Coiba Island, Panama
We began our Panama section of the trip on the right foot. Early this morning those of us with an adventuresome spirit decided to tackle the new day by the horns and go out before breakfast for kayak, birdwatching, or Zodiac excursions following the edge of Coiba Island, the largest island off the Pacific coast of Panama. Oddly enough, it is not only a national park, but was once a penal colony! As of one month ago, the last prisoners were removed, but for the past 90 years, the island worked as Panama’s own Devil’s Island. This minor detail is the reason why the area has been protected from poaching, fishing, and deforestation all these years. For our benefit!
After breakfast, we disembarked on our own “little grain of gold” (Granito de Oro) island, where four palm trees, a large group of sanderlings, and a small, but rich reef greeted us. As the tide rose, we were all determined to try our snorkeling gear. Fins, masks, snorkels, and floating devices on, we were ready to venture around the rocky island. We were not disappointed. Schools of Cortez chubs, yellow and blue snappers, spottailed grunts, chancho surgeon fish, plus our share of puffer fish, porcupine fish, white tipped reef shark, green moray eels, parrotfish, wrasses, blennies, and even one solitary hawksbill-sea turtle were sighted. But all of this is of little magnitude compared to the feeling of being alone in the world, in the middle of nowhere, where news doesn’t affect us, where work and the entertainment media don’t reach…
That’s a real vacation!
We began our Panama section of the trip on the right foot. Early this morning those of us with an adventuresome spirit decided to tackle the new day by the horns and go out before breakfast for kayak, birdwatching, or Zodiac excursions following the edge of Coiba Island, the largest island off the Pacific coast of Panama. Oddly enough, it is not only a national park, but was once a penal colony! As of one month ago, the last prisoners were removed, but for the past 90 years, the island worked as Panama’s own Devil’s Island. This minor detail is the reason why the area has been protected from poaching, fishing, and deforestation all these years. For our benefit!
After breakfast, we disembarked on our own “little grain of gold” (Granito de Oro) island, where four palm trees, a large group of sanderlings, and a small, but rich reef greeted us. As the tide rose, we were all determined to try our snorkeling gear. Fins, masks, snorkels, and floating devices on, we were ready to venture around the rocky island. We were not disappointed. Schools of Cortez chubs, yellow and blue snappers, spottailed grunts, chancho surgeon fish, plus our share of puffer fish, porcupine fish, white tipped reef shark, green moray eels, parrotfish, wrasses, blennies, and even one solitary hawksbill-sea turtle were sighted. But all of this is of little magnitude compared to the feeling of being alone in the world, in the middle of nowhere, where news doesn’t affect us, where work and the entertainment media don’t reach…
That’s a real vacation!
