Granito de Oro, near Isla Coiba, Panama
Today we visited Isla Coiba and a tiny neighboring islet, Granito de Oro. For decades, Isla Coiba’s large, forested land mass was used as a sort of open-air prison. Thanks to the prison, the island environment has been beautifully preserved. Now, Coiba and nearby islands form Panama’s newest and one of Central America’s largest parks, encompassing both land and marine environments. These waters are rich with life. As we voyaged north toward the island this morning, brilliant blue, green and gold mahi mahi (dolphin fish) swam away from the ship. Spotted dolphins visited us briefly and flying fish and houndfish skipped across the waves. We saw reptiles, too. Many yellow-bellied sea snakes floated on the surface, and a sea turtle came up for air.
Upon arriving at Coiba, we went ashore and found excellent birdwatching on the grounds of the island’s research station. Red-legged honeycreepers, brilliant blue birds with bright red legs, were feasting on the fruits of a fig tree.
Later in the day we explored the park underwater from the quintessential tropical islet, Granito de Oro. This “little grain of gold” lies a short distance from Coiba, but has just a handful of plants, a few mounds of rock, lots of white sand, and countless hermit crabs. Snorkelers and SCUBA divers found many, many fishes. We marveled at the perfect choreography of an enormous school of spottail grunts. At night they forage alone over sand flats, but during the day they find safety in numbers. The thousands of grunts almost appeared as one large organism, turning and moving in perfect unison.
Today we visited Isla Coiba and a tiny neighboring islet, Granito de Oro. For decades, Isla Coiba’s large, forested land mass was used as a sort of open-air prison. Thanks to the prison, the island environment has been beautifully preserved. Now, Coiba and nearby islands form Panama’s newest and one of Central America’s largest parks, encompassing both land and marine environments. These waters are rich with life. As we voyaged north toward the island this morning, brilliant blue, green and gold mahi mahi (dolphin fish) swam away from the ship. Spotted dolphins visited us briefly and flying fish and houndfish skipped across the waves. We saw reptiles, too. Many yellow-bellied sea snakes floated on the surface, and a sea turtle came up for air.
Upon arriving at Coiba, we went ashore and found excellent birdwatching on the grounds of the island’s research station. Red-legged honeycreepers, brilliant blue birds with bright red legs, were feasting on the fruits of a fig tree.
Later in the day we explored the park underwater from the quintessential tropical islet, Granito de Oro. This “little grain of gold” lies a short distance from Coiba, but has just a handful of plants, a few mounds of rock, lots of white sand, and countless hermit crabs. Snorkelers and SCUBA divers found many, many fishes. We marveled at the perfect choreography of an enormous school of spottail grunts. At night they forage alone over sand flats, but during the day they find safety in numbers. The thousands of grunts almost appeared as one large organism, turning and moving in perfect unison.
