We entered Panama on Feb. 17th and departed Apr. 16th. Our arrival in Panama began in a wonderful bay whereby a family invited us to their home and came to our boat with gifts. (Not to mention we raised our waterline quite a bit.) The final anchorage had us entertaining a total of 20 people on our boat from the time the anchor hit the water until just before sunset. People brought us gifts of fruit and vegetables. We gave away towels, books, rope, fishing hooks and lots of cold juice. We were invited to go into the village but with people coming and going we didn't make it. This last harbour was Puerto Perma. It is a two year old traditional village on the mainland with plenty of space to have garden plots. At the moment they are cutting down trees, selling them and cultivating the land to be able to grow corn and various vegetables. There is no electricity so at night the sounds consist of jungle noises along with the lightning and thunder show.
Colombian ships bring them the basics from canned and paper goods to different types of vegetables.
Our memories of Panama will again be the wonderful people we met in the villages, cities and the other boaters that are headed north as we head south, that gave us so much useful information. Panama allowed us to see jungle close up; transit from the Pacific to the Atlantic, take in a culture that is rapidly changing and in my view will probably not be nearly as traditional in 10 years. We were privileged to share with family and friends the Panama Canal crossing and some of the Panamanian anchorages.
Our weather window arrived and on Friday we headed out on more firsts. We are now in our 10th country counting Canada. We have gone from Pacific to Atlantic, North America to Central America and now enter a New Continent; South America.
The most important first was Ken finally caught his Wahoo. It was 40lbs and 48" long. He no longer can fish for awhile as this gives us 24 meals alone. I know how to make breakfast sausage with it, lunch tacos, and of course many different dinner meals. Do you think we will get sick of seafood? Never. This is the land of lobster that we can try to capture.
Our first night we stayed at Puerto Escondido which is just an open roadstead. The houses ashore were banana plantations and it appeared to be cattle ranching. The anchorage proved to be very rolly. More things creaked all night on the boat than I could imagine. The following morning we headed out and arrived at Isla Fuerte, which is an island surrounded by reefs and sand. This island has great contrasts. It has 2000 inhabitants. There is a large contingency of holiday homes. The pueblo has a real mixture of thatched houses with dirt floors, wooden houses, cement houses and let's not forget the ones that probably have Italian marble throughout. There are resorts, bread and breakfasts and several restaurants, several tiendas, a police station and a fairly large school. No internet however. If there is internet they are receiving it over their phones.
The people here are very West Indies looking and are very friendly. There is a large population of Europeans which own the larger homes.
Donkeys are used as beasts of burden. The men ride them down to the beach, bag up sand and put the sandbags onto the donkeys. They are then led through the streets to the construction site where the sand is made into cement. (It doesn't last long due to the salt content)I hope the houses were not made with this cement. While this action was unfolding in front of us a panga filled with at least 50 large bags of top soil was being brought in to help with a garden. This island is volcanic rock and sand. It is very tropical and all types of fruit trees grow. Right now mangos and papaya are very much in season. There are breadfruit trees, banana trees, coconut trees, limon trees and other fruit that I do not know their names. Let's just say they won't get scurvy.
The money used here is the Colombian Peso. 2000 pesos is about $1.00 American. They do not like taking American money on the island as they have a hard time dealing with it and explaining why they have so much American money. Can we say Drugs! The Colombian Marines have a detachment on the island.
One of the very valuable pieces of information given to us by fellow boaters is that Colombia is SAFE. So for all those concerned, don't be; at least not while we are on the water. In land may be different. We have both the Colombian Coast Guard and the US Navy. They both monitor VHF 16 24/7 and the Colombian government has set up an email address to send the coast guard your float plan so that they can follow your progress. Should you see or have anything happen that makes you uncomfortable they have a place to contact them. It does add to the feeling of being safe.
We will be out for about a week before we finally will have internet, so once again this is being transmitted through SSB Radio and pictures and editing will occur once we have internet.
Colombian ships bring them the basics from canned and paper goods to different types of vegetables.
Our memories of Panama will again be the wonderful people we met in the villages, cities and the other boaters that are headed north as we head south, that gave us so much useful information. Panama allowed us to see jungle close up; transit from the Pacific to the Atlantic, take in a culture that is rapidly changing and in my view will probably not be nearly as traditional in 10 years. We were privileged to share with family and friends the Panama Canal crossing and some of the Panamanian anchorages.
Our weather window arrived and on Friday we headed out on more firsts. We are now in our 10th country counting Canada. We have gone from Pacific to Atlantic, North America to Central America and now enter a New Continent; South America.
The most important first was Ken finally caught his Wahoo. It was 40lbs and 48" long. He no longer can fish for awhile as this gives us 24 meals alone. I know how to make breakfast sausage with it, lunch tacos, and of course many different dinner meals. Do you think we will get sick of seafood? Never. This is the land of lobster that we can try to capture.
Our first night we stayed at Puerto Escondido which is just an open roadstead. The houses ashore were banana plantations and it appeared to be cattle ranching. The anchorage proved to be very rolly. More things creaked all night on the boat than I could imagine. The following morning we headed out and arrived at Isla Fuerte, which is an island surrounded by reefs and sand. This island has great contrasts. It has 2000 inhabitants. There is a large contingency of holiday homes. The pueblo has a real mixture of thatched houses with dirt floors, wooden houses, cement houses and let's not forget the ones that probably have Italian marble throughout. There are resorts, bread and breakfasts and several restaurants, several tiendas, a police station and a fairly large school. No internet however. If there is internet they are receiving it over their phones.
The people here are very West Indies looking and are very friendly. There is a large population of Europeans which own the larger homes.
Donkeys are used as beasts of burden. The men ride them down to the beach, bag up sand and put the sandbags onto the donkeys. They are then led through the streets to the construction site where the sand is made into cement. (It doesn't last long due to the salt content)I hope the houses were not made with this cement. While this action was unfolding in front of us a panga filled with at least 50 large bags of top soil was being brought in to help with a garden. This island is volcanic rock and sand. It is very tropical and all types of fruit trees grow. Right now mangos and papaya are very much in season. There are breadfruit trees, banana trees, coconut trees, limon trees and other fruit that I do not know their names. Let's just say they won't get scurvy.
The money used here is the Colombian Peso. 2000 pesos is about $1.00 American. They do not like taking American money on the island as they have a hard time dealing with it and explaining why they have so much American money. Can we say Drugs! The Colombian Marines have a detachment on the island.
One of the very valuable pieces of information given to us by fellow boaters is that Colombia is SAFE. So for all those concerned, don't be; at least not while we are on the water. In land may be different. We have both the Colombian Coast Guard and the US Navy. They both monitor VHF 16 24/7 and the Colombian government has set up an email address to send the coast guard your float plan so that they can follow your progress. Should you see or have anything happen that makes you uncomfortable they have a place to contact them. It does add to the feeling of being safe.
We will be out for about a week before we finally will have internet, so once again this is being transmitted through SSB Radio and pictures and editing will occur once we have internet.
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posted by genesisincalmh2o @ 11:06 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Hi,
Glad to hear that you're doing well. Since we saw you last we've been keeping a better watch on your blog & what your up to. Give us a call when you can.
Kenny & Paulette
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