A Weekend to Coiba

After almost a year and a half, we finally made it to Coiba Island. Coiba is world famous in Panama. For many years it was a prison, like Alcatraz. But apparently quite a few prisoners managed to escape. They dug a tunnel out of their cell, cut down a balsa tree and swam to the coast. Many people claim that there are many sharks in Coiba waters and prisoners usually do not report their safe arrival on the mainland to the authorities, so no one knows how many survived their adventure. Nowadays, Coiba is famous as a national park and World heritage Site.

We (Loes, Rob en Kees) went together with Cecil, John (Americans), Hilda, Conny (Panamanians and Julie (a ‘zonian’, someone born in the canal zone). Quite a variety of people. Cecil is developing a resort on 200 ha near Quebro, John will start to take big game fishermen out, Hilda sells natural remedies and is Cecil’s friend, Connie is retired and a friend of Hilda and Julie is John`s friend. We happen to know Cecil quite well.

Visiting Coiba is not cheap. Just the boat, captain and the fuel cost around U$ 550. Then you have to pay entrance fees, accommodation and you have to bring all your food with you. And you’d better bring some diesel if you don’t want to spend the night in total darkness. But Coiba is worth every cent, it is breathtakingly and devastatingly beautiful. Even the trip through the gulf of Montijo, then west past Santa Catalina and finally the last leg south to Coiba are very nice. Closer to Coiba there was a lot of marine life. We saw sail fish, spotted dolphins, petrels and terns all chasing the flying and other fish surprised by our boat.

Coiba is quite large (600 km²) and quite inaccessible. There are three paths into the jungle, two paths are less than a kilometer long and the third is impassable. Most people come for the beaches and the reefs. Part of Coiba’s beauty are the small islets that surround the main island. All blessed with white beaches, surrounded by warm, crystal clear, azure water and adorned with palm trees and jungle. Those warm, crystal clear etc. waters are inhabited by gaily coloured reef fish, spotted dolphins, terns, turtles and a 4.5 m. American crocodile named Tito with a very toothy smile.

Tito lives on one of the beaches near the ranger station and the rangers feed him. They claim (s)he has never attacked a tourist. This did not altogether reassure us. Tourists have only been coming to Coiba in the last four to five years and if Tito did attack a tourist, whatever would be left, would not be able to lodge a complaint about an attack.

So when we went snorkeling the next day, we choose Granito de Oro, far away from the beach where Tito hangs out. The island is so small that swimming around it at leisure takes less than an hour. That is enough to see lots of reef fish and get sunburned. We also saw a school of pickhandle barracuda’s. Very nice. Everybody was so engrossed in the reef fish that we completely forgot that we had left some gear on another beach. When we went back, the tide had come in and some of our gear was floating around. Most people only had wet towels (and birdbooks), but Rob was more unfortunate and lost a camera and his wallet. So if you find a wallet with some U$ cash next time you walk along the beach, it is probably Rob’s. Please contact us if you do find it.

Next day we walked the Thermal Springs path. Loes and I did not reach the thermal springs, we were to busy looking at birds, flowers and trees. The others were not impressed as some were too hot to bath in! Afterwards we also visited the remains of the prison, which, of course, was officially a ‘Rehabilitation Centre’. We thought the prisoners weren’t treated that bad. Plenty of air and light in the cages and a wonderful view from the canteen.