This gorgeous, early January day was a sprinkling of strong winds, clouds, lustrous raindrops, and sunshine. All the ingredients of a lively backdrop lighting and animating our contrasting landscape of lush green shoreline rain forests, white sandy beaches, and entrenching Mangrove trees. The morning warm ups and deck activities were welcomed with invigorating warm breezes, stretching, and laughter as the activities and places of the day were anticipated. After staff expeditions zipped along the shoreline to find a landing spot, a wonderful mangrove beach was decided on, and people gathered for relaxation, swimming, or snorkeling in the region of Canal de Afuera.
Pleasant outcomes in continuance, National Geographic Sea Lion continued our visit to the third largest marine park in the world, right here in Panama, called Isla Coiba. This time the rangers’ station with its exotic beach was home for our group enjoying a delicious lunch served by our fantastic hotel crew led by hotel manager, Erasmo Estripeaut. When all were fed and sustained, there was a daring four-mile kayak outing to our new beach lounging spot of Granito de Oro. The rest of the guests and crew arrived via transit on National Geographic Sea Lion in less than an hour.
This picturesque island of Granito de Oro reminds us of a classic movie set where we all fantasize about being stranded. And stranded we were, for at least two hours while kayaking and snorkeling. A huge rock outcropping created an ideal ecosystem for coral growth and marine life that surround the island. Onshore, the hermit crabs were plentiful as they crawl about looking for their next scavenged meal.
The Recap before dinner focused on marine life from the depths caught on video footage during a dive today by Cristian Moreno at Granito de Oro. Some highlights shown were the scorpion fish, crown-of-thorns starfish, and Pacific cushion sea star. To close our amazing day in the tropics, we crossed into Costa Rica in the early morning hours and have a new day of adventures to look forward to here!
