Exploring the Former Ft. Sherman

On Wednesday, February 5, we decided to start the day off with a walk in the jungle. We took the road that led to the former officer’s housing, but this time, we turned at the intersection where the church was.

The paved portion of the street didn’t extend very far beyond the church. The pavement ended at shed which marked another intersection. Straight ahead was fenced, but the gate was open and we presumed there was a pathway behind the gate. We didn’t go in there.

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Lying Low at Shelter Bay Marina

On Sunday, February 1, we were extremely jet lagged and moved slowly all day. Since we were out of perishable food, we wanted to take the marina bus to town to go to the grocery store. While we were in San Diego, a rally of boats arrived that had crossed the Atlantic together. Between the rally boats, the Ocean Posse boats congregating here, and the boats that still hadn’t been able to leave due to continuing adverse weather, the marina was jam packed. The bus didn’t run on Sundays, and was already full for Monday. Sign-ups hadn’t started yet for Tuesday.  

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Flying Back to Panama and the Ocean Posse Party

On Saturday, January 25, we all woke up before 0600 PST, despite going to bed so late. Even though we were in San Diego for a week, our body clocks never fully adjusted to the time change, and we felt off-kilter all week. We mostly focused on taking care of “life chores,” the most exciting of which was getting Keith’s braces removed.

On Friday, January 31, we flew back to Panama via a red-eye through Miami. We had been warned that Panama will not allow people with a one-way plane ticket to fly into the country. Like many countries, they welcome tourists, but they want proof that the visitors don’t intend to overstay their welcome. We were told that we’d likely be forced to purchase a ticket back to the US prior to boarding the plane. 

Prior to leaving Panama, we’d gotten a letter from the marina stating that Kosmos was docked there. Eric attached it to our US Coast Guard vessel documentation showing that Eric and Christi owned Kosmos, along with a crew list with Keith on it. 

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Keith’s Perspective on Panama City/Shelter Bay Marina/Le point de vue de Keith sur Panama City/la marina de Shelter Bay

This week has been fun. On Saturday we went sightseeing, then went to the grocery store.

Pedro Miguel lock

Cette semaine était amusante. Samedi on a été faire du tourisme, puis nous sommes allés au supermarché. 

construction of tunnel to left, container port in the middle — just south of the Bridge of the Americas.

On Sunday we crossed the Panama Canal (see my other post for details). On Monday we went on a hike in the jungle with our friends, then we all had breakfast at the marina restaurant. Then we all went to the pool. After that our friends left. After that the craziest thing happened. We went up to the lounge to see if there were any kids there, and some of them were setting up a D&D campaign. Dad volunteered to DM, so I played D&D with them. 

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The Howler Monkeys and Gatun Bridge

On the morning of Wednesday, February 22, we went for another walk along the loop to the old officer’s housing. As we got closer to the abandoned barracks, we could hear the howler monkeys screaming, which sounded otherworldly. We found them near the entrance to the barracks. 

When we first walked up, the monkeys went silent and stopped moving. After a couple minutes of watching us watching them, a few of them resumed moving around through the trees. After a few more minutes, they started screaming again, and many more moved around. At the end of the video, Eric zoomed in on the monkeys, and you can see how small the monkeys are. It’s hard to believe such small creatures can make such loud, scary sounds. 

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