This morning Victor knocked on our door at 0730 to let us know the measurer was in the marina. Our boat was third in line, so he would definitely be to Kosmos before noon. Victor told us to be ready to go to town with him at 1300. Eric’s toe was throbbing. We suppose yesterday’s long walk wasn’t such a good idea with a broken toe.
The measurer arrived at 0945. His name is Carlos and he is a nice guy. He measured the Continue reading
Today we waited around for the boat measurer. Christi continued cleaning. Eric spent most of the day socializing, and Christi would join in now and again during cleaning breaks. At 1400, Victor told us if the measurer hadn’t come by now, he wasn’t coming today. Good, at least we could do something fun this afternoon.
At 1530, we went for a walk in the jungle surrounding the marina with Tom and Susan on the Nordhavn 40 from San Diego. Tom and Susan explained that the marina is situated in what used to be an American Navy base, Fort Sherman. The base was constructed in 1911 to protect the unfinished canal. It was abandoned in December 1999 along with all the other American military bases in Panama. The majority of the land that the base encompassed is undeveloped jungle, and it is was one of the primary military training centers for jungle combat training, particularly during the Vietnam era. When the Panamanians took over the land, they turned it into a nature preserve. Tom and Susan walk through the preserve often, and have sometimes seen Panamanian troops doing training exercises in the preserve.
We followed a walking trail behind the marina into the jungle. The trail runs up a gently sloping hill. The path is obviously frequently used, but it doesn’t look like anyone formally maintains it. On both sides of the path the plants tall, thick and dense.
As we were walking along, we were mesmerized by the giant leaf cutter ants. There are zillions of them marching in perfect lines around the trail, most carrying big pieces of leaves much larger than they are. These ants are actually farmers. They cultivate a Continue reading
Eric let Victor know we would use him as our agent as soon Victor’s work day started and gave him all the necessary paperwork. In the afternoon Victor showed up at the boat with 4 super long lines and 20 tires. The tires are used and cost $3.00 USD each to buy. The lines cost $100 USD each to rent, which we thought was a lot of money for a rental.
Victor said our measuring appointment was Continue reading
Panama is only 79,990 square kilometers big and has a population of 3.36 million people. It is located in Central America between Costa Rica and Colombia, and is the narrowest land point of the isthmus separating the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Many call Panama a land bridge connecting North and South Americas. We expected the history of such a young and small country to be short and simple. Not at all. Panama has an absolutely fascinating and complex saga. In the History of Kuna Yala, we touched on a few key historical events, but there is so much more.
As you may recall, Continue reading
We really would have liked to stay in the San Blas at least two more days to take part in the special events. Today on Carti Suitupo there are festivities for the biggest holiday of the year for the Kuna people, when they won their autonomy from Panama. Mr. G had invited us back for the last day of the puberty party, which is tomorrow, where the girl is unveiled in her newfound glory, with the shaved head, ring in her nose and her body painted. But we were out of time and really needed to get to the canal. We knew from the radio net that between the anticipated festivities and the not so great weather we have been having, not a lot of boats have headed to Colon lately, which means the canal wait is probably short. It sounds like a lot of boats would all be heading out in the next two or three days, when the forecast improves and the holiday is over. We were afraid that if we arrived in the middle of the glut, we’d get caught in a long canal line.
The trip to Colon would take about 13 hours total, an awkward number. Yesterday we had gone back and forth about the best strategy. Strategy one was to Continue reading