Back in Bocas
16 April 2011 | Bocas del Toro, Panama
Weather...Hot!
Green Frog
It's been quite a while since I have done a blog entry, but it's not because nothing has been happening. In fact, it's the opposite. We've been busy. Sarah arrived on March 26th for a week and we had a busy time of it. We explored new areas, restaurants and generally had a great time in excellent weather.
We stocked up in Bocas and headed out to explore. We watched the dugout boat races at Bastiementos , ran down to Bahia Honda for the night, then through The Gap, a beautiful passageway winding through mangroves separating Bastimentos Island from Cayo Nancy. Then we ran down to Crab Cay Cut and out to the Zapatillos Cays where we snorkeled in the coral and wandered the beautiful beaches. Between trips to Bocas for supplies (and restaurants), and back out exploring the Cays and mangrove channels, the week flew by.
On Saturday, we motored into Bocas Marina where we left the boat and headed for town. Closing up the boat for a week (blue job) is not a big job, but it was enough to keep me occupied for the afternoon while Jeannie and Sarah went for a bike ride to the beach (pink job).
We decided to check into a hotel for the night And found ourselves very comfortably settled in a two room suite in the Palmya Royale overlooking the water. Bocas marina is accessible from town only by water, so with an 8:00 am flight, we decided it would be better to be in town for the night. Also we wouldn't have to worry about the no-seems for which the marina is famous. For Sarah's last night we headed for The Casbah, a favorite of ours. With Bruce and Nancy we had a great evening.
In the morning all three of us headed out, Jeannie and Sarah to Vancouver and I headed to PEI (tax time :*&^%&;@).
Returning the following Wednesday, Jeannie and I met in Panama City where we spent two nights exploring this exciting city. I have mixed feelings about it. It is a booming city of 1.5 million with construction of high-rise offices and condos at a break-neck pace and the restoration of the old city creating a beautiful sector. But it is an urban planners nightmare. Construction seems to be taking place with no overall plan. Sidewalks begin and end with no apparent reason, and with absolutely no thought for pedestrians. Crossing six lanes of traffic required courage and speed!
We also took a trip to the Milaflores Locks of the Panama Canal. There is a visitors center with an excellent history of the locks and we watche ships passing through the lock down to the Pacific. Completed in 1917, it is truly an engineering marvel. At the peak of construction it employed 75,000 workers. Today it still employs 9,000 and sees 17,000 ships pass through annually.
Back to our hotel where we met up with a couple from New Zeland who we had chatted with at breakfast together headed out to the Old City for beautiful evening with dinner under the stars.
Friday, we made it back to the boat and restocked for a couple more weeks of cruising and some exploring of the nearby mountains, then lay the boat up for the summer.