On Monday we began exploring the area near Rona Azul.
The lagoon it is located on has just a few "plantations" (or Gringo houses), and a few native homes around its shores. We had heard about one location with walking trails, and after a bit of exploring, we found the property. Its owner, Jim Jackson, died last year and it is still being maintained by a staff of four natives. Ashore we walked miles of paths through the rain forest past banana groves, bamboo trees and pineapple growing wild. We walked for miles, and at one point found ourselves going in a circle in the mangroves, but quickly found our way back. Its a beautiful spot but with an uncertain future... one mans dream out here in the wilderness.
Late afternoon found us with a fresh wind blowing us on a lee shore, so we decided to re-locate and motored a mile up the lagoon to where we found a protected anchorage among the mangroves for a quiet night.
Next day (yesterday), we motored (no wind in this corner of Panama) three miles over to Laguna Porras where we anchored off Green Acres, home of David and Linda Cerutti. We met David at the restaurant Rona Azul Sunday afternoon and he invited us to visit his property where he has a small hobby chocolate plantation.
Ashore we met Linda and they took us on a tour of their beautiful property. They arrived in Bocas 12 years ago, the second of two cruising boats to visit the area that year, and fell in love with it, quickly buying 30 acres of land where they began to settle. They have built a beautiful home with acres of tropical gardens (pictures to be posted as soon as we find a good internet connection) and cacao plants. We saw the cacao plants with the fruit containing the cacao beans hanging heavy on the branches and visited his "processing plant", a shed with a couple of solar panels, a few batterys and his home made processing equipment.
There are a couple of other homes in the area, all nowhere near the electric utility, so all have their own electrical systems, a combination of solar and small generators. At the end of the day, after a two hour tour, David showed us some of his chocolate ready for market. He sells it to shops in Bocas where it is used to make chocolate drinks, ice cream and bars. We couldn't resist, so came away with a 1 pound bar.
Evening saw us sitting on Seabird for cocktails in the quiet of the dusk, the quiet only disturbed by a flock of squabbling parrots overhead, and as night descended, the roars of the howler monkeys. Dinner of baby back ribs with a nice cabernet then a quiet night.