In 1513, the famous Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa decided to undertake an expedition where more than 400 men—both indigenous and Spanish—walked the dense jungle in search of another sea and a land where natives supposedly wore gold and lived in houses decorated with pearls. In this place, the women were beautiful and friendship prevailed. After walking for more than 20 days, these explorers came to the South Sea, so named by Balboa. But it wasn’t until the explorers took a boat to the Bay of Panama that they discovered an island inhabited by men who dressed in gold and women who wore pearls. The island was called King Island, now known as part of the Pearl Islands.
Like the Spaniards, the National Geographic Sea Lion decided to explore the archipelago. We went to Pacheca Island where we did two rounds of Zodiac cruises. We saw a variety of birds like American oystercatchers, yellow-crowned night herons nesting, bare-throated tiger herons, magnificent frigatebirds, brown pelicans, white egrets, and some bottle-nose dolphins and eagle manta rays. Then we found a beautiful beach full of trees and birds and we stayed there for more than an hour and enjoyed this tropical paradise in the beautiful country of Panama. After this magical interlude, we started our journey to Coiba Island.
