Granito de Oro, Panama - The Golden spot of our trip
As we made our way to the lounge of National Geographic Sea Lion this morning, an excited voice was repeating: “Welcome to Panama”, it was our Panamanian Naturalist Roberto who was happy to be home. We were all excited to be in Panama thinking about all the new things that were waiting for us in this beautiful country.
From the window in the distance we could start to see islands covered with lush vegetation, we were looking at Coiba National Park, consisting of an archipelago of about 38 islands and a total area of 500 square kilometers. This park remains very well protected because it was turned into a penal colony by the government of Panama, so its beauty and nature remains practically untouched until now, and with a status of National Park and World Heritage Site this jewel will stay protected forever.
We had been training and waiting for this day with kayaking and snorkeling briefings to be able to enjoy the most important coral reef in the Tropical Eastern Pacific. Many of us had never been snorkeling, but the naturalist of the National Geographic Sea Lion kept on saying “you have to try, it is too good”. So we decided that it was time to start snorkeling and the experienced snorkelers could not wait to find all the fish that were promised.
As the Expedition Leader announced our arrival to the spot, in front of us was a tiny little island with nothing but a few trees and palms on top and the most beautiful white sand beach. All of this overlooking the lush island of Coiba: “we found our golden spot in our trip”, the Island of Granito the Oro. As we approached on the Zodiacs, crystal clear waters revealed rock and coral reef formations and even some of the fish.
We made our way into the water and it wasn’t long till we started to see the rich amount of fish: King Angelfish, Bicolor Parrotfish, Moorish Idol, Sargeant Majors, Guineafowl Puffer and Damselfish are just some of the fish that were easy to identify. Of course as we went a little longer in the reef where some were able to observe the top predator of the reef in Granito de Oro, the Whitetipped Reef Shark. Kayaking was also part of the activities, as well as simply sitting on chairs under the shade to watch the millions of hermit crabs on the island.
