Coiba National Park, Panama
At the crack of dawn National Geographic Sea Lion sailed into Panama’s newest National Park. The early risers had gone out on deck waiting for the stretching class to begin. A nice cool breeze embraced them, giving the welcome to our first destination in Panama. Several sea turtles popped their heads out of the water, curious to see what was passing next to them. The sun rays began to draw the silhouettes of the islands and islets that form part of Coiba National Park. This park covers an area of around 271,000 hectares, which most of it is marine area. The biggest island called Coiba, used to be a penal colony since 1920. Being used as a Devil’s Island, it was kept from being visited by tourist allowing the forest to be conserved. Once declared a National Park and protected by law, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site.
Just before breakfast, National Geographic Sea Lion dropped anchor next to a lovely islet known as “Granito de Oro.” Eager to go ashore and jump in the water, we ate our breakfast as fast as we could. We did not want to waste time. So with our gear in hand, we loaded the Zodiacs and went ashore. The water was crystal clear and we could see a big bed of rocky corals in the bottom. As we began to explore the water surrounding the islet, different species of fish began to show up. The water was loaded with nutrients and fish were having a big feast. Suddenly, an unusual member of this park showed up. It was a yellow bellied sea snake. Known to be one of the most poisonous reptiles in the world, it just swam across without paying any attention to us. A hawksbill turtle also decided to swim close to us while some were amazed by seeing the whitetip reef shark swimming very close looking for a place to rest.
On the beach, as the tide began to drop, lovely sanderlings arrived looking for something to eat on shore. Up in the sky, a mangrove hawk flew by checking the area and looking for a branch to perch. It was just a fantastic morning! Back on board, we weighed anchor and started sailing to our next destination in Panama; 190 nautical miles must be sailed in order to reach it. As we sailed, we gathered out on deck to enjoy the scenery and say farewell to the lovely paradise that we left behind.
