The Pearl Islands is a group of 200 or more islands and islets lying about 30 miles (48 km) off the Pacific coast of Panama in the Gulf of Panama.
San Miguel, Isla del Rey
Vasco Núñez de Balboa was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for crossing the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa
Image: Firma de Vasco Nuñez de Balboa
Balboa setting his dogs upon native practitioners of homosexuality (1594); engraving from the New York Public Library. The rendering was by the Flemish Protestant artist Theodor de Bry.
The discovery of the Pacific by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Panama – 9/25/1513, painting by Matthias Laurenz Gräff (2009/10)