Trip Report.. Panama..Coiba National Park

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jake11

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Day one... arrived in Panama City with no problems after an easy 2 flights on United and arrived at 7pm . Met by driver from My friend Mario... and transferred to Toscana Inn for $25.00 Cheaper than a taxi! Get a Black brochure saying welcome to Panama at the airport and it includes a free 30 day medical treatment card for visitors! What a bonus!!

Day two.. The Toscana inn comes with breakfast so after breakfast we were met by Mario #3 and taken to El Valle de Anton.. with various stops along the way for photo ops and a stop with a local farmer where he bought us some maranon cashew fruits so we could see what they looked like! Mario #3 was awesome! He added several touches to our all day plus trip.( 8- 8:30 pm) His name is Mario Ocana and can be reached by email at ocana01@gmail.com He is a certified interpreter guide-NAI and he stopped at many sights where there were birds that he pointed out even though it wasn't in the brochure so to speak! We spent a wonderful day at El Valle including a visit to the orchid farm Aprovaca, the waterfall, the rocks where the kids give you the tour( our guide was Jose Vladimir and he was a hoot!), a hike up the sleeping Indian trail, the zoo( awesome place!), the hot pools which were really great, the local market, various other spots in El Valle not on the tour specs, and a visit to the beach to a surfing school. Found a little Italian rest for dinner.

Day three... Mario # 3 was there promptly to take us on the city tour. We decided to just go with him instead of on our own because he was so fantastic the first day of touring! He took us everywhere including some secret places off the tourist paths incuding one spot where we saw a croc swimming in the canal down from the Miraflores locks! Super cool! My favorite place was Casco Viejo where we enjoyed a wonderful set meal at Cafe Rene just off the plaza. I got my molas here as the prices were better than everywhere else I looked. Make sure you make the rounds of booths as the prices vary from woman to woman! I loved the locks and it made my reading of the book The Path Between the Seas well worth it since it made the book come alive! I feel it is a must read before you visit Panama! Mario #3 had read it along with several other people we met during the course of our stay! Again, Mario #3 stopped anywhere you wanted and stopped for more bird sightings including the blue crowned mot mot! Another great tday!

Day 4- VERY LONG transfer to Puerto Mutis and to our home away from home for the next week the MV Yemaya..
The diving as I said before was very very cold water diving with not that great of viz!
The Yemaya rooms were fine and they kept them very clean. The food was AWESOME!!! The best food IMHO on just about any LOB we have been on! Every meal was an epicurean delight! Really!
Lobster, fresh yellow fin tuna, tender steaks etc.

Some of the dives had huge schools of fish which was cool but it would have been so much better had the viz been good and if it wasn't so darn cold!!! My feet were freezing on one dive!
Temps from my log range from the coldest of 61 degrees to 76 degrees.Most dives were in the mid to upper 60's and some in the low 70's. the viz was better deeper but it was colder so we would stay down as long as we could stand it then head up to warmer( relative term) temps with soupy viz! The best dives IMHO were Hanibal banks where the yellow fin tuna were jumping like crazy all over the place , and Whaoo rocks where we saw a school of hundreds and hundreds of mobula rays! the viz was so poor that only 2 of us saw the rays since it was in about 30 feet of water and you could barely see anything there. That dive had a frog fish, WT sharks, young adult african pompanos and schools of fish! The highlight of the whole trip was diving with Arthur Portman. He is hands down one of the best dive guides we have ever had in all of our diving years! He is hilarious and has a razor wit! He loves diving and is interested in seeing everything. He made the trips out to dive sights so much fun with his hilarious stories and funny jokes! He is so nice and just a fun and entertaining guide with great eyes! He owns a travel company in Colombia called Pura Colombia and he can be reached at info@puracolombia.com. He is very honest and does not sugar coat anything and would be an amazing guide if you wanted to explore Columbia both on land and in the water. He puts together trips for you and guides you as well if you so desire! I had never considered going to Colombia but will now due to knowing about Arthur!

On Saturday we had a LONG journey back to PTY and just ate at a local rest near the Toscana Inn where we stayed again for a couple of nights. Very nice rooms and helpful staff. On the next to the last day we took a tour to Gamboa and Gatun Lake called Jungle Land. It was really great! It is lead by a guy named Captain Carl and he cracks one joke after another the whole time. We got up close and personal with 3 types of monkeys, turtles, various birds etc. You end up after touring the canal at his floating lodge for a great Panamanian lunch. After lunch, you go on a kayak tour through the floating jungle to a water fall. This was the highlight for sure so if you go on this tour don't miss it. You can choose to fish or just lounge at the lodge but opt for the kayak tour! Super cool. That night I used gbwilliams advice and hailed a taxi away from our hotel and we went to a great rest. called The Market! Awesome food but make reservations as it was packed!

On the last day we were supposed to be met and transferred to the airport by My friend Mario who had been great up to this point but no one showed up. This has no reflection on Mario #3, by the way, as it was another Mario who picked us up at the airport. Due to the great advice by GBwilliams I went out and down the street a bit and got a taxi driver to take us for the same cheap price of $25 . We were late and the traffic was a NIGHTMARE but this guy was driving through parking lots etc to avoid the worst jams and he flew us to the airport! I had called from the hotel and whoever was at My friend Mario just hung up on me after asking what day I wanted to be transferred! Yikes! Not good! We only had 5 people in front of us in the United line but it took us 45 minutes to check our bags! Sigh!

Now we await our next adventure! Cheers!
 
Well ... that was an adventure!

Sounds like your diving was sort of a mixed bag. Same feelings about Arthur ... had never considered a land trip to Colombia, but we would with him as the guide.
 
Wow!! What a great trip and a great report. Thank you, Jake.

Sounds like Coiba is where you might want to bring a drysuit. Sorry to hear about the misadventures of the missing Mario. Consistency doesn't appear to be Mario's strong suit. I've heard similar stories before. But, I'm glad you were able to take the time to see some of Panama.
 
**** I forgot to add a small part about going on shore at Park Headquarters... We went over after our 3rd dive that day to park headquarters and went down to the back of the headquarters to the water. There we found "Tito" a huge croc! They came down with a fish head and Tito quickly came on shore where he gulped down his meal!!!! What a sight! Blood dripping everywhere! Even the birds were a bit nervous! Awesome sight. The captain of the Yemaya ( Wilhelm..great and kind man... btw) told me at dinner that Tito had been gone for about 6 months guarding his baby croc eggs and had just returned 2 days before! We were very fortunate to have seen him!!! We also did a river tour where we saw a small colony of howler monkeys who were very vocal! The highlight of this was being pulled over by the Panamanian military who were out guarding the waters ! Boy were they armed to the teeth! I will try to post some pics of Tito when I download my pictures!!!
 
Interesting about the temps at Coiba. We dove off Islas Secas last April and the temps were comfortable with a 3mm suit. We only went down to about 50 feet but it was fine. We could see Coiba in the far distance so I figured the conditions would be comparable. I wonder if the currents bring more cold water to Coiba? It is a little farther out into the Gulf of Chiriqui.
 
Our dive guide said something about the currents being in transition as to why it was so cold and believe me it was freezing!!!!!!!! We were all quite proud if we made it to 60 minutes on a dive due to the cold water!!!
Interesting about the temps at Coiba. We dove off Islas Secas last April and the temps were comfortable with a 3mm suit. We only went down to about 50 feet but it was fine. We could see Coiba in the far distance so I figured the conditions would be comparable. I wonder if the currents bring more cold water to Coiba? It is a little farther out into the Gulf of Chiriqui.
 
Read today on a fb post from Coiba dive center that the water temps ate still a bit cold and the viz has not gotten any better yet but they are seeing a lot of mantas! Also...one thing that was cool about the trip was the number of mobula rays jumping out of the water everywhere we went! Sometimes they even did triple flips!
 
Hello Jake, What dates were you on the Yemaya? We are booked for next March 23 and from your posts, looks like an extra layer is definitely in order!
 

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