Day 8 - Las Zapatillas

Hola! Day 8 started off with a lovely 30 minute boat ride out to Las Zapatillas, a pair of islands south of the Smithsonian Research Institute that are part of the "Parque Nacional Marino Isla Bastimentos." The site was designated a marine reserve in 1988, with a special emphasis on turtle protection and is managed by the National Environmental Authority of Panama. Once we anchored, we dropped into a massive reef, right between the "Zapatillas." Upon drop-in we saw plenty of angelfish, parrotfish, fire coral and Diploria, a type of brain coral. There was a very strong current, so staying with our partners was a bit of a struggle but we managed the breaking waves over the reef crest! The following pictures are some of the creatures we saw at the first snorkel site.

A straight-on view of a squirrel fish! noticed its BIG eyes.

 A pair of Spiny Lobsters, their antennae were about the length of my arm!

 A Mack Creature, Trying to hold on to a Ctenophore that was swimming by.

 One of my favorites, a Flamingo Tongue, Cyphoma gibbosum, crawling on a large blue sea fan.

The postcard view of one of the Zapatillas from our snorkel site

An Queen angelfish, surprisingly hard to get a picture of, this is one of the best

An amazing view of coral polyps emerging from a massive coral head

 Nurse sharks, found by Haley and Ellie

A beautiful purple hydrocoral, Stylester roseus, 

Another view of the Flamingo Tongue

A severed crab claw...

A lionfish! captured my MacKenna, one of only two we have seen so far.

A majestic Haley in her natural habitat

The eye of an Octopus, hidden in a coral head

Ellie, sweeping the reef

Another picturesque view of one of the Zapatillas from our snorkel site

After the first site, we motored along towards one of the islands to go eat lunch. We ran into the Authorities from the National Environmental Authority of Panama. and paid our park Fees ($5/person).   We showed them our permits and ate a delicious lunch prepared by Desus! We had sandwiches, pineapple, pineapple juice, plantain chips and Snickers, so obviously we were rearing to go after. A few of us swam over to the beach to roll around a bit before putting our snorkel gear back on, but then we were ready to get back in the water. from the boat we swam north along the island and found some massive reefs, all separated by a bit of sediment. The corals at this site were very impressive, some larger than a small car!

Acropora palmata, a once ubiquitous reef coral

A scene of the reef with much fire coral, Millepora sp.

A Batwing Coral Crab, Carpilius corallinus

Richard raising the anchor after our second snorkel 

Green and Gold zoonathids, side by side

Condylactic gigantea, The Giant Anemone

Yellowtail parrot fish - initial phase

A hydroid, Halocordyle disticha

After the second site, we hopped back in the boat and cruised over to Cayo Corale, a reef full of soft corals. the tide was very strong so we had a short swim, about 10 minutes, against the current to get to a place where the boat could anchor. The reef was full of branching finger corals, algae and parrot fish.

The ocellate swimming crab, Portunus sabae

A sea cucumber, Holuthuria mexicana with algae growing on its body.

A trumpet fish, trying to blend in with the soft corals

As we first entered the water we saw a large amount of red algae growing on the soft corals

Soft corals and sponges at  Corale Cay

              Giant anemone, Condylactis gigantea 

We ended the day by having a swim off the dock, where Christina had a great interaction with a pelican and looking at photos from the day!




Buenos noches,
Molly Monahan