Isla Gibraleón is a small, uninhabited Panamanian island that is part of the Pearl Islandsarchipelago in the Gulf of Panama. It is located west of Isla Casaya, and is part of a group of 200 or more islands and islets lying about off the Pacific coast of Panama. The island has an coastline, five beaches, a mangrove swamp, and is covered in of dense jungle. It has a total surface area of, which makes it the 12thlargest island in the archipelago. Isla Gibraleón rises to a height of above sea level, and is in the Eastern Time Zone.
Climate
The Intertropical Convergence Zone, known by sailors as the doldrums, governs the climate of Isla Gibraleón. March is the warmest month, with an average temperature of ; January is the coldest, averaging at night. Due to its proximity to the equator, Isla Gibraleón does not have distinct seasons. Variations in the location of the ITCZ drastically affect rainfall in many equatorial regions, resulting in the wet-and-dry seasons of the tropics rather than the cold-and-warm seasons of higher latitudes. Isla Gibraleón's wet season occurs from May to December, when the ITCZ is over Panama. This period is characterised by light, variable winds and heavy rainfall. The dry season, characterised by clear skies and predominantly northeastern Caribbean trade winds, is from January to April. The island's location in the Pearl Islands archipelago protects it from the effects of El Niño and allows the surrounding waters—usually between during the wet season—to sustain the uninterrupted evolution of new marine species, including whale and tiger sharks, sperm whales, sea turtles, angel rays and large schools of fish.
Isla Gibraleon was used for the Morgan Tribe on the television show in 2003. Isla Gibraleón was the men's island in the first series of The Island with Bear Grylls, and the women's island in the second series. In the first series, thirteen British men were taken to the island by Bear Grylls for a month; they were left alone, with the clothes they wore and some basic tools, to film themselves. For the second series the format was repeated, with a team of 14 British men living on another island in the archipelago—Isla San Telmo—and Isla Gibraleón home to 14 British women.
