Escudo De Veraguas, Panama
Today our plan is to visit the unique and remote island of Escudo de Veraguas, located off the isolated northwest coast of Panama. Isa gave an intriguing lecture about the rainforest and it’s many diverse inhabitants and before we realized it we were pulling up to a lovely island that seemed to be covered in lush dense vegetation. We set the anchor down at approximately 11:00 am, have lunch and then set out to discover “our island”. What a wonderful sight when we rounded the north end of the island to discover that Mother Nature had gone crazy! The north side was full of jagged mushroom cap shapes! The shoreline had eroded away with time to form the most incredible view! As we made our way through and around these fantastic shapes, we saw iguanas and brown boobies up in the trees above us. The white sandy beaches were completely protected and seemingly without human inhabitants. After pulling up to one of the many secluded beaches some of the guests decided to explore the inner reef while others checked out the island or merely relaxed on the shore. Since the kayaks were available still others ventured out for some fun. Some of the intrepid explorers decided that they wanted to snorkel the west side of the island and so off we went in a Zodiac. The west patch reef was a snorkeler’s paradise! Buttresses of Lettuce coral that rose up from the sandy floor made for a very interesting underwater landscape. Every nook and cranny seemed to be occupied by juvenile yellowtail damselfish with their iridescent blue dots. A large black grouper peered out from the safety of its hole. The yellowtail goatfish were stirring up the bottom in search of a delectable crustacean and schools of surgeonfish were descending upon the reef overwhelming the threespot damselfish! After what seemed like 30 minutes (but was actually more like an hour and a half) we had to get out before we started to grow gills! Back to the ship only to exchange our snorkeling gear for sandals, and cameras as we headed to the shore once again this time to visit the west side of the island. The native Indians, the Aiymee, were extremely friendly and invited us into their world to catch a glimpse of the life of a lobster fisherman. Sadly, it was soon time to end this adventure and head back to the ship enroute to our next destination!
Today our plan is to visit the unique and remote island of Escudo de Veraguas, located off the isolated northwest coast of Panama. Isa gave an intriguing lecture about the rainforest and it’s many diverse inhabitants and before we realized it we were pulling up to a lovely island that seemed to be covered in lush dense vegetation. We set the anchor down at approximately 11:00 am, have lunch and then set out to discover “our island”. What a wonderful sight when we rounded the north end of the island to discover that Mother Nature had gone crazy! The north side was full of jagged mushroom cap shapes! The shoreline had eroded away with time to form the most incredible view! As we made our way through and around these fantastic shapes, we saw iguanas and brown boobies up in the trees above us. The white sandy beaches were completely protected and seemingly without human inhabitants. After pulling up to one of the many secluded beaches some of the guests decided to explore the inner reef while others checked out the island or merely relaxed on the shore. Since the kayaks were available still others ventured out for some fun. Some of the intrepid explorers decided that they wanted to snorkel the west side of the island and so off we went in a Zodiac. The west patch reef was a snorkeler’s paradise! Buttresses of Lettuce coral that rose up from the sandy floor made for a very interesting underwater landscape. Every nook and cranny seemed to be occupied by juvenile yellowtail damselfish with their iridescent blue dots. A large black grouper peered out from the safety of its hole. The yellowtail goatfish were stirring up the bottom in search of a delectable crustacean and schools of surgeonfish were descending upon the reef overwhelming the threespot damselfish! After what seemed like 30 minutes (but was actually more like an hour and a half) we had to get out before we started to grow gills! Back to the ship only to exchange our snorkeling gear for sandals, and cameras as we headed to the shore once again this time to visit the west side of the island. The native Indians, the Aiymee, were extremely friendly and invited us into their world to catch a glimpse of the life of a lobster fisherman. Sadly, it was soon time to end this adventure and head back to the ship enroute to our next destination!
