Continued from yesterday… At 0400, we approached the anchorage for the large boats coming from/going to the Panama Canal. We could have done circles for two hours until dawn broke, but since the ships were not moving, were lit, and all had AIS, we were confident that we could navigate safely. 

Even though there was plenty of space for us to navigate between the vessels, we still felt quite close to the monstrous ships that we passed. 

A couple small pangas came really close to us during the twilight approach to the marina. At one point dinghy zoomed across our the bow so close that it made our hearts skip a beat. Here is a photo looking back at the large vessel anchorage as dawn broke.

Fifteen years ago we anchored the small boat anchorage. It was one of the scariest anchorages we’ve ever been in. Since then, they’ve built a marina, and we were relieved when we had gotten a reservation at La Playita Marina. 

La Playita Marina is along a causeway that the American military had built to connect four little islands in the bay. This photo is of the La Playita section of the causeway (the line near the water) The catamaran is in the La Playita anchorage. Culebra island is on the left, Flamenco Island on the right, the strip mall referenced later in this post are the low buildings along the causeway, and Panama City is in the background.

The entrance to the marina was hard to see at first, since the catamaran was blocking the view. But once we finally saw the entrance, we remembered it. The basin that houses La Playita Marina had existed back then – at that point it was a mooring field with a dinghy dock. During our short stay in Panama City, we’d dinghied in and out of that entrance several times.

The marina had never assigned us a slip, so at 0630 we pulled into the marina and slid into an open slip. A couple marina staff ran out — they didn’t say anything about needing to move to an assigned slip; they just helped us tie up and went back to what they’d been doing.

We quickly got Kosmos situated – lines adjusted so she was secure, power cables and water hose plugged in, and boat rinsed. Like the passage from Barra to Chiapas, there was a lot of caked on bird poop that would need serious scrubbing to remove, but that could wait until manana. 

We are happy to report that the marina water is potable and the salinity is low. One of the problems we’d had last time we were in Panama City was that the bay was unsuitable for making water, so if the marina water wasn’t good, we’d have issues.

The marina office wasn’t open yet, so after we took showers, we went out in search of food. After a full week of eating only small portions at a time (being too full can cause seasickness), all three of us desperate for a giant meal.  The marina was attached to a hotel. We figured the hotel’s restaurant would be open for breakfast. It wasn’t. Neither were the any other restaurants in the shopping center closest to the marina. We walked a few thousand feet over to the next shopping center (the one pictured above), which was huge and had lots of food places in it. None were open. Clearly, breakfast wasn’t a thing in Panama. 

We were sad that we’d failed to procure a big meal, but happy to have taken a nice long walk on land. It was now after 0900, so before going back to Kosmos, we went to the marina office to check-in. We let our agent know that we had arrived. 

Fifteen years ago, we’d waited until we’d arrived in Colon to hire an agent. This time, we’d hired an agent before we’d left San Diego, so all of our paperwork was done and ready to process upon arrival. We figured the agent would get it taken care of later today or tomorrow, so we were surprised when he said he was on his way to pick us up right then. We asked him to give us 20-minutes to eat some breakfast. We hurried back to Kosmos and quickly ate.

The agent’s assistant, Jose, loaded the three of us into his pickup truck and drove the opposite direction of what we’d expected. 15-years ago, the port captain and immigration offices were on the mainland. But Jose took us to a hotel located at the end of the causeway, a little over a mile from the La Playita Marina.

Both offices were located on the second floor, above the hotel lobby. While the offices themselves didn’t have views, just steps from their doors, the views were stunning.

The paperwork took about 30-minutes to process. It was now 1115. According to our phones, the only restaurant open near La Playita was called Sabroso Panama. We had Jose drop us off there.  

The restaurant was in the larger strip mall, on the second floor. Each area was decorated to look like a different part of Panama. There was a section that looked like a jungle, a section that looked like the historic European settlements, a section that represented the volcanic region, coffee region, etc. They also had interesting figurines dotting the restaurant.

We were seated on the balcony, where we had a view of Kosmos. 

A bird flew over and serenaded us for most of our meal. 

We are sad to report that the food wasn’t great. We were disappointed in the quality of meat, and we didn’t like the taste of the oil they’d fried the food in. And it was pricey, too. 

Neither Eric nor Christi had gotten much sleep, so after lunch, we went back to Kosmos for a long nap. We laid low until evening time, when we went to the closest restaurant, called Mi Ranchito, for dinner. We’d eaten there 15-years ago, and had recognized it as soon as we walked by it this morning. 

We’d gotten there at about 1700, and the restaurant was half-full. Within minutes of our sitting down, every table was full and there was a wait to be seated. The patrons looked like locals. Live music began as we were finishing up our meal, so we wondered if people had come out to hear the band. 

The Pacific side of Panama has 15-foot tide swings. Since the moon is nearly full, the tide swings are near the maximum