Category Archives: Activities

Things we have done during our travels.

Getting Ready to Depart Panama

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Sunrise on Sunday February 23

When we arrived in Shelter Bay Marina on January 19th, we’d expected to move on in the first few days of February. However, the weather has been uncooperative, so we’ve stayed about 3-weeks longer than anticipated. We were happy to see that the weather was finally cooperating and we could leave on Tuesday in the very early morning.

The majority of Sunday was spent getting Kosmos ready to go to sea. Since we’d been at Shelter Bay so long, we’d unpacked a lot of items from the assorted deep, difficult to access storage spaces. Getting it all put away was a Jenga game, as everything needed to be carefully packed so it wouldn’t shift when the boat was rocking. 

Eric also led a kids’ D & D session. In the evening, Christi and Eric went for a walk in the jungle, following the road to Gatun Bridge for about 3/4 mile, until we got to a small bridge over a stream. Unfortunately, there was no walkway for part of the bridge, and being a blind curve, we decided it best to not walk in the road. We turned around and went back to the marina. The expanse between the T-intersection and the bridge where we turned around was mostly jungle. 

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Keith’s Perspective on Site Seeing in Panama/Le point de vue de Keith sur les visites touristiques au Panama

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This week it feels like not a lot of stuff happened, even though a lot of stuff happened. On Saturday, a bird pooped on mom’s arm. After that we got on the bus and went to a really good pizza place. We had gelato for desert. On Sunday, I did D&D, but one of my friends was DMing. He made his own version of D&D (which isn’t really D&D because it made no sense). On Monday, I convinced my friend to have dad DM. In the evening we did Civ VI. 

Gelato in the suburbs of Colon

On ne dirait que rien ne s’est passé cette semaine mais beaucoup de choses se sont passées. Samedi un oiseau a fait caca sur le bras de maman. Après ça on a pris le bus et on a mangé à une très bonne pizzeria. On a mangé une glace pour le dessert. Dimanche, j’ai joué à Donjons Et Dragons, mais un de mes ami était le Maitre Du Donjon. Il a fait sa propre édition de Donjons Et Dragons, mais c’était pas vraiment du Donjons Et Dragons parce que ça ne faisait pas de sens. Lundi, J’ai convaincu mon ami de laisser Papa être le maitre du donjon. Le soir, papa, nos amis et moi avons joué à Civ VI. 

Coffee and smoothies in Panama City
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Portobelo, Colon Province, Panama

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Thanks to cloud cover, the sun itself was not visible on Wednesday, February 19, but it was still a colorful sunrise.

We decided to keep the car for another day to go to the town of Portobelo, which was about 80 km (50 miles) away from the marina. Portobelo was a small town with a nice bay and protected anchorage that was popular with the cruisers. It was a pivotal part of Spain’s colonial rule, so it was historically significant. Since we wouldn’t be going to Portobelo by boat, we thought it would be fun to go by car. 

On our way out of Ft. Sherman, we decided to make a quick stop at the public beach. Since we’d driven by it so many times, we felt like we should at least stop and see it up close. It was a man-made beach, south of the Coast Guard base, along the road to the bridge. It was usually packed on the weekends. The US military had put in, and it was lined with more of the same housing structures that we’d seen at the loop… except these were in much worse shape. 

We parked in the small parking lot and ventured in. Maybe it was the gloomy weather, but the beach felt sad. There were dilapidated buildings, sunken ships and a lot of trash strewn around. Someone had put up a series of palapas, but most of them had fallen apart into hunks of debris that added to the trash.

Taken from the south end of the beach, looking north. The buildings at the tip of the peninsula are the coast guard base
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Keith’s Perspective on Sites Around Ft. Sherman/Le point de vue de Keith sur les sites autour de Fort Sherman

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This week has been interesting. Saturday we went to an old Spanish fort. It was destroyed and rebuilt three times! It was really hot that day, and I wanted to go back pretty soon. 

Tree with a giant branch at the fort

Cette semaine était intéressante. Samedi on a vu un ancien chateau fort espagnol. Il a été cassé et re-construit trois fois! Il faisait très chaud ce jour là, et je voulais rentrer très vite.

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