Coiba Marine National Park, Panama
Today we visited Coiba Marine National Park, Panama’s biggest Marine Park, and one of the jewels of this undiscovered and unexplored country. With 270,000 hectares (675,000 acres) it is a paradise for snorkeling, kayaking, diving, hiking or just procrastinating. 80% of this truly breathtaking paradise consists of land. The main island of Coiba is the second largest island on the Pacific Coast, after Vancouver.
Being a Penal Colony, it held a population of criminals from 1919 to 2003. This less than attractive use allowed the islands to be protected from the “progress” that would have deforested and over fished. After the closure of the penal colony, the island became the last National Park among for Panama’s widespread system.
As we sailed in the archipelago early in the morning, we were able to drop anchor in a tiny piece of sand surrounded by a couple of palm trees and rocks. Hermit crabs being the only full time residents of this paradise, we took over this land to set up a station for the exploration of the premises.
As we went to explore the reefs of this tiny island called Granito de Oro (Little Grain of Gold) we were able to discover and identify white-tipped reef sharks, Cortez rainbow wrasses, Panamanian sergeant majors, Moorish idols, box fish, spotlight parrot fish, and many other species.
About 3 million years ago as Panama emerged out of the ocean and became a land bridge between North and South America, the isthmus divided to oceans and united two continents. Since then, fish and reefs evolved differently in both oceans, due to different conditions within each ocean. Differentiation of species and specialization for different conditions is observed in Panama when comparing inhabitants of both bodies of water.
After a magnificent lunch prepared by the galley, we sailed towards the bay of Panama and the Panama Canal. Later in the day, a lecture on Panama was presented; meanwhile pantropical spotted dolphins rode along and escorted us into sunset. Just another day in paradise!
Today we visited Coiba Marine National Park, Panama’s biggest Marine Park, and one of the jewels of this undiscovered and unexplored country. With 270,000 hectares (675,000 acres) it is a paradise for snorkeling, kayaking, diving, hiking or just procrastinating. 80% of this truly breathtaking paradise consists of land. The main island of Coiba is the second largest island on the Pacific Coast, after Vancouver.
Being a Penal Colony, it held a population of criminals from 1919 to 2003. This less than attractive use allowed the islands to be protected from the “progress” that would have deforested and over fished. After the closure of the penal colony, the island became the last National Park among for Panama’s widespread system.
As we sailed in the archipelago early in the morning, we were able to drop anchor in a tiny piece of sand surrounded by a couple of palm trees and rocks. Hermit crabs being the only full time residents of this paradise, we took over this land to set up a station for the exploration of the premises.
As we went to explore the reefs of this tiny island called Granito de Oro (Little Grain of Gold) we were able to discover and identify white-tipped reef sharks, Cortez rainbow wrasses, Panamanian sergeant majors, Moorish idols, box fish, spotlight parrot fish, and many other species.
About 3 million years ago as Panama emerged out of the ocean and became a land bridge between North and South America, the isthmus divided to oceans and united two continents. Since then, fish and reefs evolved differently in both oceans, due to different conditions within each ocean. Differentiation of species and specialization for different conditions is observed in Panama when comparing inhabitants of both bodies of water.
After a magnificent lunch prepared by the galley, we sailed towards the bay of Panama and the Panama Canal. Later in the day, a lecture on Panama was presented; meanwhile pantropical spotted dolphins rode along and escorted us into sunset. Just another day in paradise!
