After a peaceful navigation of around 180 nautical miles, National Geographic Sea Lion found itself in the protected waters of the Mesoamerican Marine Corridor, which runs from Cocos Island in Costa Rica, Coiba in Panama, Malpelo and Gorgona in Colombia. This marine corridor allows many species to be protected while they are migrating, like humpback whales, sea turtles, and game fish like marlins, tunas and more.
Coiba Island is an ecological gem, virtually protected from human development or damage, with an approximate area of 125 square miles. How can such idyllic clear blue waters and white sandy beaches remain untouched? Well, it was a penal colony from 1912 to 2004, when the last prisoners were taken from Coiba. In 1991, Panama established the park and in 2005 it was declared by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. Yes, it is an incredible and unique stop in our itinerary that many visitors to Panama won’t ever have the chance to explore.
The first outing of the day was on Canal de Afuera Island, where we did some snorkeling and kayaking. After enjoying the morning, we all went back on board to reposition the ship to the park ranger station on the big island, Coiba. Here, our galley had ready a great picnic/barbeque lunch with hamburgers and ribs…to die for.
And if that was not enough, we squeezed a third island from the over 200 ones in this park into our afternoon. Granito de Oro is this quintessential tropical paradise, with translucent blue waters, white soft sand and an uncountable number of fishes from all colors of the rainbow.
Granito offers two kinds of reefs: a rocky one with many surgeonfish and parrotfish eating the algae that grow there, and a coral reef full of angels, damsels, and butterflyfish among snake eels and turtles. All of our guests came out of these waters saying that it felt like they were snorkeling in a man-made fish tank.
We accomplished the mission of experiencing a unique, protected and private paradise as we closed the chapter on our Panama adventures and weighed anchor in order to sail 120 nautical miles to explore another beautiful country…Costa Rica, here we come!
