i know. it's been awhile since i've talked to you. we didn't think it would be this hard to keep up with the blog, but we can only do it when the internet is working, and being 3rd world countries, it doesn't always happen. since curacao we've been to cartegena, columbia, through the beautiful san blahs islands, and spent 2 months in colon, panama. we transited the panama canal saturday night and sunday (it takes an overnight going from the atlantic to the pacific). we arrived in balboa yesterday afternoon after a wonderful trip. the photo is of the final lock gate opening into the pacific.

we plan to stay here just long enough to do final provisioning before we leave for the las perlas island for a few days, then the galapagos islands for about 10 days, then on to the marquezas and a bunch of islands until we arrive in new zealand in november.

i will work on sending you some photos now, and getting one more blog out, before we leave, since we don't know if we'll have any internet access along the way.

stay tuned.