Coiba National Park

Penal Colony turned Paradise on earth

Spared from the exploration of developers, the Coiba National Park is an untouched and unspoiled exotic tropical island seventy kilometers from the Pacific Coast. The waters here are so good that it harbors a huge array of sea life. Coiba national park has been named as a world heritage site this past July and has just been opened to tourists very recently.

The national park has one of the largest coral reefs in the world. Various kids of fishes and marine life are always seen swimming in its waters. Barracuda, snappers, rare turtles, endangered species of shark and even sea horses are seen. And some times different breeds of whales come here for teaching their young to swim in these warm waters.

Fishing tours, snorkeling and diving can be done from the Scuba Coiba dive shop located in the beach town called Santa Catalina. Its owner Herbie Sunk has started eco-tours of various places and seasonal whale observing trips, in the hopes of a tourist boom. These tours include snorkeling, a trip in the river which is overrun by crocodiles and everyone loves to go and take a look at the penal colony which is really old. A very vigorous trek is also included in the tour. This trek takes place in one of the new trails that was made. The environment is really humid and you will be completely engulfed by the forest. Basically the forest is really quiet but if you happen to come across the howler monkeys then you are definitely going to hear some real noise. They do not take kindly to trespassers and they usually swing above the tourists’ heads and show their teeth and scream.

At he moment only one company gives land-based multi day trips into the Coiba National Park, they are called Ancon Adventures. As the national park earns more money the trips get cheaper and grow longer. Day trips are very popular and diving and fishing is what most people actually opt for and these sorts of offers will transform the coastal belt around the whole park.

Bird-watching, snorkeling and diving along with the past history of housing inmates never fails to provide a fair amount of titillation for the tourists who are willing to pay. The government has plans to make a museum just like Alcatraz and prison guards who are very experienced and know the place will be the guides and give the tourists a detailed explanation of the history behind the penal colony. There were almost twenty-five camps all around Coiba National Park which housed well over four-thousand prisoners. It is rumored that a former president of Panama Noriega used this penal colony to get rid of a lot of prisoners by murdering them here. The funny thing is that prison guards used to lock themselves up in fear of the prisoners at night.

Coiba National Park is most definitely the most uprising tourist attraction and is predicted to compete with Panama’s most popular landmark, the Panama Canal. The people who seek an overwhelming experience of something other than the ordinary has to come to this place which is buzzing with life all around and check out some of the most exotic species of marine life which might go extinct very soon.

Click here to see some real estate near Coiba National Park