A Panamanian marine preserve with a past
A loggerhead turtle swung his head toward me and marbled then disappeared beneath the waves when I slid off the boat with my snorkel, mask and fins. Immediately revealed a Technicolor underwater world in itself: pastel parrotfish winged, small purple fairy girls with big eyes and a red squirrel school sturgeonfish purple fins rushed in and out of staghorn coral and orange purple sea fans. I took a grouper in slow deep water, and suddenly, swimming depth, six white tip sharks emerged, sending me fly in the direction of the boat, calling for a boost.
Coiba National Park in Panama, an isolated marine preserve 14 miles of the Pacific coast is a paradise for nature lovers, but is not without its dangers. Sharks, crocodiles and (Gone But Not Forgotten) an infamous prison, all contribute to the thrill of danger that is experienced in the bio-diversity park, whose boundaries are of 194 square kilometers of Isla Coiba, 38 islets increasingly as the Panama coral reefs of the Eastern Caribbean neighbors, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador.
Founded in 1919 as a penal colony in the open sea, the islands are up to 1,300 inmates for the entire life cycle of the penitentiary at a distance. Given the infamous disappearances there, on the basis of rumors political enemies of the state, and its just a mystery, you would have to be a prisoner or the Warden to view it. The closure of the prison began in 1990, the road Coiba National Park, established in 1991. In 2005, the park has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the last prisoner was released.
Between the prison and to preserve, was Coiba, which is part of the same mountain underground, which includes the Galapagos Islands, never developed commercially, and more than 85 percent of the forest is still the primary growth. The region has emerged as a rich laboratory for scientists studying corals, mammals and plants. Coiba is 760 fish species, 33 species of sharks and 20 species of whales and dolphins and rare birds such as eagles Macaws Scarlet and culminated call for travelers, not more than 60 guests are allowed by night.
Worth a penal colony, Coiba is not easy to achieve. No major tour operators, scheduled flights or ferry to the island. Most tourists arrive in pangas, small boats that leave from Santa Catalina, a city of surfers on the mainland, five hours from Panama City.
The boat ride is only 90 minutes in one direction, which means that all those who seek more than a superficial knowledge of the travel books a day of Coiba based in one of the six seats at the headquarters of the Island National Environmental Authority. The agency prohibits camping in the park to minimize human impact, and their huts, very concrete shelters, private bathroom.
The experience and offers limited power, is far from pampered. The guides have to pack all the fuel in the food, water and generator. Visits are usually about $ 200 to $ 300 per person per night.
In April, my husband, Dave, our 11-year-old son, Seth, and I met our guide at 8 am when the temperature was already near 90 degrees and humidity of closure. Ricardo Brady, an American expatriate who owns the Santa Catalina Boat Tours, so every bit of ass surfer board shorts faded, his gray hair in a ponytail. We helped the diving speed of loading, food and fuel in its 25-meter panga, named Elizabeth, and pushed the boat into the waves.
When an engine of 60 horsepower at full throttle, we roared up the coastline in the northwest direction before turning more and more invisible to Coiba. It 'was a bone-jarring ride, but to mitigate the results trapeze artist, dolphins and flying fish that seemed to run the boat. Over the roar of the engine, Coiba, Ricardo told the story well-told story of the ghost, which is disappearing from the prisoners and crocodiles carnivores.
"Coiba was a place parents would tell their children boogie man lived, and you're bad, that is sent there," he cried.
But nothing about hard knitted buttons began to appear in the distance seemed scary to us. The small islands of sand surrounded with lace in front of the much larger Coiba, whose profile mountain quickly filled the horizon.
As the shallow water was turquoise, Ricardo announced we were at the park and suggested a stop at the small of Oro Granito, a place where four tall palm trees dotted tuba an apron brackets sand semi-submersible volcanic rocks. Here, we spied dynamic Moorish idol fish and puffer fish in the calm of yellow tank-like, supplanted by big tuna as we rounded the harsh wind. When we splashed ground, the beach seemed to move as hundreds of hermit crabs, some no bigger than a dime, slightly towards the sea grapes.
Soon after, Victor, our alert the driver asked us back to the boat and continue to Coiba for inner exploration. Coiba has some hiking trails, but 15 navigable rivers allow access to the depths of the jungle. As we descend through a mangrove swamp, which had seen elsewhere as the size of Bush rose in the sky, sending triggers thirst instead of 20 feet above.
As we have chosen our way upstream, which pushed the mangrove seedlings scratched the boat. Locked in the breeze from the sea, slapping mosquitoes cooked in panga, by identifying the plovers, kingfishers and herons tiger. A healer broke the calm.
"Guacamaya," Victor whispered, pointing to the tree tops. He wanted a scarlet macaw, threatened on the mainland of Panama. By now the tide had exposed the web of mangrove roots that threatened Strand takes us into the jungle, forcing Victor to turn the boat I discovered macaws, two red birds flames quickly engulfed by green foliage.
source : nytimes
A loggerhead turtle swung his head toward me and marbled then disappeared beneath the waves when I slid off the boat with my snorkel, mask and fins. Immediately revealed a Technicolor underwater world in itself: pastel parrotfish winged, small purple fairy girls with big eyes and a red squirrel school sturgeonfish purple fins rushed in and out of staghorn coral and orange purple sea fans. I took a grouper in slow deep water, and suddenly, swimming depth, six white tip sharks emerged, sending me fly in the direction of the boat, calling for a boost.
Coiba National Park in Panama, an isolated marine preserve 14 miles of the Pacific coast is a paradise for nature lovers, but is not without its dangers. Sharks, crocodiles and (Gone But Not Forgotten) an infamous prison, all contribute to the thrill of danger that is experienced in the bio-diversity park, whose boundaries are of 194 square kilometers of Isla Coiba, 38 islets increasingly as the Panama coral reefs of the Eastern Caribbean neighbors, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador.
Founded in 1919 as a penal colony in the open sea, the islands are up to 1,300 inmates for the entire life cycle of the penitentiary at a distance. Given the infamous disappearances there, on the basis of rumors political enemies of the state, and its just a mystery, you would have to be a prisoner or the Warden to view it. The closure of the prison began in 1990, the road Coiba National Park, established in 1991. In 2005, the park has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the last prisoner was released.
Between the prison and to preserve, was Coiba, which is part of the same mountain underground, which includes the Galapagos Islands, never developed commercially, and more than 85 percent of the forest is still the primary growth. The region has emerged as a rich laboratory for scientists studying corals, mammals and plants. Coiba is 760 fish species, 33 species of sharks and 20 species of whales and dolphins and rare birds such as eagles Macaws Scarlet and culminated call for travelers, not more than 60 guests are allowed by night.
Worth a penal colony, Coiba is not easy to achieve. No major tour operators, scheduled flights or ferry to the island. Most tourists arrive in pangas, small boats that leave from Santa Catalina, a city of surfers on the mainland, five hours from Panama City.
The boat ride is only 90 minutes in one direction, which means that all those who seek more than a superficial knowledge of the travel books a day of Coiba based in one of the six seats at the headquarters of the Island National Environmental Authority. The agency prohibits camping in the park to minimize human impact, and their huts, very concrete shelters, private bathroom.
The experience and offers limited power, is far from pampered. The guides have to pack all the fuel in the food, water and generator. Visits are usually about $ 200 to $ 300 per person per night.
In April, my husband, Dave, our 11-year-old son, Seth, and I met our guide at 8 am when the temperature was already near 90 degrees and humidity of closure. Ricardo Brady, an American expatriate who owns the Santa Catalina Boat Tours, so every bit of ass surfer board shorts faded, his gray hair in a ponytail. We helped the diving speed of loading, food and fuel in its 25-meter panga, named Elizabeth, and pushed the boat into the waves.
When an engine of 60 horsepower at full throttle, we roared up the coastline in the northwest direction before turning more and more invisible to Coiba. It 'was a bone-jarring ride, but to mitigate the results trapeze artist, dolphins and flying fish that seemed to run the boat. Over the roar of the engine, Coiba, Ricardo told the story well-told story of the ghost, which is disappearing from the prisoners and crocodiles carnivores.
"Coiba was a place parents would tell their children boogie man lived, and you're bad, that is sent there," he cried.
But nothing about hard knitted buttons began to appear in the distance seemed scary to us. The small islands of sand surrounded with lace in front of the much larger Coiba, whose profile mountain quickly filled the horizon.
As the shallow water was turquoise, Ricardo announced we were at the park and suggested a stop at the small of Oro Granito, a place where four tall palm trees dotted tuba an apron brackets sand semi-submersible volcanic rocks. Here, we spied dynamic Moorish idol fish and puffer fish in the calm of yellow tank-like, supplanted by big tuna as we rounded the harsh wind. When we splashed ground, the beach seemed to move as hundreds of hermit crabs, some no bigger than a dime, slightly towards the sea grapes.
Soon after, Victor, our alert the driver asked us back to the boat and continue to Coiba for inner exploration. Coiba has some hiking trails, but 15 navigable rivers allow access to the depths of the jungle. As we descend through a mangrove swamp, which had seen elsewhere as the size of Bush rose in the sky, sending triggers thirst instead of 20 feet above.
As we have chosen our way upstream, which pushed the mangrove seedlings scratched the boat. Locked in the breeze from the sea, slapping mosquitoes cooked in panga, by identifying the plovers, kingfishers and herons tiger. A healer broke the calm.
"Guacamaya," Victor whispered, pointing to the tree tops. He wanted a scarlet macaw, threatened on the mainland of Panama. By now the tide had exposed the web of mangrove roots that threatened Strand takes us into the jungle, forcing Victor to turn the boat I discovered macaws, two red birds flames quickly engulfed by green foliage.
source : nytimes
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