Our morning began with the most beautiful sunrise, just a few clouds on the horizon and the sun beaming through. After traveling 190 nautical miles through the night, National Geographic Sea Lion arrived at one of the most magical places, Coiba Island National Park. This park has the second biggest coral reef of the Tropical Eastern Pacific and hundreds of amazing little islands.
Our first outing of the day was a visit to a sweet little island called Granito de Oro which translates to "little nugget of gold." It was my ideal paradise - a gorgeous beach with white soft sand, a few coconut palms trees, millions of hermit crabs running down to your feet, and crystal clear water. Your skin would crawl by the sound of the hermit crabs traveling through the leaves that lay on the island that never let up, it was a constant rustling of the leaves.
The life under the water was beautiful and alive. Warm clear water filled with so many undersea creatures like bicolored parrotfish, sea urchins covering the sea floor, king angelfish and so much more. This coral reef is full of so much life, hundreds of organisms ranging from white-tipped reef sharks to hawksbill sea turtles, from sea urchins to golden rays, from sea stars to coral polyps.
We headed back to the ship for lunch, pulled the anchor and repositioned National Geographic Sea Lion four miles north. Our destination was the ranger station. Here we had another opportunity to kayak, snorkel, take walks, and look for wildlife. It was a successful trip to shore. We saw white-throated capuchin monkeys, the subspecies of mantled howler monkeys, black and green iguanas, crocodiles, and red-lored parrots.
It was a day full of wildlife, an amazing last day in Panama. Now, were off to explore our second Central American country, Costa Rica.
