Diving Sombrero De Pelo in Coiba Panama

I dove Sombrero de Pelo in February 2026 with Coiba Dive Center, by boat out of Santa Catalina, Panama.

Sombrero de Pelo translates to "the hairy hat," named after the rock formation the site is built around, which looks like a hat with bushes growing out of it.

Like Wahoo Rock, the dive is structured as a loop around the rock. What makes Sombrero de Pelo different is the slope.

The dive and reef runs at an angle, giving you a constantly changing depth profile and vertical reef wall.

One note: my underwater housing picked up moisture buildup on this dive, which affected the video quality. I know exactly what caused it and it won't happen again!

The Dive

The sloped reef structure is what sets this site apart from other Coiba dive sites.

Most sites here are relatively flat or centered on a single feature.

Sombrero de Pelo gives you a vertical structure to work through, with different marine life and coral coverage at each depth band.

My Garmin Descent MK3i logged an average depth of 44 feet (13 m) with a max of 74 feet (23 m) and 53 minutes of bottom time, one of the longer dives of the trip.

Towards the end of the dive the reef flattens out at depth, and that's where the stingrays show up.

What Marine Life I Saw

Like the rest of Coiba, this site was covered in white tip reef sharks.

You see so many diving here that eventually you kind of stop caring about them.

There was also a turtle, probably the fastest swimming turtle I have ever seen.

The stingrays here are massive, and they congregate at the deeper end of the site right where the thermocline starts. They want the colder water, so that's where you'll find them.

I pushed past the thermocline to get close to one which is why my dive computer had the lowest recorded temperature of 77°F (25°C).

The reef life throughout the loop was dense, with the sloped structure giving you more surface area to explore than a flat site of equivalent size.

Dive Conditions

Water temp ranged from 77°F in the shallows down to cooler water past the thermocline at depth. You'll feel it the moment you drop below it. I dove in two 3mm wetsuits and was glad to have them, especially pushing deeper for the stingray shots.

Visibility was strong for Coiba. Conditions here can vary significantly, so diving with a local operator who knows the park is essential.