Coiba Island National Park
Our first day in Panama started with a beautiful sunrise. After sailing 120 nautical miles during the night, the Sea Voyager dropped anchor in front of a little islet known as Granito de Oro, or Little Grain of Gold. Similar to a Gary Larson comic island, with a couple of palm trees, white sand and a big army of hermit crabs, this islet was our station for this morning’s activities. Surrounded by a beautiful coral reef, Granito de Oro offers to all its visitors a great place for snorkeling. This islet is part of Coiba Island National Park. This park has an extension of 271,000 hectares in which only 52,000 hectares are mainland and the rest is marine area. Its marine area covers the second biggest coral reef of the Eastern Pacific. With the help of several Board of Trusties and non profit organizations, this park will be part of a marine corridor that will connect other marine parks including Cocos Island in Costa Rica, Mapelo Island in Colombia and Galápagos Island in Ecuador.
Right after breakfast, we picked up our snorkeling gear and went ashore to check what this park has to offer. On shore we where greeted by the local patrol, a group of hermit crabs, which are responsible for keeping the beach clean from any type of organic material. It was an interesting parade of walking shells from different direction of the islet looking for something to eat. Once passed the inspection, it was time to check what this reef had. Hard corals, star fish, green morays eels, white tipped reef sharks, morish idols, cornet reef fish, puffer fish, king angel fish and many others species enjoyed our sight of this under water paradise.
Our desire was to stay here for ever, but 190 nautical miles had to be covered in order to reach our next destination in Panama, the Panama Canal.
Our first day in Panama started with a beautiful sunrise. After sailing 120 nautical miles during the night, the Sea Voyager dropped anchor in front of a little islet known as Granito de Oro, or Little Grain of Gold. Similar to a Gary Larson comic island, with a couple of palm trees, white sand and a big army of hermit crabs, this islet was our station for this morning’s activities. Surrounded by a beautiful coral reef, Granito de Oro offers to all its visitors a great place for snorkeling. This islet is part of Coiba Island National Park. This park has an extension of 271,000 hectares in which only 52,000 hectares are mainland and the rest is marine area. Its marine area covers the second biggest coral reef of the Eastern Pacific. With the help of several Board of Trusties and non profit organizations, this park will be part of a marine corridor that will connect other marine parks including Cocos Island in Costa Rica, Mapelo Island in Colombia and Galápagos Island in Ecuador.
Right after breakfast, we picked up our snorkeling gear and went ashore to check what this park has to offer. On shore we where greeted by the local patrol, a group of hermit crabs, which are responsible for keeping the beach clean from any type of organic material. It was an interesting parade of walking shells from different direction of the islet looking for something to eat. Once passed the inspection, it was time to check what this reef had. Hard corals, star fish, green morays eels, white tipped reef sharks, morish idols, cornet reef fish, puffer fish, king angel fish and many others species enjoyed our sight of this under water paradise.
Our desire was to stay here for ever, but 190 nautical miles had to be covered in order to reach our next destination in Panama, the Panama Canal.
