I think we found Paradise / Paradiesische Zustaende (eng/deu)
Andromeda
Michael
Fri 4 May 2012 16:19
I think we found Paradise / Paradiesische Zustaende
Isla Granito de Oro + Isla Rancheria, Parque Nacional Coiba, Panama
1.-4. May 2012
This is sooooooooo beautiful here! The coastline is lush, green and beautiful, the beaches are white with palm trees, the water is very clear and full of all kind of pretty fish and the quietness is just perfect.
At our first anchorage, we saw turtles in the evening swimming around the boat. I thought the Pacific is murky and green and was happy to see that there are exceptions. When we went snorkeling the water was cristal clear with great visibility. Due to the strong tides there's always more or less current, so often we swim with dinghy. And there are hundreds of all kind of fish, rays, turtles, star fish and murray eels. I even saw my first 'real' sharks! In the Caribbean, I had only seen nurse sharks, but yesterday, white tip reef sharks came by. Fortunately, they were only about 4 feet long and passed by quickly, so perfect for getting used to the sight.
Coiba is the biggest island of Panama and forms the Coiba National Park together with 37 smaller ones. It used to have a prison camp and therefore has been very isolated, which gave nature the possibility to florish pretty much undisturbed. Since it became a National Park, the Panamanians are doing well in preserving it - the park fees are exorbitant. 20$ pP and 60$ for anchoring - per day! Fortunately, the let us off a little bit. Anyways, it is truly worth it.
There are many more anchorages around Coiba to explore, but we gotta keep making our way up to El Salvador, so probably will move a bit further NW today and go to the Islas Contreras.
No wind though, so we expect to motor most of the 18nm. Since we hardly had any wind and it's been quite cloudy a lot of the time also, we're not generating a lot of electricity and have to charge up the batteries anyway.
Deutsche Version:
Hier nur ganz kurz: Nach wochenlangen Reparaturen und Michaels Immobilisierung wegen Rueckenschmerzen (das Surfen in Santa Catalina war leider extrem kontraproduktiv) sind wir nun ueberwaeltigt von der Schoenheit und Ruhe hier im Nationalpark Coiba.
Dichter satt gruener Dschungel an der Kueste, weisse Palmenstraende, extrem klares Wasser mit hunderten von allerlei Fischarten und Meerestieren, und unendliche Ruhe. Kaum Wind und Wellen, fast keine Motorboote und Menschen. Einfach nur wunder-, wunderschoen.
Sobald wir wieder Internet haben gibt's ne kleine Fotostrecke.
Heut wollen wir aber weiter und wieder etwas Strecke machen. Wahrscheinlich segeln/motoren wir gen NNW zu den Islas Contreras und dann weiter Richtung Grenze zu Costa Rica.
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