Coiba Marine Park consists of 39 islands located off of Panama’s Pacific coast within the Gulf of Chiriqui.
At all times of the year, the waters around Coiba are absolutely teaming with white tip reef sharks, southern stingrays, turtles and huge schools of fish.
During January whale sharks appear and then in March you can see manta rays. Perhaps the best time to go is between April and May – when groups of great hammerhead sharks are frequently sighted.
I saw hammerheads on three dives during my 3 day diving trip at Coiba in April, although sadly the water visibility was too cloudy for the videos I took to be much good (look out for the brief shot of one at 0:51 in the video below!).
It’s because of it’s richness of big marine life and countless dive sites that Coiba Marine Park is viewed as the best place to dive in all of Panama.
In fact, Coiba is considered by many (myself included) to be the best Pacific-side-dive-destination across the entire region of Central America.
You just won’t see as many white tip reef sharks, southern stingrays, turtles or huge schools of fish anywhere else – and during certain months it’s a great place to see bigger animals: especially hammerheads!
There’s also some very decent coral reef scattered around the many dive sites and even some suspiciously manmade rocks that are allegedly the remains of an ancient pre-columbian city.