In Search of Light, Fresh Air and Open Spaces in Taboga Island

As the year 2013 was coming to a close, one late December evening, I meditated over what my plans and goals would be for the upcoming year.  People call this planning process, the New Year’s Resolution.  Most of these commitments often slide through the cracks as the year goes by.

I made three commitments:  First, I would travel more around the country in search of new scenarios to capture, second, continue polishing my ever elusive English language, and third, to prepare at least one blog post per day.  So far I’ve been faithful to the second and third commitment. Now it was time to engage the first one.  It turned out to be a trip to Taboga Island roughly about twenty kilometers (12.4 miles) from Panama City.

Taboga Island (Spanish: Isla Taboga), also known as the “Island of Flowers”, is a volcanic island in the Gulf of Panama. It is a tourist destination, about 20 kilometers from Panama City, Panama.

The island was discovered in the 16th century and was originally named Isla de San Pedro by the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa. Its current name derives from an Indian word aboga (“many fish”). The island’s first settlers were Indian slaves from Venezuela and Nicaragua.

The small town of San Pedro was founded in 1524 by Hernando de Luque, dean of the Panama cathedral. The town church of the same name is claimed to be the second-oldest church in the hemisphere.  The first one is in the Dominican Republic.

French Post- impressionist painter Paul Gauguin visited the island in 1887, but that’s another fascinating  story for some other day.

My main goal to travel to Taboga was to capture light, fresh air and solitude.  The day I traveled, February 10, 2014, was a bright, sunny and cloudless day.  I knew that harsh shadows would be available at the island.  The intensity of the light was strong resulting in strong shadows.  Early in the morning, at sunrise, the light from the sun was diffused (softened) through the cloud covering. At this time, shadows were either very soft or practically non-existent.

My expectations at Taboga were to find an ever-present cacophony of light, water, heat and sand.  That I found and then some, as you will find out during the next few days.

This is my first shot of an exhilarating trip to the nearby island at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal .  It was taken about 6:30 a.m. when Apollo was starting to move upwards in its journey across the immaculate cloudless blue sky.

Snapshot of a sunrise at Amador Causeway while I was waiting for the launch to pick us up and take us to the exciting island of Taboga. It was a beautiful sunny tropical day full of light, water and warm sand. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.