Greetings and sorry for the delayed postings but truth be told, the other night I wrote the entire blog update and just before I was ready to post it, my browser froze and closed itself down and I was too tired to start all over.
So to get back to Panama City (we are on a vehicle ferry as I write, heading the the islands of Bocas del Toro) besides the back to back meetings and re-meetings, we made on attempt to get to the Pearl Islands last weekend in a twin aircraft but shortly after take off the weather got so wild that we had to turn back.
At one time the up and down draughts were so intense that when we tried to go down to avoid another plane in the clouds, the strong up draughts were preventing it – though it was a little intense, it was a bunch of fun.
The next day it was decided to rather fly in and back on one of the commercial small planes (an old twin otter) and have a boat meet us to take us to the various islands and sites we were to look at.
The flight over went well and we had to take cover as we landed because it was pouring with rain.
We waited for a break in the weather before piling in a lake boat (Boston Whaler) with a total of 5 passengers on board and headed to the islands with excitement to see the islands.
Not long after departing it became apparent that this was not going to be a joy ride as the boat started pounding the swells with jaw jarring intensity – if this was not enough Angelika and I were asked to move forward to shift the weight forward and stood holding on for dear life doing the “Boston Shuffle”.
Before we could reach destination, the sea was getting so rough that we all started to raise the white flag of surrender and had to turn around.
No one was sorry about this so we headed back but diverted to two islands to visit two amazing island sites that we evaluated.
Strangely on the latter site my old instincts kicked in when I found tracks and saw vultures that led to the discovery of two poached turtles of which one had been totally slaughtered and removed, the other was quite small and was left behind.
Coming back to Panama City in the evening was another beast as the ocean was really cooking, it was getting late, the rain was almost constant and it was an almost a 2 hour rodeo ride.
We got in at last light sopping wet and cold to the bone and ready to have a hot shower and to just be on terra firma.
A few meetings later found us leaving early on Wednesday morning with our friend Nigel, pointing us in the right direction towards Boquete in the NW Mountains – ‘Elsie’ seemed to be happy on the open road again and rearing to go so rode all day getting into the mountains in the late afternoon, having traveled through lots of rain through the day.
The wipers are still shaky but are holding their own but when we got close to Boquete, the heavens seemed to open up and the wipers were no competition to the incessant rain.
Tired and ready to relax we found a cabin with hot water and extra blankets for the bed – yes it was frigging cold!
That night it rained so much that we thought it would be prudent to first check if we had grown webbed feet by the time we got up.
No such luck (cuz it would be handy to have webbed feet when we get to go snorkeling) but we did get up early have a quick breakfast and were ready to hit the road towards Bocas Del Toro Islands and the
Getting off the mountain was a challenge with the constant rain, poor visibility and numerous mudslides we encountered along the way, not to mention that the road was mainly a series of steep turns and switchbacks.
Once on the other side of the watershed, the weather cleared up but the wind kicked up and was pushing us all ov er the road in our already top heavy ‘Elsie’.
We made the town of
So we took ‘Elsie’ to sea for the first time and did a cool crossing to Bocas Del Toro where we find ourselves this tranquil Friday night in the tropics.
We expect to be leaving Bocas by ferry on Monday afternoon and head towards Port Limon in
Wishing all of you a spectacular weekend.
Paul & Angelika
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