Tranquilo Bay is fortunate enough to be centrally located amongst the most biologically diverse protected areas in the whole of Panama and Central America.  We explore these areas from the comfort of our facility and often cross three or more ecosystems in a single excursion.  Our expeditions into the parks are designed to cover a diverse range of ecosystems and terrain and can be tailored to meet your group’s areas of interest, experience, and physical abilities.  To put this in perspective, you can hike the lush cloud forest Bosque Palo Seco high in the Talamanca range teeming with jungle wildlife, then return to the Caribbean and enjoy the moonrise over the Zapatilla Cayes.  There are few places on Earth where this diversity is possible. 

The province of Bocas del Toro hosts two national parks, one of which is a world heritage site, and two protected cloud forest.  In total the trans-boundary protected area consists of 1,400,000 contiguous acres extending from the continental divide to the Caribbean Sea, covering all five altitudinal zones known to the tropics. 

Isla Bastimentos is a biologist’s fantasy and covers about 20 square miles, it is one of Panama’s 10 largest islands.  The island is mostly forested and has no roads, cars, or airstrips.  In 1988 32,700 acres of Isla Bastimentos and its surrounding marine habitat were set aside to form the national park.  This park is an important nature reserve for an array of Caribbean wildlife species.  Of the total area, 4,100 acres create a corridor through the middle of the island forming a land bridge between the windward and leeward coasts of the island, and 28,600 acres are marine habitat.  Two beautiful islands known as Cayos Zapatillas, and the pristine reefs surrounding them, are also included within the park boundaries.

The interior of the park consists of beautiful primary and secondary rainforest.  Due to the archipelagos seclusion, the wildlife in lowlands of western Bocas del Toro includes many species endemic to the region, some of which are found on Isla Bastimentos.  White-faced capuchins, night monkeys, two and three toed sloth, conejo pintado, margays, armadillos, exotic birds, bats, turtles, caimans, frogs, lizards, butterflies, and rare tropical insects, are but some of the animals living beneath the canopy.  Thousands of plant species exist in the park including hardwoods, forest palms, vines, bryophytes, ferns, bromeliads, orchids, and other epiphytes.   

On the windward side of the park jungle canopy careens onto the white sand beaches, which are nesting sites for four species of sea turtles.  The landscape is dramatic with large rock faces, coves and inlets, spring fed creeks, offshore rock outcroppings, and long stretches of beach.  Just offshore, ocean impact reef and deep ocean reef meet to form a dramatic underwater topography.  Rock and sand chutes, crags, pinnacles, and tunnels converge to make shelter for over 200 species of tropical fish.  There are also several unmapped sub-sea caves dispensing fresh water into the Caribbean.  Hard and soft corals are abundant, and come in an array of different formations. 

On the leeward side of Isla Bastimentos, coastal forest merges with lush tangled mangrove, and plays an important role in the ecology of the nearby reef.  Hundreds of mangrove Cayes dot the marine park where beds of sea grass cover shallow flats of white and pink coral sand.  Just as with the mangrove, the health of this diverse coral reef is dependant on the sea grass.  Throughout the maze of mangrove islets lie patch reefs of staghorn, brain corals and sponges providing habitats for vivid tropical fish, sea stars, sea cucumbers, crabs, conch, octopus and lobsters.  Some of the mangrove islets serve as rookeries for frigates and boobies.

This World Heritage Site includes the single largest remaining tract of virgin forest unit in Central America.  The Cordillera de Talamanca (continental divide) begins its decent from 11,400 feet and makes its way to the Caribbean Sea in less than 35 miles. It is an explorer’s dreamland.  The Talamanca range sheds its mountain waters into the archipelago creating an area so diverse that it contains at least 9 of the Holdridge life zones found in Panama, including 4 found only on Caribbean facing slopes.  Tropical rain forests have covered most of the area since at least the last glaciation, about 25,000 years ago, in an assemblage ranging from lowland tropical rain forest to cloud and sub-alpine paramo forest.  In terms of biodiversity, no other protected area in Central America contains as many species, life zones, or viable populations.  The area still supports jaguars and the world’s most powerful bird or prey, the harpy eagle, both of which require enormous amounts of territory to survive.  Approximately 180 species of flora and 55 species of fauna are found only in the Panama Talamanca range, giving this region one of the highest frequencies of endemism in Central America.  The convergence of North and South America, as well as altitudinal, varied climatic, and edaphic factors provide a biodiversity of Flora and Fauna perhaps unequalled in any other reserve of equal size in the world.  The Talamanca range is estimated to harbor about 4% of all terrestrial species on earth.