Category Archives: Wildlife

Going to Shopping Centers and The Secret Beach

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The sunrise on Sunday February 9 almost looked like there was a fire in the sky that was giving off a lot of smoke. 

Sunday was another quiet day. In the morning, Eric got dinghy down. He went for a ride around the marina, looking for crocodiles, but didn’t see any. He wanted to go out to the anchorage, but it was too windy. With the dinghy down, he turned on the wind generator to make sure it was still working properly. He ran it all day on Sunday and Monday and was pleased that it was working fine.

Some of the cruisers had talked about a secret beach behind the boat yard. On Sunday, Christi decided to look for it. She saw a trail along one of the fences. 

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Keith’s Perspective on Our Trip to San Diego and Return to Shelter Bay Marina/Le point de vue de Keith sur notre voyage à San Diego et notre retour à Shelter Bay Marina

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San Diego was really fun. I got my braces off, and we visited friends and family. It was weird being back in San Diego, especially the part where we couldn’t go to the boat. We took a red eye back to Panama on Friday (we got here on Saturday). 

Moments after the braces were removed.

San Diego était tres amusant. J’ai enlevé mes bagues, et nous avons rendu visite à des amis et à la famille. C’était étrange d’être de retour à San Diego, surtout la parti où on ne pouvait pas aller au bateau. On a pris un vol de nuit pour retourner au Panama le vendredi (on est arrivé Samedi). 

Dutch Pancake at the Original Pancake House
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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

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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

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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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Exploring the Jungle/Ruins of Ft. Sherman

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Sunrise on Monday, January 20, taken from Mike and Kim’s hotel room:

Shelter Marina Bay is situated on the western side of the Panama Canal in what used to be an American military base called Fort Sherman. The City of Colon is on the eastern side of the canal. 

Fort Sherman was constructed in 1911 to be the primary defensive base for the Caribbean sector of the Canal. It was 23,100 acres (93 km2). Only about half of the land was developed; the other half remained jungle. Ft. Sherman was one of the primary military training centers for jungle combat training, particularly during the Vietnam era. It was abandoned in December 1999 along with all the other American military bases in Panama. The Panamanian government turned the undeveloped jungle into the San Lorenzo National Park and deemed the developed portions as protected lands. 

On Monday morning we were all up early to go for a walk in the jungle to see some of the ruins from the Ft. Sherman days, and hopefully, some jungle animals. As we were getting ready to go, our friend Teal stopped by to welcome us to the marina. It was wonderful to see him again!

Just outside the entrance to the marina, there was a fork with three roads. We took the road to the right, which we knew would lead us to what used to be the officer’s housing. 

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