Most everyone's notion of an ideal paradise conjures up images of crystal clear warm & turquoise waters, coral gardens, white sandy beaches and palm trees swaying in the gentle breeze. Well, happily we have all that and all we're missing are the exotic cocktails with those little colourful umbrellas and the waiter who serves them! Believe me, I'm not complaining.

We sailed back to the San Blas region of Kuna Yala Panama, heavenly tropical islands we had visited several times previously. This is to be our farewell trip for, once we transit the canal, these very special gems will be forever left behind us. It's amazing just how many cruising boats there are in this region compared to three years ago. Possibly troubles in Venezuela are causing cruisers to avoid the beautiful offshore islands there and head this way instead. I would guess that the numbers have, at least, quadrupled which is causing changes to the Kuna's traditional way of life, not always a positive factor.

Our ever so busy days have been spent enjoying snorkeling, fishing, get-togethers & socialising and, not forgetting, volleyball, bocci ball, yoga and Qi Gong on the beaches under those swaying coconut palms. Of course, that's not to say it was entirely all fun & games: we also had the continual boat maintenance issues as well as the task of sewing our new boat canopy. This has proven to be quite a large and complicated project and, at the time of writing, is still not 100% complete but we're getting there. My new sewing machine is proving to be worth its weight in gold and handles the task admirably.

We have met up with numerous old friends and are thrilled that we'll know so many cruising yachts who, like us, will be heading through the canal shortly. Sadly, some will not be leaving the Caribbean so it was fond farewells to them: Argo, our Bonaire diving buddies who, along with Sapphire, were fabulous snorkeling buddies as well. We seem to have shared experiences with them for years and will certainly miss them.

We, along with any other nationality who needed an excuse, celebrated the American Thanksgiving while at the East Lemmon Cays with a pig roast and rubber 'duckie' races (the bath tub variety - great fun), Christmas at the 'Swimming Pool' in the eastern Holandes with a hilarious gift exchange and New Year's Eve under an incredible full moon. A perfect start to the New Year.

A couple of days before Christmas, our friends Otto & Lil aboard Vagabond dropped their hook right beside us in our anchorage. Vagabond had left our home port in South Africa about a year and a half after us and we last saw them in Trinidad, at which stage, we headed off into different directions so it was a great to catch up with each other again. They will also be heading westwards on a similar schedule to Calypso.

Our trip down from Bocas del Toro in October brought with it continual alternator problems. This has now been temporarily resolved as we had, fortunately, ordered a spare which Argo brought down from Bocas for us when it hadn't arrived on time. Maintenance issues manage to stick to us like the proverbial tick and our current problems include a dead wind charger and a problematic water maker both of which will have to await our arrival in Panama City where, hopefully, we'll find the necessary parts to get things going again. We had a couple of parts for the wind charger sent to us care of the post office in the Kuna village of Nargana, only to discover that it is closed for a month while trying to find someone to work there! What can one say! The year 2009 certainly will go down as a year which showered us with things going wrong. 2010 WILL be better!

As I continue writing this, we have just arrived back in Puerto Lindo where we'll collect some of our belongings we managed to shed for a while, say farewell to Roger & Binnie, the couple we stayed with for a time and, of course, a final farewell to the sloths - how I wish we could take one away with us.

When we logged onto our emails yesterday for the first time in quite a few months, there were so many messages awaiting us from friends far and wide. Our time with internet facilities will be so short that we're simply unable to answer each one personally at the moment, however, please don't stop writing, we love hearing from you and we'll try to catch up as time moves on. We never even had the opportunity to send out Christmas and New Year wishes to all so please accept this as our very late, but sincere best wishes for all good things in 2010.

Calypso will shortly move on up to Colon for the canal transit arrangements which involves measuring, obtaining line handlers, tires for fenders and the necessary ropes. We're certainly looking forward to the experience of transiting with our own boat, perhaps with a just a tad of trepidation thrown in.
So, if all goes according to plan, our next blog entry should be from the Pacific side.