Panama Days 3-5: Diving in Coiba Island bay area

The next three days are a bit of a blur, so they get their own post.

Bahia Honda

We arrived bright & early at Coiba Dive Center for our briefing, gearing up, and boat out to sea. I cannot recommend this group highly enough; they were professional, clear, and got us to some of the best scuba on the planet.

We booked a three-day dive tour, but our first day included a bunch of folks on a one-day tour. (Someone else was supposed to be with us on the three-day, but they cancelled at the last minute.)

Sea fans galore (Day 2)

The boat ride out was 45-60 minutes, during which I am proud to say I didn't lose my breakfast (I was also on Dramamine!). This was a problem for me in Costa Rica that thankfully did not rear its head during this trip.

We got a briefing from our South African dive instructor, Shaun, who is possibly the most relaxed person on Earth. Our confidence boosted, we geared up and sunk down into the water to explore the world below.

Me! (Day 2)

It was sort of weird at first, but I tapped into my Buddhist breathing and meditation training to calm my mind and focus on the breath. At that point, it was a matter of getting used to buoyancy, which is no small thing.

We saw tons of starfish, parrot fish, angel fish, sea turtles, reef sharks, eels, and more. Filling in our dive logs at the end of each day was super fun!

Cool star fish! (Day 2 or 3)

Each day, we had a dive in the morning, a surface interval and snack on a local small beach island, another dive, lunch on another small island, and another dive.

Surface interval snack (Day 1)

After all three dives, the boat took us back to our little island, Isla Bahia Honda, which was basically a series of shacks with no electricity except for a generator at night. It was awesome. Hilariously, there ended up being a tiny spot with WiFi, where all the locals would gather with their phones each night.

Concrete trail on Isla Bahia Honda

On the first night, we were too exhausted to really do anything in the evening, but we did enjoy a wonderful meal of fried fish, rice, and a cute little chocolate ring cake by Rosie, the cook.

I don't think I'm alone in hating getting in and out of the wet suit. The ocean made it smell bad and it made me feel like stuffing a sausage. I dreaded getting into it on the next day, but eventually by the end of the second and third days, I got into the practice of stripping the top half and shoes off in the boat before we got to the island to start drying off.

On day 2, Dave was starting to come down with a cold, which ended up forcing him to forfeit the last dive of the day. Nonetheless, we enjoyed some great diving, especially as it was just the two of us and Shaun. 

We had some lovely dives in the morning, seeing a lot more sea fans and coral than we had in the previous day's dives, as we had the opportunity to go out much further than most day-trip divers are able.

At the end of the second day, Dave forfeited the last dive and Shaun asked me whether I wanted to dive or not. I was on the fence, as I was feeling a little stuffed up myself from some salt water congestion, but I decided, you know what, I'm floating out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, let's do this.

Well, I'm really glad I did, because not only was the last dive in a spectacular location for canyons and corals, but I saw a barracuda and...a dolphin!

Dolphin friend (Day 2)

He swam up to check out me and Shaun, and for a second, Shaun didn't see him because he was swimming ahead. I shrieked a little bit because he was really cool, but also kind of big and scary, and Shaun turned around and snapped this pic and a nice video.

It was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life. There was nothing in the water between me and this huge fish - he looked out at me with intelligence and no malice, but I also couldn't believe how big he is and couldn't think about nature videos I've seen of dolphins being jerks. Anyway, getting to experience that dolphin fit perfectly with my goal of traveling fearlessly, and I feel like it was a reward for putting myself out there. 

It was kind of sad to tell Dave about the dolphin when we rose up, because he didn't get to see it, but he was happy we did the dive. Shaun said it was the first time he's ever seen a dolphin IN the water, which is cool. I told him I'm a good luck charm and he can take me out anytime.

That night, we had enough energy to climb up the hill and visit the school check out the view of the bay. There was a cool basketball court and theater up there, and we were followed by a friendly dog as we took in the view and enjoyed some Panamanian lagers.

The school on our island

On the last day, Dave was in pretty bad straits with the cold, but he ate a load of hot sauce with breakfast and cleared things out, at least temporarily and enough to dive. and he was glad he did, because we saw tons of fish in the morning dives and we made a big new friend on the last dive of the day!

Whale shaaaaark (Day 3)

Coiba is famous for whale sharks, who are the largest sharks in the world and who eat krill. They were one of the main reasons I set my sights on Coiba, and after 8 dives, I had kind of given up on seeing them. In the last 20 minutes of the last dive on day 3, one came by for four passes of heavy krill eating.

He was one of the biggest animals I've ever seen. He was the size of a pickup truck, gliding through the water silently and totally unconcerned with us.

Whale shark (Day 3)

And on our "safety stop" coming up from that dive, we also finally saw some manta rays! Super fun. No pictures, though.

The dive trip was intense and wonderful. Three days was a lot, and I'm not sure I'd do that much again, but I'm glad I did it, otherwise we wouldn't have seen the spectacular animal life that we got to see. Next time somewhere else, I would probably stick with one dive day.

Dave and me in the water (Day 3)

I was so happy that Shaun took all these photos; check out his Instagram, and again, I definitely recommend him as a guide and Coiba Dive Center as a tour operator. It was the trip of a lifetime.

Back on dry land, we both took nice hot showers to wash the sea off, and we began what would be a long process of drying out our sea clothes. We were happy to get back to our cute hotel, Hotel Santa Catalina, for a little luxury to clean up, recover, and read. 

On our recovery / reentry night in Santa Catalina before heading back, we enjoyed dinner at El Chillin' Guito. Everything in the town is walkable, so it was easy to head up the road and get a drink and dinner.

Trip. Of. A. Lifetime.