Isla Coiba National Park and Granito de Oro Islet
After a heavy rainfall during the night, our morning on board National Geographic Sea Lion began with a gorgeous sunrise with billowy clouds on the horizon. The dedicated stretchers were on the aft sun deck, ready to warm up their bodies for a morning filled with kayaking, snorkeling, and beach lounging on the beautiful white sand shoreline of Granito de Oro.
Kayakers paddled around the island in the sunlight, watching snorkelers peering at tropical fishes on the coral reef. Others enjoyed relaxing on the beach with a book, good conversation, or photographing the feisty hermit crabs scuttling about the island, charming us with their shy shell retreats.
After loading up the ship with our kayaks, paddles, fins, snorkel masks and gear of all sorts, we departed for our afternoon cruise in search of dolphins and wildlife. This rest time on the ship was complete with a fabulous lunch hosted by our wonderful hotel staff, capped with an ice cream sundae bar and sunbathing-turned-snoozing on deck.
Later Cristian gave a fantastic presentation – “Land Divided, World United” – about the Panama Canal, where we learned the real root of the word “kangaroo,” but also history and culture of the Canal.
The day was not complete until sunset and the recap of daily activities where Isa led us through the fantastic footage of the undersea video. The images were of Moorish idols, needle fish, parrot fish, and the Cortez angel fish. What an amazing day in paradise!
