Coiba

The largest island in Central America, 494 square kilometres off the Pacific coast of Panama, and it is intact because of what it used to be. A penal colony opened here in 1919 and under Torrijos and Noriega it became notorious; something like 300 deaths are attributed to it and nobody knows the real number. It closed in 2004. Nobody logged the island while the prison was there, so about 75 percent of it is still forest with old trees standing, and it separated from the mainland 12,000 to 18,000 years ago long enough to grow its own species, the Coiba Island howler monkey and the Coiba spinetail. The water holds 760 species of marine fish, 33 sharks and 20 cetaceans, plus reef, turtles, manta rays and whales. National park since 1992, UNESCO World Heritage since July 2005.