We have slowly been getting the boat ready for storage, cleaning out all of the lockers and going through all of our crap. Yesterday we were interupted by a huge downpour and we are told to expect more of the same. It did show some more leaks in the boat, so we will need to get those plugged before we leave. We are taking the day off today and heading in to Colon to check it out. So far we have not seen anything but the marina, so it is time to explore our surroundings. We are out of fresh fruit and veggies, so we do a bit of shopping.

Speaking of fruits and veggies - In Providencia the food was much better than Cuba, but because they lived in such isolation, the quality was not what we expect in North America. There are mango trees everywhere and we were just coming in to mango season. These trees had been planted, but you could easily find a tree where you could pick what you wanted. I am not that big of a fan, but Karen likes them. There were many different varieties and some of them were very sweet. They also eat green mangos, but I did not try them. There was also coconuts everywhere and you could just pick them up - Or climb the tree and knock them down. One day at Gato's house, Elida needed some coconut milk to cook the conch in, so Larkin went out and came back with a sack full of coconuts. The coconuts were in different stages. Some the meat was firm, but others the meat was still a jelly form. She took the ones that the meat was firm and blended it up with some coconut water and then strained out the liquid and used that for cooking the conch - it was great. They cracked open some of the jelly coconuts and you would scoop out the inside and eat it like that - it was pretty tasty too. But the thing we liked the most and they made a lot of different things with, was plantain. Most meals had some form of plantain as a side. Karen learnt how to make smashed plantain from Elida and made it the other night. You cut the plaintain into chunks and cook them in some oil of 8 - 10 minutes. Take them out of the pan and flatten the pieces making them into small discs - Then cook them again for a few minutes more. Sprinkle a little sea salt on them - delicious. They also make this thing with them called Patacon. They cut the plantain in half length wise and follow the same procedure as the smashed plantain, but you end up with a larger flattened piece which they then put a topping on - we tried cheese, chicken and crab. These were also excellent.