Around Isla Canas there are almost always turtles in the water, never more so than in the fall nesting season, when olive Ridley turtles storm ashore in battalions like helmeted troops during the D-Day invasion. The birdlife is also astounding.

Canas Island Wildlife Refuge was created in 1947 to protect Panama’s most important marine turtle nesting site. Hawksbills, leatherbacks, loggerheads, olive Ridleys, and Paific greens struggle ashore to lay their eggs on the gray-brown sands of this 14 km island, with august through November the peak nesting season.

The refuge also includes mangroves that stretch 16 kilometres between the mouths of the Canas and Tonosi Rivers and along the landward shore of the isle. They provide roosts for nesting colonies of cattle egrets, scissor-tail frigate birds, and white ibises.

At night, the lagoon waters literally glow, thanks to billions of microscopic dinoflagellates that emit a spectral bioluminescence when disturbed. Swimming is discouraged due to crocodiles.