Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
glide like floating autumn leaves, occasionally leaping 2m into the air, as well as more solit-
ary manta rays; boasting a colossal 6m wingspan, one weighs as much as a small car.
In general the Pacific coast boasts a greater number of large fish - blue and black marlin ,
amberjack , wahoo , dorado and tuna , to name a few - while the coral reefs on the Carib-
bean side, particularly around the archipelago of Bocas del Toro and parts of Guna Yala,
are populated with a greater variety of soft and hard corals. These feed and shelter aquatic
life from sinuous moray eels and spiky sea urchins to delicate sea horses and a rainbow of
dazzling fish. Iridescent parrot fish (30-50cm) are among the most distinctive, named less
for their technicolour coats than for their serrated parrot-like “beaks” that gnaw algae and
coral polyps off the reef. The ground coral is digested and excreted as sand - up to an es-
timated 90kg per fish annually - a major factor in the formation of Panama's glorious white-
sand beaches . The Caribbean's other mammalian draw is the manatee , or sea cow, an ami-
able elephantine herbivore with a paddle-like rudder and flabby fleshy snout, found in the
Humedales de San-San Pond Sak in Bocas del Toro.
Five species of marine turtle lay their eggs on both Atlantic and Pacific shores, roughly
between March and October/November (timings depend on species and location). In the
Caribbean, Bocas del Toro is the easiest place to visit hawksbill , leatherback and, to a lesser
extent, green turtle nesting sites while loggerheads frequent the shallows. On the Pacific
side, Isla de Cañas, off the Azuero Peninsula, is renowned for the mass olive ridley nesting
(May-Nov), though the other species also deposit their eggs there in smaller numbers.
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