PHOTOS —>> Mainland Panama and back to San Blas islands
Our first stop along the coast of Panama was Linton Bay. This is a beautiful, large, bay where they are building a new marina. We spent 2 nights there and really liked the area. There is an island where monkeys live around an abandoned house. Near by is a small beach where we went swimming.
We also visited the new marina to get information in case we leave the boat there when we fly home. Meeting a number of the folk living there we feel it is definitely a great set up. We will be back.
Shelter Bay, Colon Panama
We came into Shelter Bay marina in Colon Panama. John had promised our 
Australian friends Lynne and Eric, on Amurula (a 60 foot catamaran that’s 3 stories high), to be a line handler for them through the Panama Canal. That meant that on the Wednesday just after we arrived he went on their boat, which was anchored in the Flats area off Colon. They started to transit the canal on 
the Thursday late afternoon. They went through a series 
of locks and rose upwards towards the Gatun Lake. They went along with massive ships some being bigger than any he’d ever see before. John reported that all he and the others did was hold the lines from the 4 corners of Amarula while she rose upwards. Then repeated 
this in each lock. He said it was really easy. They spent the night on Gatun Lake tied to a buoy. The pilot arrived at 10:00 the next day, (only 3 hours late), and they crossed the lake. The lake he said was very beautiful with just jungle at the sides and islands that again were just jungle. They could hear the howler monkeys. Gatun Lake is very beautiful with absolutely no inhabited areas as it is protected. Then they went down the locks on the other side to the Pacific Ocean. John said they had a really great time, total party the whole way, the company was great and the food and drink excellent.
Meanwhile I stayed at the marina with Chico. Oh it was fine; I took the free marina bus to the Albrook mall in Panama City one day. It is the largest mall in Central Americas, just massive, about a mile long, 2 lanes of it and 2 stories high. You can buy anything there. Other days I took the shopping bus to Cuatro Altro a small shopping plaza 
where I started stocking up with supplies.
Now a ride on the marina’s free bus to get to any type of shop, ATM or service takes over an hour and longer if the locks on the Panama Canal are open. Open means you wait for the ships to pass through.
Shelter Bay marina is the only one in or near Colon. There is nowhere else to leave the boat in safety. The marina is situated where the old Fort Sherman was located, where the Americans had their facilities in days gone by. They left and the area has become Shelter bay Marina in one part and the “Police/Army” inhabit and train in another section, the rest has started to return to the jungle. We enjoyed poking around, riding our bikes down the lanes in the forest and exploring.
The howler monkeys
scream like monsters in the jungle, we’ve seen spider monkeys and others, tons of different birds, beautiful large blue butterflies and animals like anteaters. It really is wild.
From the marina we had a few expeditions. The first was exploring the Kennedy Loop and the Battery area, that part of the old “fort” is being reclaimed by the jungle. It is very lovely walking under the shade of the trees with enormous blue butterflies, and others of various colours flying by, birds of every type in the trees and as said the howler monkeys growling/screaming in the not so distant foliage. We saw Capuchin or Spider monkeys in the trees above. They kept trying to climb into the branches above us, wondering why, I watched them over John and could see they were trying to pee on his head!
Our next walk we took was along the breakwater towards the entrance to the Panama Canal harbour/anchorage for ships. This breakwater is long as in a good mile and the rocks are not smooth traveling so I guess we got maybe a ¼ of the way across. The view was excellent and we got quite close to 
some vultures. These vultures are found everywhere in Panama. They seem to clean up after everyone and everything. They are large, black and I think quite handsome. After the breakwater we walked along the shoreline, which was at low tide. Again it was very enjoyable.
Another few explorations were on our bikes. One full day we rode down the lane
to San Lorenzo – the fort – at the mouth of the Rio Chadres. It was not as easy as it had looked getting there, as it was all a gradual uphill slog. Arriving at the fort we were really happy to find that it was well worth the effort. It is on cliffs above where the estuary of the river Chadres meeting the sea, the view was stunning and the breeze was divine after our ride.
The fort is the typical old Spanish colonial style, well what is left of it. We strolled around exploring the fort and down to the beach near the fort.
From the fort we rode our bikes following a long lane through the jungle to the Playa/beach. This beach was also at the mouth of a small river and again very scenic. There we had our picnic lunch and stretched our legs.
On we went to a supposed Prack battery, again left from 
the American base, but it was 
very odd as there was a man at the battery with a large gun and a dog, plus we could see others below the battery. We had a quick look round; decided we were not welcome and left, (the man, gun and dog followed us to the gate). Can only guess they were involved with some sort of smuggling, probably drugs. After we rode back, it was a ride of about 12 miles.
We went to the Free Zone one day, the biggest duty free area outside of Hong Kong, or so we were told. It seemed like the whole size of a city. Of course we didn’t buy anything, as it was too big to know what to get or where to start. Plus being in Colon you just do not feel safe. Just driving through a small part of Colon to get to the Free Zone, we saw terrible slums; it was not nice at all.
Panama is not what we expected. It is very undeveloped, more so even than Colombia. The only developed area seems to be around the canal, Colon and Panama City, like 3/4 of the country is National Park. The National Geographic Society and Smithsonian institute have stations and research ships in Panama, Rio Chadres and Gutan Lake. The country is just full of wildlife with hundreds of square miles of untouched, unpopulated, areas of national parkland.
We left Shelter Bay Marina after 2 weeks of getting nearly everything we needed, getting the fridge repaired, having several get-togethers and pot lucks with new and old friends, many rides on the free bus and doing all the necessary cleaning and laundry. Off we headed back to the San Blas Islands.
Portobello
Our first stop along the coast was Portobello. It was first founded in
1597 under the name of the City of San Felipe de Portobello and became one of the most important sites for the transfer of the riches from the Americas. In the bay at Portobello we spent 2 nights and really enjoyed the bay and village. It is a large bay with many other sailboats, but as it is large there is plenty of room. We anchored under the old fort on the northern end of the bay. Walking through the village we found quite good grocery stores, a very nice bakery and good 
restaurants. The ruins of the old San Felipe de Portobello is next to the village it is very old to say the least. The outer walls are still sort of standing but the sea 
is encroaching and reclaiming the area. The fort on the southern side of the bay is being restored. It was interesting to walk around and see all the canons facing out to sea. In fact in all the forts in the Portobello area there are 
at least a few dozen canons still facing out to sea. We visited the old church and saw the famous Black Jesus who was brought to Portobello hundreds of years ago and today is reputed to be responsible for miracles, hundreds come to pray to him.
We hiked to the top of the fort above the boat. This is a 3-layered fortification. The 1st being at sea level 
then up a steep incline is the second level and after a longer even steeper climb we found the top 
fortification that looks out over the whole bay. The view is just amazing. Once again we could hear the howler monkeys making off in the jungle around us 
and saw dozen of beautiful butterflies and all kinds of exotic birds. We watched the leaf cutter ants as they trudged along with massive leaves attached to their back. Their pathways are several inches wide. They are quite impressive insects.
Linton Bay
Leaving Portobello we decided to stop into Linton Bay to see if we could find a
cat sitter for Chico. Our plan was to visit Panamarina and some of the resident cruisers in this area. The visit to Panamarina proved to be well worth it.
The dingy passage through the mangroves was simply amazing. It was beautiful, full of birds and on 
the return monkeys! We had black and tan monkeys jumping all over the mangroves by our dingy. They were quite curious about us, stopped came closer and stared like we were aliens. Plus at Panamarina we were able to book the boat in and had the promise of someone to care for Chico while he is home alone on the boat.
In the end we stayed 2 nights in Linton Bay and had an excellent time. We explored the mangrove 
channels and found them to be exceptionally beautiful. Took a hike to the little village of Puerto Lindo met up with a friend from the past, John on Stingo and had drinks while trying to introduce our cats, that did not go down well with the cats. And we caught up with other friends from the marina there.
San Blas Islands: Lemmon Cays,
Our passage from Linton to Lemmon Cays was for me long and tedious. The 1st part being very close to the wind with a sea that was irregular and off the bow. In other words we were healing over and being slammed. However the second half of our passage went better and we arrived just before the evening able to make the outside passage in. We spent the night at Lemmon Cays and then moved along to:
Maoqui – Kaimou – Holandes Cays: between Acuakargana and Waisaidup
We headed to the fabled Holandes Cays, called Kaimou in Guna and Maoqui by the Colombian traders and anchored between Acuakargana and Waisaidup in the waterway that rushed between the two. It was absolutely beautiful! The water clear, clear, clear, just pristine! The two islands looked like a tropical paradise.
While there we walked around Waisaidup and found a few Gunas 
living there, probably to tend the huge coconut forest. The waters were all colours of turquoise with the shallows rolling ashore it was absolutely idyllic.
We snorkeled several times and found the reef excellent. There 
were magnificent corals of all types, schools of all different fish, eels in the rocks the reef was alive with life. 
The snorkeling was excellent! In the evenings we saw 
dolphin chasing the school of Jacks, which were chasing the Fry as pelicans swooped and plunged into the water. Chico was very entertained with the life around the boat. This is definitely an anchorage where we will return and spend more time.
We moved along the Holondes chain to an anchorage off of Miriadup where we were the only boat. This again was a wonderful setting with white sandy beach ahead of us, shallow reef to snorkel around us and an island to explore that’s uninhabited. The island is quite large and we enjoyed a great walk around half of its shores. The windward side was just smothered in one part with trash – mainly plastic, and driftwood. I liked looking for treasures and found several lovely shells and many sea beans.
The off shore reef had a large ship aground which we managed to get quite close to by following the sandy canals through the reef and grass banks. The ship actually looked to be a quite recent wreck and in calmer weather we thought we might manage to actually get on her, we will see.
The snorkeling again was excellent. John was intent on getting some large lobsters he had spotted while I was content to take shots with the gopro and look for shells. It was very enjoyable snorkeling. Again a place to visit again.
Our next anchorage was near an area called “The Swimming Pool” and near Barbeque Island. This is a more popular area and so busier with more traffic. However a very pretty area.
We walked around another island called Banedup and enjoyed swimming in the shallows. Our final anchorage was in the natural lagoon between Ukupsuit and Cabos Cays. It is a very sheltered location and again very beautiful with the turquoise waters of the lagoon. We could see a very odd looking wreck upon the reef and went to snorkel and find out what it was there. We found an extremely long, very large thick pipe. It must have been a good 5 inches thick, made of a rubber substance, at least 10 foot in diameter and maybe 400 feet long. We have no idea what the pipe was or how it landed where it did. That day we snorkeled the whole perimeter of the lagoon for exercise, as there was nothing to see but sea grass and sandy bottom.
Green Island and Nargana town
Being mindful that the weather was deteriorating, that we had not had wifi for some days and we needed supplies we moved to Green Island to be near Nargana. The Green Island anchorage again is one of the most popular and sure enough there were a good 3 dozen boats there.
We stayed and walked around the lovely island and swam in the shallows. Into Nargana we went for a night to get wifi and supplies. The town is not a traditional Guna settlement anymore. They have moved away from the Guna customs and adopted more “modern” ways, which do not seem to suit these peoples. We managed to get more or less what was needed and headed back to Green Island. The weather had deteriorated, the sky was gray, overcast the wind gusting to high 20 knots so it was time to do chores and catch up with everything.
