Adios Panama

Just a quick post: Tuesday 20th March.
We shall be leaving Panama in a couple of hours, spending a couple of days in Las Perlas islands, south of here, before heading off to the Marquesas.
I'm having trouble adding photos, but will add photos of canal etc. in next blog.

Best photo from the San Blas

How did I forget to include the best photo from the San Blas?  Fabulous!

San Blas to Panama

The San Blas are islands northeast of Panama and inhabited by the Cuna Indians.  They are very beautiful and can only be reached by boat.  Lisa landed in Panama and after spending a night in a local hostel, she had to get a 4x4 to Carti and then a small boat to No Rehearsal.  Needless to say, she was a bit weary when she finally appeared!

Lisa, relaxing on the foredeck

A dingy ride up one of the island rivers.  The Cuna grow their vegetable up some of these rivers, and often are only wide enough for a kayak.

One of the vegetable boats that come around to the anchored boats with a wide variety of produce.                              

The on to the Marina in Shelter Bay, lots of jobs to do before heading through the canal.  Always time for a cocktail at the bar!

One of the marina's local attractions is a sloth that lives in a tree by the travel lift.                                                       

Lisa and I had some good walks near the marina, with some interesting wildlife to see.  The howling monkeys can be heard screeching from the boat and sometimes seen in the trees nearby.

No Rehearsal was not due to transit the canal before Lisa was due to leave and so we signed up to be 'line-handlers' for another boat that needed two extra hands.  It took us two days in all, with one night spent in Gatun lake.  It was owned by two Austrians and they had been planning this trip since they were at school.  Great experience.

Georgetown to the San Blas

The weather looked good, so we stocked up on provisions and headed south.

Theron caught a beautiful Mahi Mahi, delicious!  

I was a rough old passage and too rough to hang the washing on deck, so here it is adorning the cockpit!    After the first couple of days the wind was behind us, bringing following seas and a more comfortable ride.

Here is 'Poop', so called because he landed on the back steps and for other reasons too!  He had several attempts at landing and was obviously really tired.  He spent the first night in the dingy and in the morning flew off, but returned and spent the second night in the cockpit.  He was with us for three days and we persuaded him to leave when we arrived in the San Blas.

Provenir is one of the islands in the San Blas.  We arrived at night and it was quite a challenge to anchor.  The island is tiny and the runway takes up most of the island.  But there is a local restaurant that served us excellent fish one lunchtime.  We shall stay here to wait for Lisa' s arrival.