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