Escudo de Veraguas, Panama
During the night we sailed over a long stretch of open water and were thankful for much calmer seas. Early this morning we arrived at the beautiful island of Escudo de Veraguas. Named by Christopher Columbus on his fourth and final voyage, the island has remained out of the way and visited by very few people because of its location off the isolated northwest coast of Panama. It is also alleged Sir Francis Drake died here after a battle in Portobelo. There are many islets on both ends of the main island, all of which are covered with lush vegetation, and many seem to be surrounded by coral heads and fish.
These numerous islets provided us with a chance for a great Zodiac cruise, and those who ventured forth were rewarded with some good bird sightings, including osprey, bellbird, bay wren and brown booby. This was in addition to the beauty of the lush surroundings, with a forest dripping in bromeliads, orchids and some considerable rain! Indeed, we witnessed a tremendous tropical downpour, which gave us a taste of the conditions that an area like this needs to produce such a tropical rainforest. It is rainforests such as these, that contain about 50 % of the World’s biodiversity, and yet only cover about 7% of the World’s surface. And we saw a good example of this biodiversity today.
After our Zodiac trip we enjoyed a beautiful beach but as noon was approaching everybody was either too tired or too hungry, because as you see in the picture, the beach was deserted!
During the night we sailed over a long stretch of open water and were thankful for much calmer seas. Early this morning we arrived at the beautiful island of Escudo de Veraguas. Named by Christopher Columbus on his fourth and final voyage, the island has remained out of the way and visited by very few people because of its location off the isolated northwest coast of Panama. It is also alleged Sir Francis Drake died here after a battle in Portobelo. There are many islets on both ends of the main island, all of which are covered with lush vegetation, and many seem to be surrounded by coral heads and fish.
These numerous islets provided us with a chance for a great Zodiac cruise, and those who ventured forth were rewarded with some good bird sightings, including osprey, bellbird, bay wren and brown booby. This was in addition to the beauty of the lush surroundings, with a forest dripping in bromeliads, orchids and some considerable rain! Indeed, we witnessed a tremendous tropical downpour, which gave us a taste of the conditions that an area like this needs to produce such a tropical rainforest. It is rainforests such as these, that contain about 50 % of the World’s biodiversity, and yet only cover about 7% of the World’s surface. And we saw a good example of this biodiversity today.
After our Zodiac trip we enjoyed a beautiful beach but as noon was approaching everybody was either too tired or too hungry, because as you see in the picture, the beach was deserted!
