Las Perlas Islands
08 September 2004
Ronel
The Las Perlas Archipelago lies 38 miles to the south of the Panama Canal in the Bay of Panama. The seas are fairly clear and flat - perfect cruising grounds with the 225 islands all in close proximity to one another. It is the perfect place to hang out whilst waiting for the right time to sail to Galagapos islands.
The best cruising time for this area falls between the beginning of January and the middle of May - the driest months here. The prevailing wind is north, sometimes reaching 20 - 25 knots as it is doing tonight, hence my anchor watch and catching up on updates! The snorkelling is not too bad, fishing is great, but the beaches - they are divine.
Innumerable sandy beaches brilliantly reflect the sun and carpets of shells, orange and purple, cover the sand and from a distance off it looks like flower petals on the sand.
The islands are mostly uninhabited, although houses with fishermen and their families do scatter some shores. These local people still sell natural pearls, although we have been told the Perlas are pearled out. They do not bother the yachts and nobody selling or trading have knocked on the hull of our boat, yet.
Isla Contadora was our first stop. Isla Contadora has many beautiful houses belonging to wealthy Panamanians and they fly in over weekends from the mainland to spend time on the island.
Stinkpots, complete with a 2/3 crew entourage and all the toys, also flock to the island on Friday afternoons. The jetski's, dinghy's, water mattresses, floating water tables..as I said, all the toys, are unpacked for the enjoyment of the owner's and their guests. I have spent hours lying in the hammock on the front deck, watching the circus enfold in front of me! Fortunately they roar back to the mainland on Sunday afternoons and with them goes the constant sound of charging engines and generators and the sound of the sea and the sea birds return, for us to marvel in the beauty and splendour of the island.
The island are crisscrossed by tar roads leading to the airstrip and town with several shops and stalls, selling gifts, shoes and groceries that arrive weekly - all priced three times more than at the mainland.
Mooring buoys are conveniently placed on the north and south shores of the islands, I guess they belong to the owners of the stinkpots, but we picked one up during the week anyway. A new, well maintained play park with swings, slides and activity centre for kids, are the reason the girls prefer this island to the rest!
Isla Casaya has a natural lagoon between Isla Ampon and Isla Casayeta, but one has to negotiate a channel between two sets of rocky shoals and the entrance is not navigable during springs for the faint of heart! The bottom is sand and mud, the locals on Isla Casayeta sells natural pearls and cowries. Two beaches, one with a white, shell-strewn beach and the other colonised by a huge colony of pelicans are a short dinghy ride away. The anchorage on the south side of Isla Ampon as marked in the Panama Cruising Guide we used, was not appealing to us at all.
A good anchorage with excellent holding in sand on the east coast of Pedro Gonzales lies between Isletilla de Don Bernardo and a little islet with a white cross and steps leading up to it from the south side. The photo in the guide of the anchorage with it's pretty coconut palm lined beach, lured us into anchoring there, feverently hoping that there will be shelter against the pumping northerly. We were wrong and the wind and chop had me up doing anchor watch most of the night. This anchorage is for the other time of the year!
It was a spectacular dawn, full of promises for another exciting day as we motored away to another spot. The plan was to go to Isla Viveros, but as we motored down the channel into the anchorage, the rod went off, announcing it's catch in loud screeches! Mariska was the first at the rod and therefore her fish to bring in and it took all of my 10 year old's strength and patience to bring in a 8kg yellowfin tuna! We were so engrossed in bringing this fish safely onboard that we hardly noticed our friends on the catamaran, Willie Flippit, approaching us and we excitedly tried to communicate over the VHF whilst hauling in our catch that we are struggling, yes, but no thanks - we do not need any help (how is that for female liberation!). We eventually brought the fish on deck, but due to the size of it, way too much food for us, so we made an improptu decision to follow our friends on the catamaran to their new anchorage as they found the anchorage at Isla Viveros too rolly.
We followed them to isla bayonetta, uninhabited, very calm...heaven.
I have lots more to add to Las Perlas, but I am reaching my space limit, more about Perlas later!