Ron
07/14/2009, Panama

Before we left St. Thomas, we were intending to spend about 4 weeks in these islands. This archipelago is made up of over 340 islands and stretches for over 100 miles along the Panamanian Coast from the border with Colombia to about 50 miles from the Panama Canal. All the islands are very low and are covered with palm trees. Along the mainland is untouched virginal rainforest. Since we got a later start from St. Thomas than planned and got held up for a while in Curacao, we decided to cover the northern-most one third and most popular islands. There are outlying reefs protecting the island groups that have huge crashing breakers and many wrecks on them. Once inside, all the passages between islands are short day hops but require careful navigation between and among the numerous reefs. (Hurray for GPS and a good cruising guide book. I also was given software for a computer map program from another cruiser and got a small hockeypuck size GPS that plugs into the computer - it's pretty cool)

I think I mentioned before that this is my third trip here. Once on my way to St. Thomas from the west coast in the early 80's and a short stop with Steve Van Arsdale on "Sassy" in 1992. In the early days it was "eyeball navigation" and depth sounders which worked fine if there was sun overhead or you could get a sounder reading. The depths between islands are over 100 feet then shallow abruptly without much warning. We covered the area from Rio Diablo on the southeast coast to Punta San Blas. Our favorite spots included the Coco Bandero, Holandes and Lemon Cays. Each have great protected anchorages (some better than others) which are deeper than we are used to in the Virgin Islands. Here we often anchored in 30+ feet of water with up to 200 feet of chain out. If you anchor in shallower water you'd end up on the beach when the wind shifts - which happened everyday. It also seemed to shift whenever we were moving between islands so we were always going into the wind, no matter which direction we were headed that day. At least the winds were almost always light - 10-12 knots max.

The main differences from my previous visits were: first, the number of boats. As Carol mentioned there are a lot of cruisers that seem to be based here full time and many more passing through. Up until the late 1990's the area's principal currency was the coconut, which was traded to Colombians for fruit, clothing, canned goods, coffee, rice, batteries, etc. Now the "mola" (their embroidered artwork) is their main export and they take U.S. dollars for them and fish, lobster, etc. that they sell. Also a few islands have some (but very limited) food goods for sale - eggs, canned goods, onions, etc. There are cell phones here - we even had two teenage girls come out to our boat in a dugout and ask if we could charge their cell phone as there was no electricity on their island! They were in shorts and bathing suit tops which was unheard of earlier as all the women wore the more traditional Kuna dress. This traditional dress is still quite prevalent but there are many who no longer wear it. Some islands are more traditional than others. Often whenever we'd get our anchor down we'd be approached by Kunas in dugouts (some with outboards) selling molas, jewelry and other currios or fishermen selling fish, lobster, crab (one group offered us a turtle which is illegal - we told them to throw it back in). We did buy some molas and some lobster ($5 for 5 lobster) but couldn't buy something from everyone. Some got quite indignant when we wouldn't buy from them. Apparently now you can call on the cell phone and have fuel delivered to your boat at the outer anchorages. We heard there is a vegetable boat that makes the rounds, but we never saw it. You can also call for a launch to take you from an outer anchorage to one of the islands with an airstrip and fly to Panama City for health care, shopping, or connecting flights. Some of the cruisers leave their boats to be watched by neighbors and fly off for a month at a time. Progress, I guess. All in all it was very enjoyable, but now we were looking forward to new places.

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Carol
07/13/2009, E. Holandes & E. Lemon Cays, Panama

Our first morning in San Blas we listened to the Single Side Band Radio and the Panama Connection Net (8:30 every morning). The net controller was right here in the E. Holandes and we learned plenty of information from the cruisers on the net, i.e., customs and immigration hours in Porvenir, a restaurant in El Tigre, and a 5:00 Happy Hour at BBQ Island tonight in our anchorage. Everyone brought an appetizer (finger food), books and DVD's to trade and your own beverage. The island is maintained by the cruisers and was gorgeous! (see picture) The lawn was almost manicured with the ever-present palm trees, white sandy beach for the dinghies plus a grass palapa and picnic table. We had so much fun meeting and talking with everyone. There are so many people who have been here for years - quite a community of ex-pats.

Our next Happy Hour was in the East Lemon Cays at Banadup Island. This island is owned by Mr. G (a Kuna) and he has a small store, a bathroom (a grass hut on stilts over the water), happy hours with $.75 beer, fish fries and pizza parties. We dinghied over on a Friday fish fry night ($5.00 includes one beer) and tied up to the ricketty dock next to the "bathroom". We met Mr. G's family and cruisers, some who had been in E. Lemon Cays for over 2 years. The fish was finally ready and served buffet style with rice and a cabbage salad. There was such a good turnout, one of the cruisers had to go get more silverware.

The social life is quite active in the San Blas Islands as happy hours and parties are announced on the Panama Connection Net and most of the islands are only an hour sail away.

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Carol
07/12/2009, San Blas Islands, Panama

(Well, we just accessed the internet after 18 days, so we're trying to catch up with our sailblogs.) We finally got some wind after leaving the Rosarios and put up all our sails. We haven't used the main since May 26th! Either too much or not enough wind. The wind and seas picked up and we had a terrible first night of sleep off watch. the next day we had a pod of dolphins follow us for over an hour. One dolphin flipped in the air three times. Our last night at sea was rough with squalls, swells, lightning and thunder. We were so ready to get to the San Blas Islands the next morning. The Kuna Indians who inhabit these beautiful islands prefer to call them "Kuna Yala". Our first landfall was the Eastern Holandes Cays (I kept thinking about eggs benedict). These islands are gorgeous - white sand beaches, beautiful palm trees and clear water (just like the Virgin Islands). I couldn't stop taking pictures. I was afraid my camera would explode after my 100th "perfect picture". As we anchored in 25 feet of water off Ogoppiriadup, a Kuna Indian paddled out in his dugout and collected $5.00 for anchoring in the Holandes for a month.

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Carol
07/08/2009, Colombia

As we cruised out of the Cartagena harbor and crossed over the wall at Boca Grande, we left behind muggy, hot, cloudy air heavy with rain and thunder to blue skies, blue water and the cool breeze of the open ocean. Of course the wind was coming from the Rosarios, so it took us longer than we thought to get to the anchorage. Luckily we bought a chart from John the dockmaster at Club Nautico and we were able to line up the radio tower with the first set of channel markers. Following the second set of channel markers and around the stick, we anchored in 15 feet of water. It was beautiful, quiet and we were the only boat. The Rosarios are a Colombian National Park so we saw many boats with tourists snorkeling the reefs and several large houses with docks which we thought were hotels and/or vacation homes (see picture). We decided to take an extra day here to regroup: laundry, engine check (cleaned and replaced diesel filter), made water and cleaned the bottom of the boat. There were so many barnacles just from being in the Cartagena harbor for a week. We waited til noon the next day for wind to leave for the San Blas Islands, our first destination in Panama.

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Carol
07/07/2009, Manga, Cartagena

As Ron mentioned, the Club Nautico has been taking care of the cruiser's basic needs for over 17 years - from dinghy dock to free water. John, the Dock Master, mentioned that they were planning on remodeling, but we were surprised to see (the day after we arrived) them tearing down solid concrete walls with a sledge hammer. Of course, this included the showers I was planning on using. They left the bar, restaurant, office and seating area covered in a huge awning adjacent to the dinghy dock. The agent who cleared us in has a table there and is working on clearing us out for tomorrow, July 8th. We're going sightseeing today (with the new camera) and will finish our sailblogs before we leave.

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Carol
07/07/2009, Cartagena, Colombia

The picture is of Castillo de San Felipe, in the historical old town. The city of Cartagena is so picturesque with it's parks, fountains, cathedrals, castles, forts, statues and gorgeous homes. We've been walking everywhere, but the taxis are so cheap, we take them when our feet get tired. All the drivers are crazier than anywhere we've ever been. They cut in front of each other, squeeze four cars onto a one lane road, and all this with motorcycles weaving between cars, taxis and buses. We did most of our shopping at the Caribe Plaza, a huge air-conditioned mall complete with a comparable Home Depot, WalMart, food court, shops, fountains and even an elevator to the garage level. We were back in the old town taking pictures of a plaza full of metal sculptures when it started raining. It had been very hot and muggy since we arrived, but now it poured. The water started running down the streets like rivers and then overflowing the curbs towards the street vendors who took cover. We were lucky to get a taxi and escape while we could. This is the rainy season, so I guess this was a sneak preview.

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