This is a National Park that everyone has told us is a 'must visit'. We fish for the last hour of the 3 hour trip, landing a nice Mackerel and loosing a Wahoo.
We arrived at the Island near dark and Paul finds it hard to see the water depth, as the charts are not quiet correct, he is close to running aground in shallow water.
We anchor near the ranger's station and immediately go ashore to pay our fees and to get information about the Islands.
All the Islands are unoccupied except for the rangers station which also houses some temporary camping accommodation. Here you have to bring everything including gas and food as nothing is available on the island.
We meet the chief ranger 'Jose', who shocked us with his calculation of a fee of $2000 for a 3 night stay on the boat with fishing licences. This was calculated on the length of the boat, however MB was able to renegotiate down to $750.00 as the larger price was meant for bigger boats than us.
The Island is stunning with mountains and lush tropical forests and beautiful white beaches. We decide to do a guided bush walk the next morning.
After dinner the O'Briens who are now super keen canasta players, want to keep up our nightly ritual of a very competitive game. MB and JB follow this up with the nightly viewing of the 'Borgia's' series.
Our meals are predominantly fish which Paul does a wonderful job of on the BBQ, and Christie does her usual great job of serving delicious accompaniments and sweets for the hungry ones.
Friday. We join our guide 'Mali Mali' for our 1 hour walk through beautiful forests. We can hear monkeys and their are many grand trees and colourful birds etc. Mali was once a prisoner in the notorious gaol here for 13 years, that closed down in 1990.
Next we head off with Scottie to find a snorkelling location of which there are many. Our first stop is disappointing so we decide to visit our guides pick at 'Isla D'Oro. This is a beautiful small islet with a white sandy beach. The snorkelling is o.k. with hard corals lots of small fish and turtles. We are spoiled because we have seen so many great places in the world.
On our way back to the boat, we chance on an isolated reef. This is a great dive/snorkel spot as there are many small and large fish of great varieties and a few white tip reef sharks about 5 foot long. After lunch we head off south to the 'Isla Jicaro'.
Coiba Island is about 40 kms long. At the southern end of the island is the old gaol which was established early in the 20th century and closed in 1990. It held political prisoners and was very harsh with many prisoners going missing.
We had been told the beach at Jicaro was one of the best in the world. We were shocked when we arrived in late afternoon as there seemed to be no beach at all. However, we discovered the tides here are 4 meters and it looked different at low tide.
We had trolled on the way over catching a Mackerel, a East Pacific Bonito and loosing the elusive Wahoo.
That night we fish on the back of the Pearl, catching small Golden Snapper and large Trevally.
The next morning Tom and Paul fish early. They loose two good fish including another Wahoo, before they find feeding birds. They have several hook-ups but only catch one fish which we thought was Tuna, but we can't exactly identify it. We send a photograph of it to an expert in Taiwan, who tells us it is a East Coast Benito, whose flesh is pale pink and delicious.
Other Benito we have caught have a very dark flesh.
Late morning we see a very large beach has appeared, so we are off exploring. It turns out to be very exotic with dark volcanic sand with several freshwater streams running into the sea. There are hundreds of hermit crabs scuttling along the beach so we make a circle and bet on whose crab gets out first. There is extraordinary lush tropical forest with hundreds of coconut trees facing the beach. We hear, then see many monkeys in the trees.
We collect fresh coconuts, swim and return for lunch. JB and Jeanette have their yoga session for the evening while the boys again attempt to fish.
Sunday. We are up early to fish Tom and MB troll, having 3 strikes and they get a good size Wahoo to the tender, only to loose it attempting to get it into the boat.
After breakfast we go to the beach to play Volley Ball and Bocci. Sam joins JB and MB while Scottie teams up with Tom and Jeanette. There is fierce competition with the 'Gin and Tonic Team' ( MB captain ) defeating the OBrien Sharks, 2 games to 1.
the G and T's go on to win the Bocci, great fun has been had by all and a great workout too.
After a late lunch and rest, we try more fishing. It is disappointing as we have been told there is outstanding fishing around this island. We are getting many hook-ups but the fish are not taking the lures properly and are able to shake them off. The girls have found a love for evening Iyenga Yoga, led by Jeanette.
We finish another exciting canasta game with MB and JB victorious. More 'Borgias' before we go to a well earned sleep.
We have a long journey the next day on our way to Costa Rica.
JB and MIck