Shelter Bay, Panama
Howling monkeys are everywhere. A lonely sloth, hanging on a branch across the little stream that we are exploring on the dinghy is so close, we have to watch not to bump into him-her? Parrots are screeching as they fly from one bank of the river to the other one, always in pairs. And we even have a bit of scare, twice, when we chance on a snake, which quickly disappears, probably quite scared of us. There is an atmosphere of mystic silence, except for the cries of wild birds and animals. This is what we imagined jungle and tropics should look like and we are not disappointed. This is the Rio Chagres, a beautiful tropical river surrounded by virgin rainforest, where we anchored for few days, after an overnight sail from uninhabited island (Escudo de Veraguas). One can go up the river for about six miles, up to the dam, which was built in 1910 to create the Gatun Lake, which supplies the water for the locks of the Panama Canal. When our food supply gets low, we get moving back to civilization and now we are in Shelter Bay Marina, with a restaurant, a swimming pool and a daily bus which takes us to food stores in Colon. Reputation of this city, one of the world’s largest ports, is that it’s a surprise, if you don’t get mugged at knifepoint! We are advised visitors should have no problem – as long as they take taxis everywhere and never set foot on the streets. So we follow this advice, as do all the other boaters, and contribute to the economy of this town full of poverty in many taxi fares. We are (or rather J-P is) installing a wind generator to increase our energy production, so we can play music, make water, and have all the lights on at the same time! Of course he has to change the oil in the engine, fix the outboard engine where everything is plugged from the dirty gas they sold us here, and do all the other man stuff (sometimes it pays to be a woman!). Overall we saw many beautiful places since leaving Bocas archipelago and we are looking forward to meeting some new fellow cruisers at the potluck organized in this marina. And if J-P would want, he could even meet some non-smoking friends in the daily afternoon volleyball game!
Howling monkeys are everywhere. A lonely sloth, hanging on a branch across the little stream that we are exploring on the dinghy is so close, we have to watch not to bump into him-her? Parrots are screeching as they fly from one bank of the river to the other one, always in pairs. And we even have a bit of scare, twice, when we chance on a snake, which quickly disappears, probably quite scared of us. There is an atmosphere of mystic silence, except for the cries of wild birds and animals. This is what we imagined jungle and tropics should look like and we are not disappointed. This is the Rio Chagres, a beautiful tropical river surrounded by virgin rainforest, where we anchored for few days, after an overnight sail from uninhabited island (Escudo de Veraguas). One can go up the river for about six miles, up to the dam, which was built in 1910 to create the Gatun Lake, which supplies the water for the locks of the Panama Canal. When our food supply gets low, we get moving back to civilization and now we are in Shelter Bay Marina, with a restaurant, a swimming pool and a daily bus which takes us to food stores in Colon. Reputation of this city, one of the world’s largest ports, is that it’s a surprise, if you don’t get mugged at knifepoint! We are advised visitors should have no problem – as long as they take taxis everywhere and never set foot on the streets. So we follow this advice, as do all the other boaters, and contribute to the economy of this town full of poverty in many taxi fares. We are (or rather J-P is) installing a wind generator to increase our energy production, so we can play music, make water, and have all the lights on at the same time! Of course he has to change the oil in the engine, fix the outboard engine where everything is plugged from the dirty gas they sold us here, and do all the other man stuff (sometimes it pays to be a woman!). Overall we saw many beautiful places since leaving Bocas archipelago and we are looking forward to meeting some new fellow cruisers at the potluck organized in this marina. And if J-P would want, he could even meet some non-smoking friends in the daily afternoon volleyball game!
