Wildlife and Life in and Around Bocas

PHOTO link—>> https://photos.app.goo.gl/XtCeZWpwzbDuufiK8

And we are off …. not

We decided to head out for a few weeks, possibly visit Bluefields and other favorite haunts. 1st stop was Saigon Bay to stock up with supplies and then we headed to Dolphin Bay via the Darklands.

The weather however had begun to deteriorate and our travels passing the Darklands was indeed quite dark. I imagine this area is referred to as the Darklands as it is shadowed by the mountains that tower behind.

It is an area with much deep jungle and indigenous Ngabe people living there. Very lovely, wild, quiet, and green are the best words to describe the area.

Arriving at Dolphin Bay we anchored at the far end near where we had anchored before, a tranquil, peaceful anchorage. That evening the clouds were definitely moving in and we knew rain was on its way. We could hear the howler monkeys in the jungle ashore and both remarked how wonderful it was to hear them once again.

By the morning it was even more obvious that the weather was closing in so we decided to head back to the Red Frog anchorage where we wouldn’t be stuck aboard but able to walk on our favorite trails.

On our way the heavens opened and we had the first very good rain for months.

Problems across Panama affect one and all

The whole area of Central America right across to the Amazon region has been suffering a terrible drought. The Panama Canal has cut back on the number of ships that can cross. There are talks of more cut backs too. Rain is desperately needed, months and months of rain.

One of our reasons for being out of the marina was to make our own water. The whole Red Frog resort, marina and other dependent enterprises are on water restrictions…the wells have run dry. However when it rains we can catch our own water.

Now with Star-link we needed more energy, battery power and to have that we need solar for the panels and or wind for the wind generator. However, with rain came clouds, thus no solar, plus there is always a lack of wind in this region. Therefore we needed to use our generator, but, John found the generator had problems. There was water in the carburetor, not good. John stripped everything down and cleaned all the parts, several times and it worked…..for an evening. The generator died again, John determined we needed to return to the marina for the power, also to get an order in for a new carburetor. Back we went into Red Frog Marina.

However all of this coincided with the national problems that were happening throughout Panama, the demonstrations and the stoppages. Basically the main issues in Panama centered around the Canadian mining company, First Quantum Minerals, Cobre mine. It is one of the world’s top 10 copper producers. It had been granted the right to further develop a huge area of virgin rainforest. To continue strip mining for copper for the next 20 odd years.

They already had stripped a massive area and it violated public procurement procedures, contradicted international environmental accords and broke a constitutional right to common wellbeing in Panama. The court is considering seven other suits against the mine deal.The population of Panama were disgusted as the government and President had granted this creed without consulting the population.

The population of Panama are most definitely opposed to this mining operation. The people’s unions have been blocking roads, stopping supplies, fuels, foods, absolutely everything from moving along the roads. The only transport left is by air that’s if you could get to an airport. Therefore nothing much has arrived in the Bocas area.

As of writing this it has been 30 days with the stoppages. Very little fuel is available, no propane, no fresh supplies, no chicken, eggs etc.

Meanwhile at the marina life has also deteriorated drastically. We are on restricted water supply, water for 4 hours a day, and the fees have gone way up not down. The main reason is that the folks behind the development of the resort are broke. They never kept up the maintenance of the sewage plant, plumbing etc up to standard and it has collapsed. They are said to be pumping the sewage into the sea, we were told, by the residents.

Meanwhile our marina IGY who lease the bit of land by the docks have no say, so we at the marina bear the burden. Now, why don’t we just leave? Well, we need to have a place to leave Aeeshah and Chico when we fly home in a week, so we are stuck. Meanwhile most other boats have left, even folks that had been there for years.

Walks, wildlife spotting and enjoying the jungle.

So, we enjoyed taking our walks with Yvette and Hungla. Each day we would look for wildlife.

On one walk we spotted a crocodile.

It was by the side of a pond/marshy area and swam right into the middle. It almost seemed like it was showing off.

On another walk John nearly stepped on a snake.

It was resting on a root and didn’t even twitch when it saw us. It was a red-bellied water snake from what I could find out online.

There were numerous bird sitings. The hawks and vultures were migrating to South America in what is called the Great Rapture migration.

It is typical for about two to three million birds of prey to fly through Panama, in what amounts to the world’s third-largest raptor migration.

Another afternoon we went for a refreshing swim along with Yvette, Koos and Hungla.

And of course we had Friday night get togethers at The Point.

Meanwhile we spent the week after getting back working on the dinghy, fixing leaks, patching the cover. John stripped the dinghy, hauled it onto the dock and worked on patching our few leaks.

I repaired the chaps aka the dinghy cover, by restitching and patching where necessary.

That done and no parts on the way, John had another go at the generator. Once again he got it running, so we decided to head back out to anchor, just in the Red Frog anchorage for now……