Its been a while since my last update. We left the San Blas on Feb 19 and stopped at Isla Grande. We had stopped there on our way to the San Blas last fall and we thought it looked kind of cool, so we wanted to check it out. The place did not meet our expectations. It is a tourist place where panamanians come for the weekend and we found that gringos were not overly welcome. Service was terrible and most of the locals not very friendly. I talked to our friends on Desdemona who were anchored at Portobelo, about 8 miles further west and Ana suggested we come on over. The problem was that we would be going by Panamarina and coming back would mean a trip against the wind and waves. But it was also James's birthday from Salange and they were having a party the next night, so we decided to go for it. Good move! We had a blast. We got a bunch of pizza's and went over to Captain Jacks for James's party. We were planning leaving the next day, but did not get away early enough and the wind started to pick up, so we stayed another night. Karen thought it would be a good idea to have everyone over to Five Islands for a farewell party and OMG what a party it was. Gerard from Saltwhistle had also arrived so we had a boat full. Gerard brought his guitar and entertained us for the evening. Ana and Jeff brought over a bottle of champagne that they have been saving for a special occasion. WHAT AN AWESOME EVENING. This last year of cruising has been our best year and a lot of that is due to the great people we met like Salange, Desdemona, Saltwhistle and of course our great friends on Better Days. This was by far our latest evening since cruising. The last person left at 3:45am!

Yesterday the 7 mile trip over to Panamarina was not all that bad and only took 2 1/2 hours. I only put up the main sail as I did not want to go to fast and pound harder into the waves. We are quite impressed with the place here and Jean-Paul and Sylvi are very nice. They are french and run a restaurant here so I can't wait to try some of the good french food! We are leaving for Panama City on Saturday and then leave for Peru on Monday. We are getting real excited about the new adventure. We got another email from Karen's sister and we are so glad that they really enjoyed their trip. It was great having them.