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ESCAPE FROM COLON
Tina sent a guy to help us and he arrived at the boat about 11:00. We were planning to get out of here by noon so time was running short for our schedule. Larry asked him how long it would take and he said a few hours. Larry asked if another $20 would make it faster. He said he’d try but everyone takes siesta for lunch about this time. He’d see what he could do. We told him we needed to leave at least by 1:00. The hysterical woman with the long hair came by again with her son and asked if we were still going. I said “Definitely!” I tried to cut the conversation short with her because I didn’t want to be influenced by all the bad stories she and her son were telling me. I had myself so geared up to go no matter what and I didn’t want her getting me nervous again. Her last words again were, “We’ll try and save the dock space for you!” Tina’s guy was back much sooner than I expected. I asked him how he got everything done so quickly, and he smiled and held up the cell phone. I guess he interrupted everyone from their lunches to clear us out but it was going to cost Larry another $20. That was fine with us as we were desperate to get out of this place. It wasn’t a few minutes later and we had the lines untied and were heading out of this place. It was hard to tell how the weather was at the docks because you were protected from the winds and swells. Once we came around the channel to the “flats” we could see that the conditions were much better. Again, Dave called Cristobel to let them know we were going into the canal channel and out through the breakwater. This time the waves weren’t breaking over the breakwater. We edged ourselves out and it was not anything like the other day. There were some huge swells and they seem to come from several directions. This is probably because of the shelf beneath us that is shallow and as the waves come from the deeper water to the shallow, it creates chaos. I held on with white knuckles ready for anything. Larry kept saying over and over, “It’s not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.” After about the third time he said that I said, “Quit it or you are going to jinx us!” Once we got farther out past all the freighters that were anchored and waiting for their turn to go through the canal, it got calmer and calmer. We were also correct in that our direction to the west was much easier than if we were heading north to Isla San Andres. The swells were coming on our port hindquarter and we could deal with that. As the day went on, I was totally relaxed, and had to think about the craziness that went on in that place called Colon. The woman and son that said they’d save the dock space for us hailed us on the radio about an hour out and asked how it was going. We told them fine and said we would probably see them somewhere on long the way, in the next few weeks. They said goodbye but there was a sense of disappointment that we were leaving and they weren’t I think. I don’t know if that’s true but maybe they were wishing we'd have to turn around and come back. Somehow I can understand how it makes it worse for them when they stay and see someone else leave. The rest of the cruise was non descript. I did watch from about 4:30 to 9:00 that evening hoping that that would give Dave and Larry enough rest to do the night watch. Larry woke me at 3:00 AM, but I’m ashamed to say I told him I was too tired to do the 3:00 shift. I’m really not cut out for these trips when we are short handed. I think the stress of the last few days did me in also. BOCAS DEL TORO
There were several people on the dock waiting to help us into the slip. Ricardo by now was on the dock and Bill the dock manager and a few other cruisers all helped. I was so thrilled to be here and the place was beautiful. New concrete docks, plenty of power, showers, laundry, an open-air bar, marina office, grass and lawn, and friendly people. We told them we were so happy to be here and how beautiful it was. They told us they had happy
hour everyday at 4:30 and that the town had 43 restaurants. They said that
Ziggy will like the resident dog that loves to play and I said we’d see how that
goes. We could see the town from our slip and it looked like it was going to be
fun to explore. Launch taxis were coming in and out picking up and dropping
people off. Some little native children paddled by in their dugout. I think I
was going to like this place and we thought we’d stay awhile. Dave went off to see what arrangements he could find for getting a plane out tomorrow. He soon came back from the marina office and all the flights were booked for tomorrow but there was one stand by seat possibly available this afternoon. Dave had just enough time to shower, pack and go to town with us to have lunch and walk around a little. We were sorry that the flights didn’t work out better for him so that he could enjoy the town after that stay in Colon. It was easy to like this place,
as everything was fun and interesting. The town was a quick easy jaunt in the
dinghy and the marina had their own place to tie up at the Reef Restaurant dock
by the ferry landing. It was one of the best places in town to eat and drink
and had a constant breeze that kept you cool and comfortable. It also had the
best view of the boats and people going back and forth.
After lunch, we walked Dave up the long street towards the small airport and I immediately fell in love with the place and it’s old rickety wooden buildings. This was going to be fun. The airport was small and had one airline called Panama Pearls (pearl). We thanked Dave and got him settled and headed back to the boat to get some rest and well, maybe stop our marina bar for happy hour! I knew this was going to be a happy place as the colors were brighter on the buildings. BOCAS MARINA AND YACHT CLUBThis is an oasis for cruisers.
Elaine who manages the marina runs the place like a ship. The services are
immaculate and fine-tuned. There’s an interesting group of
people here. There are several nationalities, French, Italian, New Zealand,
Canadian, and American. There’s a boat from Newport Beach and another from San
Diego. We were also surprised at how long people have remained here with out
even planning too.
Bill the manager, is a very likable man. He’s white haired and red-faced looks like a dead ringer white Morgan Freeman. He even talks like him. He’s from Sacramento Delta area and has settled here. Elaine used to manage a marina in Majorca until it got too crowded and came here. She’s spunky and friendly and gets things done. A beautiful blond but with a strut that means business. The older Italian couple is from Sicily and love to spend months in the San Blass Islands. They had heard this was a good safe place to leave their boat and I think they are finding out that this is going to work out really well for them. We wouldn’t think twice about going home and leaving our boat here as we watch how well they watch over everything. There’s a large catamaran on
the finger dock. Another couple we met had their granddaughter with them. They are buddy traveling with another catamaran with a nice guy from Texas. He met a black girl in Trinidad and she been with him ever since. This pair of boats has buddied together all through the Caribbean Islands, Columbia and now is heading up the Panama Coast on their way to Rio Dulce. I wondered how the granddaughter fits in to all of this. The woman said she adapts well and is being home schooled. She’s only about 7 and she says that she speaks Spanish, English and a little French. She said the hard thing for her is that they constantly move and each time she meets new friends it’s time to go again. I can’t help thinking that’s got to be hard on her. Many of the people we meet here are just passing through and end up staying months. I can see why. It’s like a big family.
We made friends with one of the cruisers and his name is Tom. He’s from Shreveport, LA. We liked him immediately. He was alone waiting for his wife to come back from the states. He’s a real character with a twinkle his eye and funny stories. He and his wife have cruised extensively in Central America for many years. He’s an easygoing guy and nothing bothers him even the chitras (little black flies or no see ums). He can sit on his boat in the heat and be happy as a clam. Meanwhile, Larry and I are covered in bites and itching until they bleed. That’s the one big draw back for me is the bugs, those little rascal “no see ums”. I’ve got them under control now, but you have to spray yourself religiously with bug spray or forget it. I mean every exposed square inch has to be sprayed or they’ll get you. The only other thing that is a
bit troublesome is the water. I’m told it’s town water and that it’s so
chlorinated that you won’t have any problems but my Lonely Planet Book, under
their heading of Dangers and Annoyances, says don’t trust the water. I’ve asked
many in town that run businesses and their “pat” answer is, well I don’t drink
the water in the states or Canada so why would I drink it here.
On the
whole though, this is a wonderful place to come and stay. We feel safe
and comfortable. We did have one incident though. Rains had warned us never to
leave our dinghy in the water at night anywhere in Latin America. We had been
to town one morning for breakfast and a native guy was awfully interested in our
dinghy. He was asking how much it was worth and things like that. That night,
we just didn’t feel right about it and put the dinghy up on top of the boat.
The next morning, the dinghy much like ours in boat two slips down was stolen.
Elaine was very upset since this was the first time something like this had ever
happened. She felt compelled to warn everyone to secure their dinghies. Bill
said the whole town would be looking for the guy because the town doesn’t
tolerate things like this. The next day the dinghy was found by the airport and
soon later the responsible party was thrown in jail. We feel very safe here though and walk through town at night and don’t worry about anything in the marina. Everyone watches out for each other, though there is no problem.
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We were up early and I was
preparing the boat for rough seas. I told Dave and Larry that I felt like I was
preparing for battle. I kept going through the boat and finding things I had
missed, that might come lose and had to be tied down. Finally we were ready.
We sat and waited. We still needed to get some final clearances since we
changed our destination from Isla San Andres to Bocas Del Toro. Bocas is still
in Panama and Isla San Andres is in Columbia.
We put Rains’ waypoints in to
enter the opening into Bocas Del Toro before we left Colon. We had called to
get a reservation at Bocas Yacht Club & Marina from Colon. We told them we’d be
in about 7:00. We said we would hail them on the radio when we got to the outer
buoy. 
We arrived right on schedule
and as we approached the outer buoy between Isla Colon and Isla Bastimentos we
hailed the marina but got no response. We decided to follow Rains waypoints and
head in to the buoy marked channels. It was pretty stressful at first because
Rains said to not follow the buoys, as they need to be replaced, due to silting
and movement due to earthquakes. Most of his comments were related to boats
drawing more than 10’ which ours does not but still I was a little concerned.
It just goes against the grain going outside the buoys. As we went in farther
and farther it became apparent that the area must be regularly dredged now as
the depths were well beyond 40 feet deep. (And after we were here for a few
days, we would see the huge Chiquita Banana Freighter and others going in and
out through this channel). As we passed most of the buoys and were close to the
south end of Cayo Carenero Island we were able to rouse someone from the
marina. They said to proceed on to red buoy 14 and then slowly turn right and
come straight towards the ferry dock. The voice on the radio said he would meet
us there in a launch and we could then follow him in to the Bocas Yacht Club
Marina. 
We carefully followed
directions being aware that there are shallow areas here by the light blue color
of the waters. We saw Ricardo (the voice on the radio) waiting for us and he
lead us in to the marina by keeping snug to the buildings on our right for
several hundred yards and then we turned towards the marina.
I had a great lobster
salad that was huge for $7.00 and Larry had a plate of Caribbean style chicken
and rice with vegetables. You can wash everything down with Panamanian beer
that goes down like water. They have a custom of bringing the beer to you with
a paper napkin cleverly curled around the top to keep the opening clean I
guess. They did that in Colon also. 
Bill and Elaine are always around and available and
making sure things are right. They have workers constantly manicuring the
grounds, painting, repairing and others to help the cruisers with whatever they
might need. Rosie does the laundry and charges by the load and things are
returned clean and professionally folded within hours. Ricardo does just about
everything and is a really nice guy. He brings his younger two brothers and
finds jobs for them too. Ricardo washed our boat when we arrived and cleaned
the underside of our boat. He takes the oil and dumps it when you change your
oil. He took our propane tank to Admiralty to fill it. He’s just great. He
helped an older Italian couple get their boat ready ad clean to leave it for 8
months here. He is a hard worker and solves all the problems. He’s an
enterprising young man and will go a long ways here.
I guess they come and fall in love with it and decide not to
eave – that simple.
An old guy with a white beard lives on it. He’s got a
barrel-sized chest, arms like a 20 yr old and is missing his front teeth.
Apparently he is a treasure hunter by trade. He must have done well from the
size of his boat. He said he found an Old Spanish galleon off the coast of
Texas in the 60’s. There’s another treasure hunter at the end of our dock. His
boat is a little funkier looking but is more like a working vessel. Tom told us
that he has done some research diving in the Rio Dulce area in Guatemala for
National Geographic and the Smithsonian Institute. Everyone says he’s
scavenging around the area and so far has only found old bottles and such. This
area has a lot of history and Columbus had been known to frequent the island and
use the shallow waters to do repairs on their sailing ships. It also was a
haunt for pirates at one time too. In fact, one morning the marina found an old
anchor on the bottom near our boat. They hauled it out and it’s now serving as
a conversation piece at the bar.
Zig has managed to get along
with the resident dog and another cruiser’s dog, a golden lab, name “Elvis”.
They are both about the easiest going dogs and have not been bothered by Zig’s
idiosyncrasies. It’s fun to watch each afternoon as everyone gathers for happy
hour and the dogs gather too and play. One day, we didn’t go down or were late,
and the little resident marina dog came to the boat and barked for Ziggy to come
out. When they get hot from playing too much, they wade into the clear water by
the bar. 
Everyone here understands Zig and knows he’s a little eccentric but
they don’t mind. They all call him by name and he is having a ball here. If
something around the marina doesn’t look normal, the three dogs all join
together to investigate and bark to announce to all that something isn’t right.
One day a huge boat came in, about 120 ‘, and they immediately got down their
obnoxious jet skis and were
making noise and racing around. None of the rest of
us liked it nor did the dogs I guess because they were the only ones with balls
enough to tell them. 
So, we have not
put the water in our water tank and decided to put several gallons of purified
bottled water in the tank until we leave. The water looks clean in the marina
but it goes against our grain to make water in a marina. Also, when I kayaked
around the corner in the mangroves there are several settlements of native
Indians that are dumping in the water and it doesn’t look too clean. 
Our neighbors got their
dinghy back but the cables to the engine had been damaged and they had to order
new ones from the states. Apparently, when they steel these dinghies they are
after the motors and they can’t cut the cables on the newer ones. So I guess
they abandoned the dinghy after several tries to remove the motor and were
unsuccessful.
BOCAS THE TOWN, It’s a real mix
The fancier ones had a make shift sunscreen. Most
had multiple wooden planks to sit on. We saw one that must have been not more
than four feet wide and about 25 feet long. Many are painted in bright colors.
They can maneuver those things into the narrowest places like you wouldn’t
believe. Then there were the water taxis that took you to Almirante,
Bastiamentos, or Chanquinola. They were bigger in that they were wider. You
could squeeze in about four people wide and five or six rows. They were covered
in a low canvas awning and you had to crouch to get in them. Those little
stinkers could go up to 30 knots and within a short while you could be on the
mainland. Mostly natives and residents getting business done in Almirante used
those. Last but certainly not the least, were the dugout canoes. The Indians
or natives in the area used these. They were as commonplace as any of the other
modes of transportation. They were carved as you would imagine from one single
log and the paddle was handmade also. There were a rare few that would have an
outboard motor on it with a few gas cans inside. Mostly they were small and
held one or two people and one baby. They were commonplace, but I thought they
were charming. I was never bored at the site of them. I was just amazed at the
mix of everything.
There were wood planked paths
over the walked to get you from your boat to the street. Some buildings were
mostly accessible from the water rather than the street. To reach some places
you would have to walk down a rickety-planked pathway between buildings. Some
places didn’t have signs you just had to know where it. Many signs throughout
the town were unintentionally misspelled which was comical. 
There
are many small hotels with simple minimal comforts and a few new very small
European style hotels over the water. There are a handful of general stores
that I can only compare to something out of the old west. They had old wooden
counters with glass fronts surrounding the room and tall ceilings with goods
stacked the full width and height. Some have old-fashioned scales hanging above
the counter to weigh something. 
If you wanted something you had to ask the clerk to get it
for you or point to it if they didn’t understand. Each general store had a
little of this and a little of that. If you were looking for Ajax or something
like that, one store might have 2 bottles and another not have any. It was a
fun excursion just walking around town just having something to look whether you
needed it or not.
It was like a treasure hunt. I also loved walking on their
old plank floors because they were so irregular. Some of the planks would sink
slightly and others were crooked. Some would be missing and would be covered
with any old thing nailed tight. You would find everything from tools, nails in
bins (you could even buy one instead of a package that you didn’t need like at
Home Depot), to clothes, cloth, cooking oil, dishes, rice, just everything, but
probably not the one particular thing you were looking for. The fun part was
just looking for it. 
If you fall off the dock at the restaurant your eating at, it’s still your own
fault. If the building collapses that you’re eating in because it’s leaning way
too far on it’s side, it’s surely your fault. If you get bit by a dog, well, no
one knows who’s dog it is, so what’s the problem and also the dogs are so dossal
here that they wouldn’t even consider that. But if you steal, or hurt someone,
or do drugs, watch out because you’re thrown in the clinker for three months
regardless the charge. It’s a lot like the old west and I love it. It’s still
functioning in the old days when people were responsible for their own actions.
We are so worried about everything because we might get sued, but not here. If
there’s an old shack on it’s last legs, don’t worry about it, open it up and
start a restaurant. If you don’t buy furniture, just make it out of whatever’s
around, and it doesn’t matter if it’s not straight or too sturdy. One night we
ate at the Pescador Sabor on the second floor outside on the balcony. The
building was slanting so much I was worried about it falling over while we were
eating. Larry said the balcony would probably collapse under us first before
the building. The chairs were hand made and the table-top kept flipping up
since it was a piece of board wedged in the railing and on top of a post. They
covered it in a piece of oilcloth. We finally had to move to another table
because it would have flipped our food across the room if Larry forgot and put
his elbows down too hard.
I have to remember to tell you
about this little Indian kid in town before I forget. The first day we arrived
and walked down the main street, this little kid walked up to Larry and pulled
on his shirttail and muttered something. He was probably only about eight years
old, bare foot and clothes that were so brown that they must be washed in the
muddy water. He had a hand made wooden box that was hung on his shoulder across
his chest with an old woven piece of banding. I finally figured out he was
asking Larry if he wanted a shoeshine. We were hurrying to get Dave to the
airport so Larry said another day. Now trying to find someone in this town to
give a shoeshine to is about as hard as trying to sell a wool muffler to someone
in the desert. It’s hot here and everyone where’s sandals or is barefoot. Poor
little guy, trying to earn some money, someone ought to give another idea.
There’s one small place with a
hand painted sign out front called “Costco”. It can’t be any bigger than 10-12
feet wide and 20 feet deep and most of the wares are stacked on the street. He
sells in bulk. In other words, if you want a coke you buy a flat of cokes, or
rice, you buy a box of 20 packages of rice. I think you could save 2 cents.
We didn’t find much use for that place but loved the name.
There is one place that touts
the name of “Gourmet Market” owned by a transplant from Louisiana. There you
can find some amazing things that you won’t see in the local stores, like
camembert, feta cheese, frozen scallops, tortillas, many canned goods, etc.
She also carries fresh bread and cinnamon rolls from the local European Bakery
that we discovered late in the game that makes the best stuff. 
In fact our intention is to find a fancy meal. The fanciest we found was
at the original United Fruit Company Hotel near the plaza. This place is very
small but has been meticulously restored by the present owner to its full
“rustic splendor” of the old days. We loved sitting out on the front porch,
practically on the street and enjoying a real glass of Chilean wine and
wonderful Italian food. We could watch the world go by and our waiter (the only
water) who preferred being called “Nino” rather than his real name “Jesus” was
friendly and waited on us like we were his only customer (which we usually
were). We also enjoyed the “Ballena” next door that coincidently served
“authentic” Italian food also. 
Some of the restaurants are for the natives and they
are mixed in with everything else in town. One day I saw a guy cooking on a
card table. He had a big bucket of soup ad some meat on a charcoal grill. He
has a few chairs and crates for a table. There’s another place near the plaza
that cooks BBQ’d chicken and serves it to you in a brown paper bag. Everything
works, not matter what style.
What’s really great
is that everybody mixes with everybody. There is no friction that I can see. They all mix together and seem a happy bunch.
The whole town knew about the theft and kept an eye out for the thief.
The next day the dinghy was found near the airport and returned and we heard the
culprit was thrown in jail. They say they don’t tolerate things like that here.
on the Island
of Colon, which is one of a cluster of beautiful island here. The waters are
crystal clear if there have been no rains causing the many rivers to dump silt
into the area. The surfing is said to be great also. One of the islands touts
the rare red frog that is only found there and no where else on this planet.
There are many nearby excursions that are very inexpensive to snorkel and go to
pristine beaches.
In the late 1800’s the Snyder
Bros. Started cutting a channel parallel to the ocean to barge out the bananas
from the vast banana plantations here. The channel is about 15 km long and is
amazing. It’s about 40 wide at the widest part and cut straight through the
jungle. Not realizing this is a great tourist ride, the local water taxi
service offers a quick trip up to Chanquinola through this channel. Many locals
use it to get the Chanquinola that has a lot of local shopping and also another
30-minute taxi ride people can get to the border of Costa Rica. Those who are
transplants living here have to get out of the country every 90 days for 72
hours. At this borders for $20, under the table, they can get their passports
stamped and turn right around and get back to Bocas in another hour with out
having to stay overnight in Costa Rica. Today we used it for an adventure
ride.
r activated to the maximum
again. e passed some villagers, trying to hug the side of the channel to make
way for our wake. They were coming from Chanquinola I imagined with some
supplies. 
I love the natives and
their friendly children but I couldn’t stand to be near all that trash and the
sewage that goes right into the water from their shacks. It was too close. As
we walked past the native huts, the children wearing only enough to cover their
bottoms followed us. I took their picture and they loved seeing themselves
replayed on the LCD viewer. We checked out the Sunset Grill, which is said to
be part of the marina, but it is not that close. 
