Isla Farallón

What it actually is

DescriptionIsla Farallón lies 2.5 miles (4 km) offshore of El Farallón del Chirú, on the stretch of coast between Playa Blanca and Santa Clara, Coclé province, Pacific side. Buenaventura Marina bears 3.7 miles (6 km) to the south-west. It is volcanic rock, steep-to on its seaward face, with two headlands joined by a low saddle and a cave that cuts through at the waterline. The bay on the landward side is sheltered and holds good anchorage in the prevailing swell.

People arrive expecting a coral island and find something better. There is no reef here. Farallón is old volcanic rock — dark, hard, fractured — and that is precisely what makes it worth the trip. Coral builds flat gardens. Rock builds architecture: overhangs, crevices, vertical walls dropping away into green water, and channels where the current squeezes through and the fish gather to wait for whatever it brings them.

The feature everyone remembers is the cave. Where the two headlands meet, the sea has cut a passage straight through the base of the island, so you can look in one side and see daylight on the other. On a calm morning we take the boat close enough that the sound changes — the engine noise comes back off the rock walls, and the swell that has travelled a long way across open Pacific finally has something to break on.

Above the waterline the rock is streaked white. That is not stone. That is several thousand birds' worth of evidence that this island is one of the more important seabird roosts on this stretch of coast.

The birds on top

Farallón is a nesting site, not a passing perch. The cliffs and ledges give seabirds exactly what they need — inaccessible rock, no predators, and open water full of fish a short glide away. Come close in the boat and they will be overhead the whole time you are there.

• Magnificent Frigatebirdthe big black cross-shaped silhouettes; males inflate a scarlet throat pouch in courtship
• Brown Pelicanfolds its wings and drops straight in, from a surprising height
• Neotropic Cormorantstands on the rock with wings spread open to dry
• Blue-footed Boobynot every trip, but they do turn up — the feet really are that colour

What you see with your face in it

The water here runs around 80 °F (27 °C) the year round, which is the temperature of a warm bath and means nobody needs a wetsuit. You get in from the boat in the sheltered bay, where the island itself takes the swell out of the water, and you work your way along the rock.

What turns up: snappers in loose groups along the wall, parrotfish grinding away at the rock with those beaked mouths, rays moving over the sand between the rocks, and schools of jacks that arrive suddenly and leave the same way. Sea stars and urchins sit on the bottom in plain sight. Turtles happen — not often enough to promise, often enough to keep looking.

You do not need to be a strong swimmer. We carry masks and life jackets in every size, and most people spend the hour floating rather than swimming, which is the better way to see anything anyway. Fish leave you alone if you stop chasing them.

When to come

There is no closed season — we run to the island all year. But the water does not look the same every month, and the season that reads best on paper is not the one that is best afloat.

Months	What it is like
Dec – Apr	Dry season ashore, and far windier on the water than visitors expect. The trades push down this coast for days at a time, the sea builds under them, and the water goes murky with it. Blue sky over the beach does not mean a clear day underneath.
May – Nov	Green season. The wind eases and the sea lies down. Rain tends to arrive in the afternoon, so mornings are the dependable slot — and there are fewer boats out here.
Jul – Oct	Humpback whales are on this coast, breeding and raising calves a few miles offshore. August and September are the thick of it.

The honest answer to when should we come is: ask us the week you are here. We will tell you what the wind has been doing and how the water looks, and we would rather move you to a better morning than take you out on a bad one. Whales are wild animals and nobody sells a guarantee on those either — but we know whether they have been about.