Island is part of the Marine Corridor for Conservation together with Cocos Island in Costa Rica, Malpelo and Gorgona Islands in Colombia and Galapagos Island in Ecuador.
Eager to go and explore this unique place, as soon as we anchored we went ashore to a nice little islet known as Granito de Oro, which translates to “Little Grain of Gold.” The name gives honour to the place. A white sand beach loaded with hermit crabs and a couple of shrubs that provided shades made this place a unique piece of paradise. The snorkelling was excellent. Different species of fish like Moorish idols, Cortez angelfish, yellow fin razors, bicolored parrot fish and many others swam in front of us to prove that this area was indeed a paradise.
Back on board, we weighed anchor and started sailing towards our next destination. A big pod of dolphins performed a nice farewell show for each of our guests. Green sea turtles, hawksbill turtles, olive Ridley turtles plus a couple of devil’s rays decided to give us a farewell show, too. It had been a wonderful welcome to Panama. Just another day in the Paradise of Costa Rica and Panama!
After sailing through the night from Costa Rica, the Sea Voyager arrived to Coiba National Park. The sun welcomed us to Panama with a spectacular sunrise. The sun rays began to reveal the pristine primary forest that has been protected by law since 2004. Since 1919 to 2004, Coiba Island was a penal colony, making this area unattractive for travellers. This helped in the protection of the diversity of species that inhabit the area.
The park has an extension of 270,125 hectares (aprox. 675, 312.5 acres), in which 80% is marine area and the other 20% is main land. It was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO due to the unique characteristic and importance to the world. Gathering the second biggest coral reef of the Eastern Pacific, Coiba Island is part of the Marine Corridor for Conservation together with Cocos Island in Costa Rica, Malpelo and Gorgona Islands in Colombia and Galapagos Island in Ecuador.
Eager to go and explore this unique place, as soon as we anchored we went ashore to a nice little islet known as Granito de Oro, which translates to “Little Grain of Gold.” The name gives honour to the place. A white sand beach loaded with hermit crabs and a couple of shrubs that provided shades made this place a unique piece of paradise. The snorkelling was excellent. Different species of fish like Moorish idols, Cortez angelfish, yellow fin razors, bicolored parrot fish and many others swam in front of us to prove that this area was indeed a paradise.
Back on board, we weighed anchor and started sailing towards our next destination. A big pod of dolphins performed a nice farewell show for each of our guests. Green sea turtles, hawksbill turtles, olive Ridley turtles plus a couple of devil’s rays decided to give us a farewell show, too. It had been a wonderful welcome to Panama. Just another day in the Paradise of Costa Rica and Panama!
