Panama, San Blas, Colombia Revisited

October 2008

They finally caught up with us! Somebody in the Panamanian immigration department woke up and discovered that our three month visa had been renewed a few times too many! We had to leave! Any normal human being need only leave the country for a matter of 72 hours before returning to gain another visa. However, we’re not normal or, correctly speaking, this must be said of Paul. In other words, he, as a South African citizen, is not normal. Therefore, we packed up the little house we’d been staying in and moved back on board Calypso to return to the San Blas before heading back across to Cartagena in Colombia.

Our remaining time in Puerto Lindo saw us primarily fixing boat things (Paul) and looking after the dogs, cat and sloths (Maureen), however, we did manage another couple of weeks sailing to the islands with our friends, Willem & Rina. They are a South African couple who have now settled in Panama outside Panama City on the Pacific side. They had never experienced the San Blas islands so we were thrilled to be able to show them around one village and a few of the uninhabited islands where they spent many hours snorkeling the coral reefs. Rina is an excellent cook and had brought many luxury “goodies” with them which saw us eating like kings but, sadly, we were unable to supplement the meals with any fresh fish – there just weren’t any to be found. And this wasn’t for want of trying – I’ve never seen anyone more determined to catch something than Willem who was out there with a line at every opportunity but, alas, it just was not to be!

During our last few months ashore, we had the dubious pleasure of looking after Sherman, a chestnut-mandabilled toucan who had been rescued as a featherless newborn by a family living aboard a catamaran at a nearby marina. Feeding Sherman took some courage - you just have to see that humongous bill coming towards your naked arm whilst changing his food and water fives times a day! He seemed to just about tolerate me but men were another scenario altogether, just ask a few of the men folk around who probably still have the scars to prove it! I've had to say farewell, temporarily, to my favourite sloth, Dooger (aka Bandito). He was like a permanent appendage - I miss him terribly.

Several items of exciting news in our house (boat) hold! Firstly, our daughter in London announced that she got engaged! We haven't had the pleasure of meeting him yet and hope it won't be too long before we do. We'd really love it if they could come out to us for a holiday. Our other news is, we’ve bought a plot of land in Panama! In fact, we bought it from Willem up in an area called Altos del Maria, a magnificent mountainous region about half an hour inland from the Pacific coast and an hour and a half from Panama City. The plot is in a valley with some spectacular views and, as this region is away from the coast and a little higher up, it is a tad cooler and not quite so oppressively humid.

This, by the way, is not to say that we’re giving up cruising! Far from it! Our vague plans are to build a small bedroom/bathroom/kitchenette/loftroom module which we can rent out whilst we complete our cruising days, however long that may be. Once we finally decide to cease bobbing up and down on the oceans of the world, we have got the plans for another module which will include living/dining room, kitchen, guest bedroom, etc. It’s all very exciting and Paul, just to make sure we won’t starve in future years, has already planted some lime and avocado trees. Mangos are prolific everywhere.

November: Upon leaving the mainland of Panama, we had another few weeks in San Blas which proved to be very successful as regards fishing. Paul managed to spear enough fish to fill our freezer. In fact, I had to stop him from getting any more – just no space! The weather proved to be a bit disappointing during this visit but what can one expect. It is, after all, the rainy season. We met up with a couple of cruising friends we hadn’t seen in a while and managed a couple of fish BBQ’s on the beach. During our stay there, we learned that our friends on Cooee Too, Bronte & Helmke, were already in Cartagena so off we went.

The passage over to Colombia ended up being a 2-night trip through fairly squally weather as we arrived outside Boca Chica too late to navigate the inland waterway at night. However, we arrived at the anchorage the next morning to be greeted by Cooee as well as Kalida, an English couple we first met in Brazil and hadn’t seen since Trinidad. As sad as it always is to say goodbye so often, the thrill of cruising is meeting up again with good friends in strange ports. That night, Helmke, the best sushi chef outside Japan, laid on a spread that was a sight and a taste to remember for all time! May we forever follow in your wake, Cooee.

It seems to me that whenever we need to get something done in a hurry, we arrive at our destination on a public holiday. This time, it was a week of public holidays with all the parades and noise that go with a typical South American celebration. This was their Independence Day (from Spain) and they sure know how to party! Needless to say, our reason for being here (Paul’s special visa) was delayed a week. When he did finally collect it, we learned that there was a catch to this – we are not allowed to enter Panama by sailing in, we must FLY in! How our two feet land upon Panamanian soil cannot possibly make any difference but rules are rules and so a major spanner has now been thrown into the works. Not only do we have to fly in but we have to be there for over two weeks in order to apply for a multiple entry visa or else we can’t return with the boat later on. At the last minute, we’ve had to rush around getting flights and looking for somewhere safe to leave Calypso until we fly back in mid December. Our plans of joining Cooee in the islands have just been thrown out the window and I was so hoping for a few more sushi experiences and for Bronte to teach me the basics of free-diving whilst there. %*$@)!

On the funny side though, what took us 55 hours of sailing to get from Puerto Lindo to Colombia via the San Blas, is going to take a mere one hour and three minutes to return via air! Whenever I think of things like this, I just have to wonder at the logic of our chosen mode of transport!

PHOTO ALBUM:

Scenes around Altos del Maria

More San Blas

Cartagena in Holiday Spirit

Still in Panama

Pat & Maureen on Gunboat Island

Calypso finally pulled up a very heavily encrusted anchor after six long months embedded in the muddy bottom of the bay outside Puerto Lindo Panama. Although it was for too short a spell, it was one we’d been looking forward to for some time.

We have spent our time here helping to care-take a house and a menagerie of animals while, at the same time, completing some rather lengthy maintenance jobs aboard. We received a much needed push up the backside to get moving again coming in the form of my sister and her husband, Pat and Bill, who arrived out from Canada to spend five weeks with us.

Our first outing was a couple of days doing the hot and sticky sightseeing ‘thing’ in Panama City which included Panama Viejo (Old Panama). This dated back to the time of the Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s & become the first European settlement along the Pacific. It has an interesting history of running gold and silver from Peru to Europe up until it was plundered and destroyed by the famous buccaneer and pirate, Henry Morgan, 150 years later.

A trip to Panama wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the canal locks. This really is a marvel of engineering. It stretches for 80km from Panama City on the Pacific side through to Colon on the Atlantic and cuts right through the Continental Divide. Ships worldwide are built to the dimensions of the canal’s locks which sees nearly 14,000 pass through each year. It has three sets of double locks with a huge artificial lake in between and with the passage of each ship, a staggering 52 million gallons of fresh water is released into the ocean.

The canal is now in the process of being enlarged as a recent referendum voted for an expansion which will incorporate a third lane on each lock. The government has allocated $5,25 billion on this project which will stretch over seven years and finish in conjunction with the canal’s centennial in 2014. It is, of course, hoped that this construction will give a major boost to the economy of the country as the canal would then be able to accommodate more and larger vessels including the enormous cruise ships bringing in tourists.

Leaving the muggy and grimy city behind, we headed out for a short trip up to the mountainous region of Chiriqui in the western end of the Isthmus which showed us a very different aspect of this long narrow country. Chiriqui offers beautiful mountainous landscapes with lush green and fertile valleys and is much cooler than the central north coast on the Caribbean Sea where we have spent all our time to date. It is considered to be Panama’s ‘bread basket’ where flowers, coffee, vegetables and citrus fruits flourish and is a very popular area with the ‘gringos’ who have created many settlements throughout the region. We took this opportunity to visit a few friends who have made their homes away from the heat and humidity of Colon Province and were gracious enough to put us all up for a night or two.

Back to Puerto Lindo for a few days to get the boat ready and install our new deck wash system, a wonderful gift from Pat and Bill. We set out in Calypso heading eastwards to some of our favourite spots and to find some new in the San Blas Islands of Kuna Yala.

The one day journey over to the islands proved to be a tad rough and my poor sister, who has always suffered badly from motion sickness, hugged the railings for a good part of the trip but she managed a smile once she saw the islands of our destination. Thankfully, during our stay, the short hops between the islands were taken in her stride.

It’s always so great to meet up with old friends in different anchorages and here we met up with our good diving buddies on Argo who we hadn’t seen since Bonaire and, although scuba diving isn’t permitted in Kuna Yala, we did manage some good snorkeling. Easter Sunday was spent very socially joining in with a myriad of other cruisers for a BBQ, egg hunt, games and good fun. All in all, the islands give one the opportunity to do as much or as little as one desires. There’s no pressure to ‘see’ things. If you want to lie in a hammock and doze the day away, so be it! What bliss!

Trying to take in as much as possible without seeming rushed, we stopped at five or six anchorages and took in one traditional village island for Pat and Bill to see how the Kuna Indians live. Too soon, it was time to return as their holiday drew to an end. Maybe this little taste will encourage them to visit again. We loved showing them around and were absolutely thrilled to be back on the sea again.

When we returned, I had to have an operation to my shoulder which had been giving me grief for a while but should, hopefully, be as good as new before long. I thanked my lucky stars that we were somewhere where the medical facilities were excellent.

There's always something going on around here despite the fact that we're a good distance from any commercial centre. The entire area was vitually taken over with the filming of the new James Bond movie (quite exciting) and our little bay is now the home for a new fish farming setup which is also proving to be an incredible development.

Puerto Lindo is quite a crossroads as there are always many cruisers visiting the bay and we’ve been amazed at how many boats we’ve known in the past that have come through. Both our Orinoco River traveling buddies have stopped over, Blue Print Match and several times, Imagine – always great to bump into you guys. A Swedish friend we’d originally met in Brazil called in after he bought another boat in Mexico and transited the canal eastwards before heading back to Europe. We had a brief but delightful reunion with our Scottish friends on Just Do It as they waited to transit the canal with the ARC World Rally.

We have continually been looking for a piece of land to purchase but this is proving to be quite a task. The property market is extremely unsophisticated with no such thing as estate agents along this coastline and prices have absolutely skyrocketed in the last couple of years. The equally unsophisticated sellers have no idea what property is worth so ask ridiculously high figures whenever a ‘gringo’ appears on the scene. The next problem is to try to determine who actually owns the land and a vast majority of it is under dispute. We’ve literally been knocking on doors but, to date, no luck. We press on regardless. We hope to find something soon so we can carry on cruising then come back to it in the years to come as Panama has a lot to offer and we fancy the idea of settling here.

....Garden in Chiriqui............................................... Pat enjoying the islands

...... Underwater scenes in San Blas ......................................Spotted Drum

........................................Pat & I after snorkeling
A beautiful Kuna smile

Visiting a traditional village.....................................................A little bit of paradise