Isla Iguana

Isla Iguana is small enough to circle on foot in under two hours, a wildlife refuge sitting a short boat ride off Pedasí on the Azuero Peninsula’s Pacific side, and its size turns out to be exactly the point — every part of the island is close enough to everything else that a single short visit delivers an outsized amount of nature. We took a panga out from the mainland, the water shifting from murky green to a clear pale turquoise as we crossed the shallow reef flat that fringes almost the entire island.

The frigatebird colony is what people come for, and no description I’d read prepared me for the volume of it — magnificent frigatebirds nest here by the thousand during breeding season, males inflating brilliant red throat pouches to the size of a balloon while perched in low coastal scrub, an absurd and slightly comic display repeated across what looked like every available branch. The noise alone, a constant low chattering across the colony, was unlike anything I’d encountered on any other island.

The reef beneath the water matched the birdlife above it. We snorkeled directly off the main beach — no boat required once you’re there — over coral formations dense with parrotfish, angelfish, and, on our second pass, a whitetip reef shark resting motionless under a coral ledge that our guide spotted well before I did. Between roughly July and October, humpback whales pass close enough to the island that sightings from the beach itself aren’t unusual, though we weren’t lucky enough to catch one during our visit.

When to go: Frigatebirds nest primarily between roughly January and April; humpback whales pass by from July through October. Either season rewards a visit, though the calmer, drier months make the boat crossing easiest.