We were at Isla Parida, one of Panama's small western islands, anchored in Ensenada Catalina de Los Negros. We were all excited (well, Sean and I at least) to finally be back on a barely-inhabited island, a place we enjoyed the most while cruising the Sea of Cortez. In the tiny bay that we and Alaya had anchored in, I could see a small jungle resort (with no apparent guest) off our port rail and a small palapa hut deeper in the jungle off our stern. Sean and I had already launched our dinghy and went to shore, but were disappointed to see "no trespassing" signs a few yards off the beach. Two children, the only island people we had seen, ran down to the sign and stood as sentries, watching our every move. The water was churned up, so snorkeling wasn't an option.

Hoping for a better spot, Sean and I decided to do a scouting tour around part of the island to another potential anchorage. The water was choppy from the start and got worse as we proceeded. Sean was driving the dinghy and stuck close to shore to try for smoother water. We found a beautiful lagoon with a reef in the middle and lots of surge - not a good anchoring spot. A little further we saw large waves crashing 30 yards from shore between the island and a yet-smaller island. Sean said we could dinghy through it if we stuck closer to the yet-smaller island. I expressed my concerns. Sean said to hold on tight as he gunned the engine. We couldn't get the dinghy on a plane because we were going up hill the entire 10-minute passage through. It was one of the strangest things I have seen. How can water keep its form in a continual up-hill shape? I felt like we were in the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, where Johnny Dep has his Davy Jones Locker hallucinations. I kept waiting for a huge wave to break over the top of us. I didn't like it one bit and expressed my dissatisfaction to Sean. Once we made it out of the "danger zone", I looked around and it still felt like there was an up-hill direction ahead of us. Waves broke in the near distance on unseen reefs. Defeated, we turned back and agreed to go to a different island the next day.

The next island turned out to be the tropical paradise we were hoping for. Isla Jicaron is an uninhabited Panamanian island with several kinds of monkeys, beautiful birds, and insects that make loud sounds that made me think that they are actually bigger than the
birds. As with Isla Parida, there were no other boats anchored there.

I looked toward the pristine island. Only the pounding from the salt water kept the jungle back to reveal the narrow, long sliver of sand beach that lined the island. Clouds gathered near the peak of a deep green mountain in what seemed like the middle of the island. Even from our boat, we could hear the eerie cries of the howler monkeys and the high-pitched hum of the extra large insects.

We dinghyed to shore. Sean and I walked down the beach as the girls body-surfed in the waves. I wore the cruiser's first choice in footwear, flip-flops, and Sean wore the hiker's first choice in footwear, hiking shoes. As we walked, I noticed a spot where the jungle seemed to be less dense and thought I heard a stream. Sean went to explore, since he had the right shoes for the occasion. I waited a few minutes, got tired of waiting, and continued my stroll down the beach. But, being a good wife, I first noted where Sean had entered the jungle in case we had to go find him later.

I walked until I saw some white-faced monkeys in trees off the beach and near a stream. They made high-pitched shrieks to announce my arrival on their turf. Other areas along the beach had brown monkeys and the larger, howler monkeys. Bright-colored birds fluttered in the trees. We (yes, Sean found his way back to the beach) went back to the boat as the sun began to go down. It was a beautiful day.

The only down side of our anchorage was that we were fully exposed to the north and the first night a 15-knot Northerly hit us suddenly and dumped a bunch of rain on us. We ended up having to take down our sun shade canvas in the lighting, wind, and rain and found that we had lost 2 of its 6 poles.

After lunch the next day, we picked up Chase and Rachel from Alaya and headed back to shore for a beach hike. Sean proudly wore his hiking shoes and complained about our choice of footwear for the hike. But we knew there'd be lots of water, so we wore flip-flop/water sandals. When we got to shore, we waited for Sean to put on his hiking shoes and then headed off. Chase had a machete, so we gathered green coconuts to chop the tops off for drinks. At several points, Sean had to take his hiking shoes off and walk, with tender feet, across wet rocky areas. He'd fall behind, so we'd have to wait, watching him carrying his shoes and with his arms way from his body for balance, ever so slowly making progress. The girls reveled in the sight because he's always giving them a hard time about their flip-flops.

We found a large, round piece of wood that was stuck in the sand and decided it was probably the lid to a trunk that contained some sort of treasure. After digging a while with our hands and finding it was a giant wooden spool, we got hot and headed for the surf.

The warm water was crystal clear and formed large waves near the beach, perfect for body surfing. Tara is fearless in these body-surfing waters. She can go at it for hours and always gets scraped legs, feet, and arms. Today was no exception. It doesn't seem to bother her much, but the rest of us swim further away from her in case the sharks smell her blood.

After more walking and swimming, we headed back to our dinghy to help Chase get a fire started before going back to our boats. He had decided to spend the night on the island alone. He had matches, 3 potatoes, water, a machete, and a hammock.

That night, the squalls hit again and we got more rain and lightning, but less wind. Chase survived his night on the island unscathed, except for a hundred bug bites. Alaya was having engine trouble so instead of stopping at another island, we made a bee-line to Balboa Marina at the Panama Canal entrance. We'll provision here and do minor, but necessary repairs for the next 2 weeks. Then Sean's dad will arrive and we'll take him to the Perlas Islands in Panama Bay. The girls are excited to be back to civilization. Our provisions are running very low and our clothes are getting tattered, so Panama will be an expensive stop for us.