The Bay of Panama and Iguana Island
The National Geographic Sea Lion spent the night anchored in a peaceful shelter close to a group of islands in the Bay of Panama. As the sunlight began to increase, the shape of three islands began to show up. These islands are known as Otoque, Bona and Estiva. They are a very good example of a geological uplifting. It was an overcast morning with a cool breeze that invited us to go on Zodiacs to explore the surrounding islands.
A group of early risers grabbed their gear and waited for the first Zodiac to jump on. As they began to navigate and approached to one of the islands, the sky began to get covered by a mixed flock of seabirds! “Why are there so many seabirds?” was the most common question. The answer was that these seabirds nest close to their feeding area. The Bay of Panama is known to have a good upwelling zone. The trade wind blows the warm surface waters allowing the cold waters from the bottom to rise bringing to the top a lot of nutrients and food supply for fishes. This provokes a great feeding frenzy where seabirds like brown boobies, blue footed boobies, brown pelicans and frigatebird will have a feast. White headed and coated chicks popped their heads out of their nest to stare at us, as curious as our explorers. It was indeed the breeding season for many of them.
When some of our guests began to return to the ship, a small pod of pantropical spotted dolphins showed up and decided to escort their return to the vessel by bow riding the Zodiacs. Magnificent! Back on board, the National Geographic Sea Lion weighed anchor and set for the next destination of the day. After cruising sixty nautical miles we finally arrived to a small paradise, Iguana Island, in the Azuero Peninsula. A lovely white sand beach invited everyone to go ashore. The island besides having a lovely beach, it also has a trail that leads to the nesting areas of frigatebirds. A few coral reefs surround the island, making it really attractive to snorkel. So while some explorers went hiking towards the nesting area, other group went to see the underwater world surrounding the island.
As the sun began to set, they all return to the ship and started navigating. The comments during the cocktail hour were that we had an excellent day and every day of exploration keeps getting better and better. “Where are we going tomorrow?”…. “We are going to the paradise of Coiba Island National Park!”
