Decided that I needed to go somewhere different for diving. Not Asia, not Caribbean, somewhere different, with different underwater conditions and fish.
So along with my wish to see the Panama Canal, Isla Coiba seemed to fit the description quite nicely.
It promised large schools of fish, some pelagics, currents and sharks. It delivered on all these. But down to the nitty gritty.
Logistics - getting there, accom etc:
Panama isn't the cheapest Central American country to go on holiday in. So in line with this, the diving definitely isn't as cheap as offered in the Bay Islands. Not an astronomical price, but not cheap. Getting to Coiba takes a bit of effort - either a pretty much all day trip on buses or renting a car and driving. The buses aren't bad, but especially if you have your own gear with you and there is a group - renting a car would be the best option. Driving in Panama isn't a problem - roads are pretty good and the traffic is orderly - particularly compared with other Central American countries.
To get to Coiba you need go via Santa Catalina. Plenty of accomodation options, ranging from from budget Cabañas to some very nice B&B places. Mostly surfers here, but there are also good options for restaurants etc. All the dive shops are based here. There are three main ones, but either two or three more have opened up more recently. I booked originally with one, but for a variety of reasons ended up diving with Scuba Coiba, who were the first dive shop to open in Santa Catalina.
The only issue with Santa Catalina is that depending on the sea conditions it can be an hour or more to get to Isla Coiba and this can limit the number of dives as well as the choice of dive sites that can be used.
The other option is to stay on Isla Coiba. It does allow much more access to dive sites and it's far easier to get three dives a day in.
As this is a national park, there is only one option - staying at the ranger station. There is dorm accomodation there. Definitely nothing flash. It normally would have electricity to the dorms but the generator was broken (had been for the past 2 weeks) and there was no power. This meant no fans, a/c or lighting and limited options for charging batteries (a small amount of solar power was available for this). Sleeping wasn't the most pleasant - it would have been good to get a breeze through the dorms, but at the same time you are trying to keep the (numerous) insects out.
Please note - this was completely out of the control of any of the dive shops - the ranger station is run by the Panamanian Government. As to why the generator wasn't fixed as well as a number of other minor maintenance issues? Quien sabes? Who knows? It wasn't due to a lack of staff. But as to many things in this part of the world, it really is difficult to know the real reasons.
By comparison Scuba Coiba Staff were excellent. This included the very generous and tasty meals that we had - certainty no complaints about the food.
Would I choose to stay again on Coiba - definitely, yes, if the generator was working, but I might opt to stay at Santa Catalina if there was no power in the dorms.
Next part - the diving! Coming soon...
So along with my wish to see the Panama Canal, Isla Coiba seemed to fit the description quite nicely.
It promised large schools of fish, some pelagics, currents and sharks. It delivered on all these. But down to the nitty gritty.
Logistics - getting there, accom etc:
Panama isn't the cheapest Central American country to go on holiday in. So in line with this, the diving definitely isn't as cheap as offered in the Bay Islands. Not an astronomical price, but not cheap. Getting to Coiba takes a bit of effort - either a pretty much all day trip on buses or renting a car and driving. The buses aren't bad, but especially if you have your own gear with you and there is a group - renting a car would be the best option. Driving in Panama isn't a problem - roads are pretty good and the traffic is orderly - particularly compared with other Central American countries.
To get to Coiba you need go via Santa Catalina. Plenty of accomodation options, ranging from from budget Cabañas to some very nice B&B places. Mostly surfers here, but there are also good options for restaurants etc. All the dive shops are based here. There are three main ones, but either two or three more have opened up more recently. I booked originally with one, but for a variety of reasons ended up diving with Scuba Coiba, who were the first dive shop to open in Santa Catalina.
The only issue with Santa Catalina is that depending on the sea conditions it can be an hour or more to get to Isla Coiba and this can limit the number of dives as well as the choice of dive sites that can be used.
The other option is to stay on Isla Coiba. It does allow much more access to dive sites and it's far easier to get three dives a day in.
As this is a national park, there is only one option - staying at the ranger station. There is dorm accomodation there. Definitely nothing flash. It normally would have electricity to the dorms but the generator was broken (had been for the past 2 weeks) and there was no power. This meant no fans, a/c or lighting and limited options for charging batteries (a small amount of solar power was available for this). Sleeping wasn't the most pleasant - it would have been good to get a breeze through the dorms, but at the same time you are trying to keep the (numerous) insects out.
Please note - this was completely out of the control of any of the dive shops - the ranger station is run by the Panamanian Government. As to why the generator wasn't fixed as well as a number of other minor maintenance issues? Quien sabes? Who knows? It wasn't due to a lack of staff. But as to many things in this part of the world, it really is difficult to know the real reasons.
By comparison Scuba Coiba Staff were excellent. This included the very generous and tasty meals that we had - certainty no complaints about the food.
Would I choose to stay again on Coiba - definitely, yes, if the generator was working, but I might opt to stay at Santa Catalina if there was no power in the dorms.
Next part - the diving! Coming soon...