THE BIG
DIG, DAVID LEE ROTH and MARIANO RIVERA
ECOTOURISM?
As a
travel destination Panama was never on my radar, and for that matter neither
was Costa Rica. All I knew about Panama was the canal, the song from Van Halen,
which was really about a stripper, and a vague recollection that the Hall of
Fame pitcher Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees was Panamanian.
Well,
this sailing adventure along the Pacific coast of Central America had proved to
be a lovely surprise for the Costa Rican part of the trip. The beauty of the
land, the biodiversity of the birds, animals and plants, the black sand
beaches, the coffee and the Cacique had made Costa Rica an unexpectedly
delightful visit. Topping those experiences in nearby Panama would only be possible
if I got a chance to play catch with Mariano, or so I thought. Panama proved to
be as worthy a destination with its own set of beauty and experiences.
HOW
DID I GET HERE?
Serendipity
and chance were very kind to us on this trip, because we simply followed a deal
without any preferred destination, and we were rewarded handsomely. We just
wanted to be somewhere warm in February.
We booked
this trip in mid-December for a mid-February departure through Unforgettable Cruises,
which is effectively last minute. Revenue is forever lost whenever a ship
leaves port with empty berths, and we had seen the half-price special offered
on their website. We had sailed with Unforgettable Cruises in Croatia last
summer and the level of comfort and the range of experiences had us coming back.
Turns out Unforgettable was helping another small yacht company Variety Cruises
in the booking, but there was no drop off in care or comfort. In fact, with Variety
we were alone on the Pacific, whereas our July trip in Croatia was a somewhat
crowded race up the Adriatic with several other cruise lines plying the waters.
Good
Advice:
Always
check the specials offered by Unforgettable Cruises, and Variety Cruises, the
two companies we traveled with this past year. You’ll never know where you’ll
end up.
WHERE
AM I?
Our last
stop in Costa Rica was at Corcovado National Park, but before the M/S Panorama
could leave for Panama, she had to rendezvous with customs and immigrations officials
coming out of Golfito to pay an “exit clearance fee” and to check passenger and
crew lists. At the time I thought this was out of the ordinary because of the Coronavirus
pandemic that was just starting to spread, but was assured that although immigration
officials could demand a full-face control of passenger and crew against
passports, they just randomly checked the paperwork and paid the fee. This was
normal procedure and not related to Covid19.
Once the
ship pays its “exit clearance fee” she is not allowed to call on any other
Costa Rican port or territory and must sail away.
Incidentally
Costa Rica does require an “exit fax” whether flying out of the country or crossing
the border overland. The airport fee is $29 usd or the equivalent in colones
and this is usually included in your airline ticket. Check beforehand to avoid
confusion at departure. The fee for crossing into Nicaragua or Panama by land
is $7.00.
Here is
the US State Department’s website on the exit tax:
TO
HELL AND BACK
By 9 am we
were still sailing for Coiba island, the largest of the 38 islands in the 430.000-acre
Coiba National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005. The beautiful and
isolated Coiba Island is the largest island in all of Central America and has remained
pristine and untouched from human contact. According to UNESCO Coiba’s Pacific
Tropical rainforest maintains an exceptionally high levels of endemic animals,
plants and birds because of “the ongoing evolution of NEW SPECIES” and is the
last refuge of many rare and threatened animals that have disappeared from the rest
of Panama like the crested eagle and the scarlet macaw. Abundant marine life in
the park includes over 700 fish species, 33 shark species like hammerhead and whale
sharks, the largest fish that can approach 20 meters in length, and 20
different species of marine mammals, like dolphins, orcas and humpback whales.
 |
| COIBA ISLAND PANAMA |
The isolation
and subsequently the conservation of Coiba Island proper has a dark history. Once
a notorious penal colony Coiba was Panama’s version of Devil’s Island, the
infamous French prison island off the French Guiana coast. The prison operated
from 1919 to 2004 under deplorable conditions. The most dangerous felons and enemies
of the state were sent there, some to cells and others to live in camps where
groups of men fended for themselves by farming and ranching the land. Some men
were sent to Coiba for a specified time, others stayed until they died. Stories
of torture and of mass graves and dismembered bodies being fed to sharks still
persist as Coiba was home to “Los Desaparecidos”, ‘the Disappeared’ during the
dictatorships of Omar Torrijos and Manuel Noreiga. Hundreds perhaps thousands
of political prisoners were dumped on Coiba, never to be heard from again.
This dark
history of Panama has actually preserved the natural isolated beauty of Coiba and
has flourished because many Panamanians, tourists and developers fearful of
this dark place have stayed away after the prison was shuttered. Except for the
crumbling structures of the penal colony, slowly being reclaimed by the jungle,
much of the island is untouched. Today access to the park is highly restricted
and accessible only by permits issued by the woefully underfunded Autoridad
Nacional del Ambeinte or ANAM. The rangers’ task is daunting; to supervise the vast
area and to protect if from poachers and illegal tree logging.
 |
| VIEW FROM COIBA ISLAND |
The ANAM
maintains a small ranger station on the north side of the island where we
finally spent a relaxing day on the beach and hiking around the immediate area including up a steep hill where we were rewarded by a beautiful view of the nearby islands of Coiba National Park. At the station there are several modest two-room cabins,
with air conditioning, for overnight stays. Tour operators from the mainland offer
ecotours, fishing, scuba diving and snorkeling trips and we watched several such
groups come ashore to have lunch in the small pavilion. The crew of the Panorama
also came ashore to provide us a Greek BBQ lunch. Variety Cruises is a Greek enterprise.
ECOTOURISM?
Part of
the allure of Coiba National Park is that it is possible to see whale sharks. The
season to see these massive, but docile fish as they migrate through Coiba’s
waters runs from January to April. Whale sharks often swim near the surface with
their massive mouths wide open to capture the plankton they eat. Some tour
groups offer scuba diving for around $150 or snorkeling trips for around $30 to
see the whale sharks that feed near the islands of Coiba at this time. Usually the
tour operators operate out of the fishing village of Santa Catalina on the
mainland.
 |
| JUVENILE WHALE SHARK |
Sadly, these
beautiful endangered creatures are sought after for their fins, meat, and oil
and according to the WWF even shark tourism presents a threat as it can interrupt
their feeding. Because of their massive size these rarely seen gentle giants
travel great distances in search of plankton and where the whale shark shows up
is a good indicator of the health of the ocean.
A few
years ago, scientists tagged a whale shark, and she was recorded as having made
an incredible migration journey of 12,000 miles. It was tagged in Coiba’s
waters and eventually ended up near the Philippines. You can read that story
here:
After our
very satisfying and filling lunch we headed to a small beach on another nearby island
to snorkel. Our little group was the only one there. The coral was beautiful
and I followed a sea turtle for a while. He allowed me to keep up with him for
a while as he kept looking over his shoulder at me before losing interest and
gliding away effortlessly.
After dinner
on the Panorama I decided to smoke a cigar, I had one left over from our stop
in Quepos, Costa Rica and as I lingered over my martini I was joined by a
number of other passengers as well as a flock (?) of beautiful moths that
hitched a ride through the night This
was a beautiful trip and a fantastic first day in Panama..
Thanks
for reading. I guess I can’t say Pura Vida any longer because we no longer were
in Costa Rica, but that serene feeling remains.
SMALL SHIP PANORAMA COMES UP BIG
I would be remiss if I did not give a special nod to the crew of the M/S Panorama. We are safe at home now, but the crew of the Panorama are still out there and recently came to the rescue of Cuban crew members who were stranded because of the global pandemic and repatriated them to Havana. The Panorama was refueling in Barbados ahead of a transatlantic crossing returning to Greece when they learned 19 healthy crew members of the MSC Preziosa, a supersized cruise ship, were stranded with no appreciable way of getting home. Variety Cruises accepted a request from the Cuban government to repatriate the healthy crew, a seven day journey in the opposite direction from home. Cuba paid for the fuel, but Variety asked for no other compensation. It's an incredible story of kindness in this new normal we are living through.
In case you're wondering. I never saw Van Halen in concert, but I did run into David Lee Roth at a Bottom Line show in NYC. He was drunk.
Our version of Panama is much better.
LIVE LOVE TRAVEL
LIVE LOVE TRAVEL
© 2020 by Greg Dunaj
