Isla Coiba National Park and Granito De Oro
A beautiful calm morning afforded us and early outing to the Coiba Park headquarters where ambitious birders and stretchers took advantage of this unique opportunity. Balance poses are much easier to accomplish on firm ground and stretching to the rising sun with vultures as spectators, a rare occurrence indeed! Birders and photographers were rewarded with sightings of brown pelicans, frigates, bare-throated tiger-heron, common black hawk, and yellow-headed caracara.
Re-positioning the ship for our next adventure of the morning, we landed on this treasure of an island just minutes away from park headquarters, the tiny but impressive Granito De Oro (“little grain of gold”). The fine white sand, palm trees for shade, and the coral reef make this the perfect beach playground—and there’s something for everyone. Snorkeling turned out to be the most popular activity, and with a bit of surge from strong tides, the styrofoam noodles were a helpful accompaniment. Observing and photographing the plentiful number of hermit crabs was also favorite, as well as kayaking or just relaxing to the lapping waves and refreshing breeze.
Hearty appetites built tasty tacos from a generous assortment of choices, courtesy of our ever-creative galley. Over dessert—snicker doodle cookies—we spotted dolphins leaping off our starboard side for good viewing while we munched! After a refreshing siesta, Mauricio gave a presentation on the history of Panama as we are now in Panamanian waters and headed towards our grand finale, the Panama Canal. Margrit, a Costa Rican naturalist, shared with us at re-cap, a great undersea video that she shot while free-diving this morning. Informative and enlightening, we learned more about the identification and habits of the fish that live off the reef that we were fortunate to observe in our expedition today.
