In 1513, the famous Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa decided to make an expedition with more than 400 men. His expedition went through the dense jungle looking for a village where the natives would dress in gold and decorated their houses with pearls.
After walking around 20 days, Balboa saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time, he named it El mar el Sur, “The South Sea”. They sailed through the Bay of Panama and he soon found the island inhabited by natives dressed in gold and women in pearls. There is no question why this group of islands was named Pearl Islands.
Just like the Spaniards, National Geographic Sea Lion, decided to explore the archipelago. We anchored close to Mogo Mogo Island where the white sand beaches and the lush forest invited us to disembark right after breakfast.
We used our explorations landing craft to cruise around the island. We were delighted to witness all of the different species of birds: American oystercatcher, willet, yellow crowned night-heron, bare throated tiger heron, magnificent frigatebird, brown pelicans, white egret, snowy egret, and Neotropical cormorant.
Later in the morning, we landed on a beautiful uninhabited beach with crystal water where we stayed for the rest of the morning. We enjoyed this paradise by kayaking, snorkeling, swimming and beach combing.
Back onboard, we lifted the anchor and sailed off to our next destination of our journey. Along the way we spotted the highlight of the day - two whale sharks swimming nearby one of the islands. What a magical moment!
