Update from Puerto Lindo


Matthew came and left with some unfortunate complications. The airline, Air Panama, changed departure time without notifying anybody, and Matthew missed his connection to Toronto and had to spent extra night in Panama City and incurred some extra expenses. Welcome to Latin World.

The day before his departure we made a dingy trip to Rio Diablo and had a very good time.



We took advantage of a weather window, a breather between reinforced Trades, known as Christmas Winds, to sail back to Isla Linton anchorage for dental appointments, immigration office to extend our visas, and some inland travel to explore Panama. It was an "invigorating" sail for me, and a "hairy" sail for Carol, with 20 kts of wind on the quarter and 12-15 feet waves. We had no "adventures" and a fast passage.



Last week we rented a car in Panama City and visited mountains of Panama interior. We drove to El Valle de Anton, a small town situated in a crater extinguished volcano, in search of rare and endangered golden frog. However the place which touted terranium sporting one "genuine article" informed us that "the frog - she died!". Fortunately they had a plastic one on display, which was ten times the size of the original - so we liked it better.



Our next goal, was to see town of Bouquete, which is located on the eastern slopes of the tallest mountain in Panama, Volcan Baru. The mountains are beautiful, but the town is too trendy for our taste, too many bad restaurants, too much "third world crap at first world prices".

The highlight of the trip was driving to the western slope of the Volcan Baru, and along the edge of Parque de Amistad. It's hard to find the words to discribe the beauty seen driving along the road from the Trans American Highway to Cierra Punta, to Guadeloupe.

It was great to have a break from out Taskmaster Felicia, but we are glad to be back at our floating home now.