The Good Life

We have had so much fun and well a few minor incidents, but an adventure for sure! Where to start. OK, well we left portobello and had a great sail to the lemmons. It rained really hard during my watch and I had to go out and empty huge bowls of water out of the sail's reef. No one got sick! that was awesome! Nancy slept on the floor on a cushion and we tried not to step on her during shift changes!

It is a really small boat. 3 people on a 33 foot boat with all the new crap I brought. we frequently play sit in a corner and wait till one person does their thing. First thing we get to the lemmons, I jump in of course. We take blinding photographs and go snorkling the reef.

So much to tell, but here we are again in slow internet land on the island. We sailed to the Swimming Pool and poked sharks in the nose. A spotted leapard ray poked back and got nancy on the palm. We played doctor for a couple hours to make sure she didn't go into anaphylactic shock. She is fine! Night diving was intense...we watched a shark chow down on something, then he came right at me, I poked him and he left. Oh and I caught my first fish with a hawaiian sling! It looked much bigger under water!!!!

We sailed to Nargana and toured the town with Frederico and gave him the glasses and presents from my mom. He sold Nancy a mola and we bought bread and veggies. The next day we rowed up the Rio Diablo! so many birds! and a 5 foot long "Gator" The teeth were pretty menancing, but they say they don't bother people but dogs should look out. We hiked up the water pipe trail and saw a turtle, well I did. and lots of Tucans and really exotic butterflies and flowers. Some really cool mushrooms. I met Donaldo on the trail to where he was working on his plantation. I invited him to visit the ship that night. He came at 6 and we spent two hours drinking wine and playing cherades. Pantomine between kuna, spanish and english. He understood Glug Glug Glug when I described where we got our water!

Back now in the lemmons, Venancio and Lisa both came aboard and displayed all their molas. I got a cool pillowcase this time and an old and a new kuna flag! It's lightning out and gonna rain so I will quit yapping and try to load a photo real quick. ok so photo don't work yet, next time,

Cheers, jellyfish

The ants go marching 10x10

And they all go marching down... in the ground. Yes, it's good to be back! Nancy "why not" is visiting for two weeks. We have a great calm day in the bay at Portobelo and yesterday we hiked up the hill at the fort and showed her the amazing leaf cutter ant trails. They are indeed marching on. Up to 7 across.

Captain Morgan did not keel haul me when he saw the amount of luggage I managed to arrive with. Now to make room for it! I enjoyed the brief show and tell with my captive audience. My proudest find was the 3 gallon water jugs. Now to figure out how to arm the auto inflating life jacket.

Immediately after boarding the boat, the wooden ulu stopped by with limes and coconuts. I readily bought some of each. But now I have to watch castaway again because I have no idea how Im going to get the coconuts open. I'm thinking hammer and chisel. I'll let you know how it goes.

Well sorry about the short post. But we got places to go and people to see. Fish to catch. Later gaters

October 12, 2010 Spearfishing

Captain Marcos is the champion spearfisher! His backpacker Franko shows off the yummy pineapple, and Captain Morgan eagerly awaits his daily ration of freeze dried beef stew!

 We have to wait for the Kuna to paddle off. They left their cell phones aboard to charge while we were off spearfishing. We wouldn't want them to know how successful we are.

Now we can have our photo shoot. Franko shows off Mark's giant dog snapper in front of Melody. I think his arms were getting tired holding the fish up for the photo. The smiles in the subsequent shots were deteriating rapidly into grimaces!

This is the day where I poked a nurse shark in the nose with my lobster pole pricker thingy. The shark was swimming around keeping his distance, but then this one time, he swam right towards me. About a foot from my face, I jabbed him in the nose. He recoiled and hurried away never to bother me again....

October 20, 2010 Three Toed Tree Sloth

Every now and then we go exploring up a river in the dinghy. Usually to get water, but I take a camera and binoculars just in case. You never know what you might find. Today was no exception.

We rowed up the river near Portobelo.

 As the river winds its way into the mountains, the vegetation changes from mangroves to more of these type trees and large fern like plants

Birds are everywhere. These silly creatures kept flying up river in front of us. We can only keep going in one direction. They have 360 degrees of options. eventually, they stayed put and we passed by.

And so I'm looking up into a tree right on the river bank and there's this large ball of hair. At first I think it's a nest. Then I saw movement. Verrrry sloowwww movement. I get the camera out of the dry bag.

It's a Three Toed Tree Sloth! I'm so excited. I get out of the dinghy trying to get a better photo....I walk all around the trunk of the tree in gooey cow poop and river mud, but the best photo was this first one from the dinghy!

Did I mention...they move really really slow....

October 19, 2010

The boat has a propane stove and makes great meals. we broke down and bought a new frying pan that don't stick. What an improvement! I'm getting used to cooking with oil instead of butter, but it doesn't taste the same.

 Today, I had the boat to myself most of the day, so I made a new mapset of the bluechart america. Now I can actually see the charts on my gps. Tiny as it is, it will be a back up to the ray marine chart plotter that has no mapping on it. You can see how beautiful the woodwork is inside the boat. I think it is just so well made.

 The fridge continues to be a problem child. In Cartagena, we borrowed a vacuum and got it working again, but there must be a small leak in the compressor. It quits, then the captain adds more freon and it works for a while. sometimes he gets too much in and it won't work for a long time. like today. so all the new fresh veggies are sitting out in the heat. That just means I got to eat them up quicker.

 The lighting is just so beautiful in the evenings. This is not our boat. It's the view looking out of Portobello Bay from the boat.

 The view towards the town of Portobello!

 The church of the black christ and the hilltop fort of Portobello.

And the old Balboa Explorer in the bay.