Paradise found: Coiba Island

Arriving at the ranger station

Coiba Island was a penitentiary until 2004.  Now it is a protected national park.  Due to its isolation it has some of the best ecological diversity in Central America.  I spent 2 nights on the island with 9 other volunteer friends, most from my training group.

We snorkeled.  I saw a shark among lots of fish and coral.

Best buds since the beginning of training: Monique, Jessica, and Kayla

We hiked.  Up a rocky road in bare feet to see a view, and then our boat driver showed us a direct paved pathway down.  The guard helped us harvest mangoes.  To a jungle filled with monkeys.  To see a sunset.

 

Not a bad prison view.

We toured the prison.  The park ranger on duty had worked in the functioning prison for 10 years so he was full of rich history.  Such as… the prisoner’s cementary.  If a prisoner died during his sentence, his body had to buried on the island until the sentence was completed.  Then the family could pay to collect the body and rebury it on home turf. Then the park ranger helped us harvest more fruit from the prison grounds.

Probably the best photo I have taken in Panama: a man holding a fish asking to be eaten by an crocodile, with a Speedo bystander.

We cooked in the park rangers’ kitchen.  Lentils and rice, of course.  The park rangers even gave us some fish to cook.

We visited the park ranger station's pet alligator.

We talked.  Mostly about how Jurassic Park should have been filmed here.

Then, we went home to our sites.  Paradise couldn’t last forever.