Coiba Island, Golfo de Montijo, Panama
During our first day in Panama we visited the famous Coiba Island, once a penal colony and today a promising national park. Coiba is the largest island in the Pacific Ocean of Central America and an unknown jewel that has been visited by Lindblad Expeditions for almost 20 years now.
The Sea Voyager anchored in front of the beautiful islet of Granito de Oro, a snorkeling paradise with unusual warm and crystal clear waters where we saw many different species of tropical fishes, all endowed with spectacular colors and interesting behaviors.
Our arrival to Granito de Oro was a wonderful experience: Zodiacs churning the glassy water and landing on the beach of fine white sand, a couple of lonely palm trees and some others bushes crowning the islet, and, maybe the most impressive part, thousands of hermit crabs that, as they moved, made the entire isle look alive and in motion.
How they survive and why they are so many in such a tiny islet is a thing to be researched by the biologists who are just beginning to discover what inhabits these islands, of forbidden access to your average Panamanian for almost a century.
It amazed me to observe these crabs eating anything available on the islet, even the oily coconut pulp. It may be possible that one single coconut could sustain the entire community for a whole month. Who knows?
And this is just a tiny little fraction of this enormous and recently created national park that remains relatively undiscovered and that sustains 1700 hectare of some of the best-preserved coral reefs of the eastern pacific, pristine jungles and several species of plants and animals that have been isolated for time enough to become new and endemic species.
Just like the coconut that sustains many hermit crabs, the conservation of this jewel of Panama could become the main income for hundreds of poor families on the mainland that could receive benefits from the visitation of the park.
During our first day in Panama we visited the famous Coiba Island, once a penal colony and today a promising national park. Coiba is the largest island in the Pacific Ocean of Central America and an unknown jewel that has been visited by Lindblad Expeditions for almost 20 years now.
The Sea Voyager anchored in front of the beautiful islet of Granito de Oro, a snorkeling paradise with unusual warm and crystal clear waters where we saw many different species of tropical fishes, all endowed with spectacular colors and interesting behaviors.
Our arrival to Granito de Oro was a wonderful experience: Zodiacs churning the glassy water and landing on the beach of fine white sand, a couple of lonely palm trees and some others bushes crowning the islet, and, maybe the most impressive part, thousands of hermit crabs that, as they moved, made the entire isle look alive and in motion.
How they survive and why they are so many in such a tiny islet is a thing to be researched by the biologists who are just beginning to discover what inhabits these islands, of forbidden access to your average Panamanian for almost a century.
It amazed me to observe these crabs eating anything available on the islet, even the oily coconut pulp. It may be possible that one single coconut could sustain the entire community for a whole month. Who knows?
And this is just a tiny little fraction of this enormous and recently created national park that remains relatively undiscovered and that sustains 1700 hectare of some of the best-preserved coral reefs of the eastern pacific, pristine jungles and several species of plants and animals that have been isolated for time enough to become new and endemic species.
Just like the coconut that sustains many hermit crabs, the conservation of this jewel of Panama could become the main income for hundreds of poor families on the mainland that could receive benefits from the visitation of the park.
