Blogs from Colón, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 3

Sunday, November 13 - Colon, Panama Arrived at this busy port at 6:30 a.m. under cloudy skies. Heard last night that it has rained hard here the last couple of days. The disembarkation process was very speedy after our last breakfast in the dining room. Shortly after 8:00 a.m. we were collecting our luggage dockside, then looking for "our friend, Mario", who Fred had made advance Internet arrangements with for transport to Panama City for $20 each. It was a small bus for 12 passengers and we headed off a half hour later, over semi-flooded roads after the bus filled with other cruisers who had also reserved ahead online. While we were waiting, Fred phoned our condo accommodation contact to advise of our arrival in Colon, only to find out that there was some problem with ... read more

Geo: 9.12152, -79.6922Vi ankom hotellet/resorten i Panama på ettermiddagen. En dag forsinket. Nærmere Paradis tror jeg det må være vanskelig å komme ! Da vi sto opp dro vi rett til flyplassen for å komme med flyet til Panama. Det var ingen garanti for at dette skulle gå. Bestillingen var slettet da vi ikke rakk fighten i går. Hadde noen alternativer i bakhodet. Det viktigste var å rekke Galapagos senere.Det er ikke bare bare i Venezuela. Flyselskapet hadde ingen kontorer, og ingen andre ville ta ansvar for å hjelpe oss. Folk ville bare veksle svart. Vi ventet på innsjekkingen, der ordnet alt seg. Godt å komme seg videre! Vi er midt i regnskogen, her er det luxus de lux. Temperaturen er behagelig - godt og varmt. Her går de ville dyrene og gresser rett utenfor hotellet. ... read more

After a long refit in Camden Maine, we were anxious to get back onto the water. Living on land is always different. Living in the US is always different in good and bad ways to us. We enjoy the ease of picking up our cell phone to call friends and family. We enjoy the ease of fast internet and the simplicities of large groceries and cars that bring our supplies directly to our apartment down smooth roads and straight into a large fridge where we don't worry if it works or not. Usually people follow the rules of the road (unless when driving in Southern Florida) and we are not awakened by weather usually, or alarms in the night telling us that there is a gas leak from a sensor that does not even exist (yes ... read more

Our day started off with more information on yesterday’s trouble at the mall. After tourists traded stories at breakfast, Pedro, our guide, said he had been there: it was “only domestic”; she was stable; and no shots were fired; maybe I only saw the guard level his gun; and, the very late arrival of the police was actually to quell a later incident of near-riot by youths. Hmmm. (Yesterday evening, we saw the shooter on TV news being taken in to jail by police.) On our bus we wended our way through city streets to the toll highway and across the country to Gamboa where we embarked on the url=http://www.canada.com/travel/Gangster+Capone+running+yacht+ferrying+tourists+Panama/9360023/story.htmlIslamorada. (At the end of the trip we learned that it is the oldest working boat on the Canal, built in 1912. Rockefeller built it; ... read more

Here we sit in Shelter Bay Marina after having hauled and painted the bottom contemplating the trip ahead. Although exciting it is sad to be ending this phase of our last 5 years sailing the Carribean. We will be leaving behind an army of new friends from all over the world who have experienced this wonderful country with us. We take with us hours and hours of memories. Each and every stop held exciting new people, foods, cultures, wildlife and friendships. We learned to be self-sufficient and frugal something we would never have learned safe and warm at home working 24 x 7 with two cars, 3 bedroom home, a TV on every floor, internet cable, etc.... As is the case for many of our friends we travel back to New Bern, NC, USA to a ... read more