In January of 2026, I went to Santa Catalina to dive Coiba National Park with Coiba Dive Center, for an epic overnight trip totaling 9 dives over 3 days.

I'll be honest — I ended up here by accident.

I was originally booked on a flight to Roatan, Honduras, but was denied boarding because I didn't have a yellow fever vaccine — required when transiting through Panama for 12+ hours.

Instead of waiting around in Panama City, I rent a car and drove to Santa Catalina.

It might be the best accidental travel decision I've ever made.

I'll include all 9 dives on the trip here, along with site names, dive computer data from my Garmin Descent MK3i, so you can have an idea what to expect.

Definitely check out the full 30+ minute YouTube video from the trip (linked at the top), to see the highlights from each dive with my GoPro headmount footage.

Dive 1 — Wahoo Rock

Wahoo Rock is the most commonly dived site in Coiba National Park — and for good reason. The standout feature isn't the rock itself — it's the giant fields of plankton suspended in the water column.

That haze is what draws the filter feeders: devil rays, manta rays, and if you're lucky, whale sharks.

On my second visit we encountered two whale sharks.

Expect white tip reef sharks resting on the bottom, schooling fish throughout the water column, and hard coral along the rock face.

The thermoclines at this site hit hard — you can drop from 80°F to 72°F in just 10 feet of depth change.

If you feel one, the move is to ascend unless there's a specific reason to push through it.

Best for: Whale sharks, devil rays, manta rays

Dive 2 — Faro (Lighthouse)

Faro means lighthouse in Spanish and sits on Isla Canales de Afuera.

It's known for bull sharks and oceanic blacktips — neither showed up on this dive, but it was still a solid site with plenty going on.

White tip reef sharks, turtles, and impressively large fish were the highlights. We also spotted garden eels poking their heads out of the sand, feeding on particles passing through the water column — easy to miss if you're not looking down.

The reef here is classic Coiba Pacific: rocky, hard coral, very different from the soft coral and sea fans you'd find on the Caribbean side.

Best for: Bull sharks, oceanic blacktips, garden eels

‍Tip: Shark activity here tends to vary with current and time of day — ask your guide to time it accordingly.

Dive 3 — Buffet

Buffet sits very close to Wahoo Rock — close enough that my Garmin logged it as Wahoo Rock based on GPS coordinates.

But they're two distinct sites, and the name says it all. This is a buffet of fish, and the schooling action here was some of the most impressive of the entire trip.

White tip reef sharks were the dominant shark species, and you'll find them doing what they do best — sitting stationary on the bottom or stacked in caves in groups.

Unlike most sharks, white tips don't need to swim to breathe.

They pump oxygen through their gills using their cheek muscles, so finding a pile of them on the bottom is completely normal behavior.

Best for: Schooling fish, white tip reef sharks

‍Tip: If you only have time for one dive in this area, Wahoo Rock edges it out for whale shark potential. But on a multi-day trip, Buffet is absolutely worth requesting.

Dive 4 — Montaña Russa

Montaña Russa was the deepest dive of the entire trip and the most remote site we visited.

No large landmass nearby, just open Pacific and a dramatic underwater landscape of pinnacles and canyons.

Our guide Kat described it as pinnacles, and that's exactly what it felt like — underwater valleys and channels cutting through the rock at depth.

You can see it in the dive profile — we dropped straight to the 60-80 foot range and spent the majority of the dive deep before gradually working our way up. At that depth the lighting shifts noticeably, colors mute out, and the fish get bigger.

Schooling barracuda circling overhead, amberjacks everywhere, and two oceanic blacktips spotted on the edges of visibility.

Oceanic blacktips are much larger than the white tip reef sharks you'll see at other Coiba sites, and they tend to stay on the outskirts — wary of divers and won't come close.

There was also a memorable shark slumber party here — a group of white tip reef sharks piled up together on the bottom completely unbothered, right up until I got a little too close.

One thing to be aware of at this site: the current can rip. I grabbed onto rocks at points just to stay in place and not get swept from the group.

If you're going to do this, make sure there's no coral nearby and wear dive gloves.

Best for: Pinnacle topography, barracuda, amberjacks, oceanic blacktips

‍Tip: This is the deepest site in the rotation — worth prioritizing on day two when you're warmed up and comfortable with the conditions.

Dive 5 — Punta Peligro (Danger Point)

Punta Peligro — Danger Point — and the name fits the vibe. From a pure scenery standpoint, this was my favorite dive site of the entire trip.

Massive cliffs with lush greenery on top dropping straight into the Pacific. Even before you hit the water, you know this one is going to be different.

Pretty much immediately upon dropping in, we encountered a large bull shark. Like the oceanic blacktips at Montaña Russa, it stayed on the edges of visibility — wary of the group of divers — but unmistakable in size. We also spotted a scorpion fish on this dive.

They're related to lionfish, have the same venomous spines, and from what I've been told their venom is significantly more potent. Their camouflage is extraordinary — you'll swim right past one without ever knowing it's there unless your guide points it out.

Best for: Bull sharks, dramatic topside scenery, scorpion fish‍

Tip: Keep your eyes on the blue water at the edges of the reef — that's where the bull sharks tend to cruise.

Dive 6 — Sombrero De Pelo (Hairy Hat)

Sombrero De Pelo — the hairy hat — is a rock formation dive similar in structure to Wahoo Rock.

You're making a loop around the rock, but here the site is sloped, giving you a lot of vertical reef to work with across different depth profiles. Lots of movement up and down between 40 and 70 feet throughout the dive.

This was genuinely one of the most impressive dives of the trip, and I say that with a caveat: my underwater camera housing had moisture buildup on this dive which affected the footage quality.

There's a soft blur on the left side of the screen throughout.

Despite that, the dive delivered. Stingrays were a highlight toward the end — they tend to hang out near the bottom where the thermocline starts, seeking colder water.

Best for: Varied depth profiles, stingrays, vertical reef topography

‍Tip: Similar structure to Wahoo Rock but less crowded — worth requesting if you want a quieter version of that style of dive.

Dive 7 — Wahoo Rock (Round 2)

The group voted at dinner the night before to come back to Wahoo Rock on the final day. Nobody had seen a whale shark yet and this was the best shot at it. The decision paid off.

Notice the depth compared to the first visit — this dive maxed out at 49 feet versus 72 feet on dive one. That's intentional.

The whale shark action at Wahoo Rock happens in the plankton haze in the mid-water column, not down deep.

Staying shallower keeps you in that zone longer and gives you more time to react when something big swims through.

This is where we finally encountered the whale sharks — possibly two of them. One appeared slightly smaller, one noticeably larger.

The plankton haze was very visible on this dive — that milky, suspended cloudiness in the water column is the tell. When you see it, stay in it. That's the whale shark highway.

Best for: Whale sharks — this is the dive

‍Tip: Stay shallow and stay in the plankton.

Dive 8 — Santa Cruz

Coming off a whale shark encounter at Wahoo Rock, it would be hard for any dive to compete on pure spectacle.

Santa Cruz didn't try to — and that's exactly what made it special. This was the most beautiful hard coral dive of the entire trip.

We barely touched 66 feet, spending the vast majority of the dive hovering between 20 and 30 feet. The visibility up in that range let the coral shine.

I felt like I was inside a fish tank the entire time — everything perfectly arranged, hard corals, marine life, color. It was peaceful in a way that most dives aren't.

Our guide Kat spotted two scorpion fish tucked inside the coral side by side. Seeing two at the same time is rare. Their camouflage is so good you'd never find them without a guide pointing them out.

Best for: Hard coral, scenic beauty, relaxed diving

‍Tip: If you've been pushing depth all trip, Santa Cruz is the perfect reset — stay shallow and just take it all in.

Dive 9 — Iglesia (Church)

The last dive of the trip, and it closed things out in style. Iglesia — meaning church in Spanish — and Garmin tagged it with one note: Manta. That tells you everything you need to know.

The dive profile is relaxed, spending most of the time between 20 and 40 feet, which is exactly where you want to be for manta encounters.

The highlight was one of the largest mantas I've ever seen. I almost missed it. Another diver started banging their tank — a signal that something big was nearby — and I looked toward our guide expecting her to be pointing, but she wasn't.

A few seconds later she pointed ahead, I turned left, and there it was. Massive.

We also spotted a baby octopus tucked into the reef — small and easy to miss, but Kat found it. That's the value of diving with someone who knows these sites as well as she does.

Best for: Manta rays, reef scenery, octopus

‍Tip: Stay mid-water and keep scanning the blue. The manta at this site tends to appear when you're least expecting it.

How to Get There

Fly into Panama City (Tocumen International Airport). From there you have a few options to reach Santa Catalina, which is your base for diving Coiba:

Rental Car — The most flexible option. It's roughly a 5-6 hour drive from Panama City to Santa Catalina.

Shuttle — A budget-friendly option at around $11. Takes longer but gets the job done.

Charter Plane — Expensive solo, but split across a group it can come down to around $100-200 per person per leg. Worth considering if you're traveling with a group and value your time.

Once in Santa Catalina, it's about an hour to an hour and a half boat ride to reach the national park. Most operators run 2-3 tank day trips, but a couple of times a month Coiba Dive Center runs three-day overnight trips where you sleep on Baja Honda island, right near the park.

To get the most out of Coiba, I'd strongly recommend the overnight trip.