PANAMA CANAL TRANSIT - As some of you know we transited the Panama Canal March 31, 2005 from the pacific side to the Caribbean side of Panama. What an experience We won't bore you with all the details. If you want more details let us know we'll send it.. It costs $600.00 for boats under 50 ft. plus, a $850.00 refundable deposit if you don't damage the canal (yeah right) or you don't break down and have to be towed out of the locks. Each sailboat gets an Advisor who coordinates, via hand held radio, with the Canal Authorities about times to enter the locks, how to tie up, etc. I, in my ignorance thought the Panama Canal was just one long canal, with a few locks, and "wa la" you were through to the Caribbean side. Wrong.. The Pacific side has 3 locks, then you motor across Lake Gatun, which took us about 5 hours and then through the second set of locks to the Caribbean side. A lot of boats go though the entire process in one day. Some like us, end up tied up to a buoy in the fresh water lake for the night and make the final transit the following day. We had a nice cool swim, washed our hair and splashed around. The next morning the Advisor showed up again and we went through the second set of locks to the Caribbean side. All boats are required to have 4 lines of 250 ft. each (which we rented) and 4 line handlers. The line handlers catch a light line from the guys at the top of the locks, secure one of the 250-ft. lines to the light line and our lines are pulled to the top of the lock. The line handler then secures his or her end to our boat. As the locks fill with high-powered water from the bottom of the lock, the line handlers make sure the lines are tightened enough to keep the boat from sliding back and forth in the lock. If one line lets go the boat can swing around and hit the side of the lock or another boat. Not a good thing. We ended up being tied up in various ways. Side tied to a tugboat, tied to a tugboat with another sailboat tied to us and alone tied in the center of the lock.

The costs in Panama:  Visas are for 3 months. You can get a 3 month extension and then you have to leave the country for 3 days and come back in.  All cruising boats MUST have a Cruising Permit. This is good also for 90 days The cost is about $79.00 each time you renew it. No problem renewing it. We have been in Panama for 1-1/2 years and keep renewing the cruising permit with no problem.

COLON, PANAMA - Colon is the City on the Caribbean side of Panama where ships wait to transit the canal. There is also a large facility for loading and unloading containers, and a "very secure" dock for cruise ships which transit the canal starting in October after the hurricane season ends. People from the cruise line shop in tourist shops in a special built area next to the cruise line dock. If they take inland trips they are put on air conditioned buses and transported away from Colon. It is our understanding passengers are always back at the ship before dark for security reasons. The city of Colon looks like it has been forgotten by the "powers that be" in Panama. When the canal was being built it was a bustling city. Today a lot of the old wooden buildings look like they should be condemned with trash littering the street and around the buildings. Lots of unemployment and poverty. Crime seems to be a daily occurrence. There is a free anchorage called the "Flats" for cruising boats and long dinghy ride to get to the dinghy dock at the Panama Canal Yacht Club. There is an Immigration office at the Yacht Club for check in and check out. The Panama Canal Yacht Club, which we understand years ago was quite nice, has fallen on hard times. The docks are not well maintained, and the whole place looks quite run down. It's not cheap either - 65 cents per ft. per day for a slip with water and electricity. They have 2 computers for internet in the office, a copy machine and a book exchange. There is a restaurant and bar, showers and a couple of washing machines and dryers ($1.00 each for one wash and one dryer). There is a small haul out ramp for repairs and bottom paint next to the yacht club but we understand you have to check out the tides and your draft before trying to use the facility. Because of the high crime rate in the city most cruisers take a cab anywhere in town they want to go. It is only about 2 or 3 blocks walk from the bus station to the Yacht Club but a lot of cruisers we have known have been mugged" and robbed while walking in town or to and from the yacht club so it's "Cruisers Beware". Local Panamanians also get robbed, sometimes at gunpoint. Not a place we'd want to spend much time in. But it is convenient to provision or get miscellaneous items. Colon has a first class market with all kinds of US products. Great inexpensive fruit and vegetables at the local Mercado in town (by cab of course). And if you need shorts, tops, shoes, sandals, underwear, etc. etc. the prices are amazing. $1.99 for a shift type dress, $3.99 jeans, $1.00 sandals. Donna's kind of shopping.

SAN BLAS ISLANDS '(aka Kuna Yala), Panama - There are approximately 350 small islands, some of which are only large enough for some coconut trees and a couple of thatch huts. Only 49 of them have settlements on them. We read there are about 50,000 Kunas, nearly a third work in Panama City, or Colon. If I go on and on about these islands please forgive me, but the people are fascinating. If you get a chance check web sites for "Kuna Indians" and lore San Blas Islands, Panama or Kuna Yala, Panama. It is approximately a 12-hour trip for us on Nintai from the City of Colon to the beginning of the San Blas Islands. We generally break up the trip by stopping at Portobello in between so we arrive in the San Blas when the light is still good enough to -see the reefs. Think photos you have seen of the South Pacific and you have the San Blas Islands only we do not have to sail for 3 days to get to the next island. All of the islands are surrounded by reefs and are very flat. Some of the islands are only about a football field long and ~ a football field wide. Others are really small, 1/2 block but round, all sand and 3 palm trees on it. . The islands are so close together (sometimes only an hour trip) so we mostly motor from one to the other. Most anchorages are accessible only through breaks in the reefs or by zig zagging around reefs to get into the anchorage. A little scary for us at first since we bounced over an uncharted reef on the Pacific side last year and had to haul the boat for some bottom repair. But with the sun shining you can see the reefs quite clearly so we don't go "bump" on something hard. Once inside we can anchor in crystal clear, warm water. Sometimes as shallow as 8 ft. or as much as 40 ft, but mostly more shallow.. It was really weird the first time to anchor in only 8 ft of clear water sense on the Pacific side there were tides of up to 17 ft. On the Caribbean side the tides are maybe 1 to 1.5 ft. We understand in the 1924 the Kuna Indians, who used to live inland in Panama, revolted demanding to be self governed. They were given a portion of the coastline and small islands on the Caribbean side of Panama. From what we read the Kuna's have fought to retain their freedom for hundreds of years and winning each time. Each island or group of islands are governed by a "Sila" who is like a Chief. The cruising boats pay a fee ($5.00 for a month) to the Sila for the use of the anchorage in whatever jurisdiction that particular Sila has. We were told the islands did not have coconut palm trees on them so the Kuna's planted them.. For years the sale of coconuts to the country of Columbia was their primary source of income. Some of the Kuna Indians live on the more remote islands on a voluntary basis and make sure the palm leaves are picked up and burned and the weeds and cut down. Generally they stay 3 to 6 months at a time and then return to their main island or to their village on the mainland. The islands which are uninhabited, and the growth is so thick it is impossible to walk on it. We figure when it's time to harvest the coconuts someone shows up and cleans up enough to get the coconuts picked up. We also understand it's a big "no, no" for cruisers to pick up coconuts since it is a source of income for the Kunas (right now 5 cents per coconut which isn't  much) so if a cruiser does pick up one they do it VERY carefully. . There is no electricity, generators, etc. on the outlying islands. Some of the more populated islands do have generators, TV's and radios.. On the populated islands the houses are packed (and we mean packed together side by side on dirt streets). Traditional houses have thatched roofs and the sides are made from very thin tree trunks standing upright held together with some sort of line and it's not unusual to see a Kuna woman sitting outside working on a mola.. The houses generally have one large room with dirt floors and no windows. Inside are hammocks that are used for sitting in during the day and sleeping at night. Inside some houses we have seen an occasional chair or small table. They hang their clothes on lines strung all the way across the center of the hut. On the non traditional islands some houses are made of concrete and the women and men wear western style clothes (shorts, tops, etc). They must keep pretty close control over the Kuna population as we understand in order for a Kuna to travel from their island to Panama City or any other city they must have written permission from the Sila on their island. On the heavily populated islands the bathrooms are outhouses which hang over the waters edge and are generally made of palm leaves. Kind of like cruising boats. As the tide changes the "stuff" is washed away. It appeared to us that the Kunas that live on the inside of the island just walk down to the end of their street and use that outhouse. On the more remote islands where there are two or three families living the outhouses are generally on the island itself not on the waters edge. Some of the islands that are close to the mainland have fresh water pipes that run to the island. This water, like all water in Panama is generally safe to drink. On some of the outlying 'islands there are very small fresh water pools which are used for washing and cooking. A couple of islands we saw small pigpens in the backyards.

The Kunas are friendly, very short, dark skinned people. We read only the Pygmies surpass them in the Book of Records. The men wear American style clothes, except during ceremonies some wear a v-shaped color shirt, black pants and sometimes a tie and felt hat. Traditional Kuna women wear blouses with baggy sleeves made of very colorful material with a wild pattern.. Molas are sewn onto the center of the blouse on the back and front. The women's skirts are a piece of brightly colored cotton material with bold patterns and they just wrap them around their waist and secure them. No zippers, seams, etc.. They wear a bright red and yellow scarf on their heads. It's a little distracting as none of the colors or designs seem to be coordinated. They wear and sell bright colored beads in long strings which are wrapped around and around and around on their arms and legs and are considered a sign of beauty. The traditional dressed women have a small gold ring through their nose and wear earrings and large necklace of gold. Cheeks are highlighted with orange-pinkish rouge and they have a black stripe down the center of their nose. (see Mom's at least your kids don't all have nose rings). The women are very careful about their appearance. It's funny to think they live in a thatched hut with a dirt floor, sleep in a hammock, a great deal of the time cook over an open fire and take baths from a pan of water. But when they come to the boats they ask for lipstick, nail polish and eye shadow. Apparently in the 1500's women painted their bodies as ornament but in the 1700's started to wear the molas blouses. At one anchorage Howard commented on a mola that a young woman was wearing and she turned around, pulled it over her head (so we could only see the back of her black bra) and pulled her skirt material to make a shift. Could hardly turn her down for $20.00 for the whole thing so we are now the proud possessors of a bright colored red and multi colored mola blouse. Howard figured I could wear it. WRONG. Remember, these women are tiny, tiny women. I took out the side seams, got it over my head and pulled down onto my body, but could not move my arms or breath (I looked like a multi colored mummy) and it took 3 people to get it off. The 12 year old daughter of a fellow cruiser fits into it nicely. The molas themselves are made of layers of good quality colored cotton material. . A mola starts are 2, 3 or 4 layers of colored cotton material, a design is cut into it and the edges turned under and more and more layers cut and folded under and sewn. lt's really a complicated process. In the best ones you can't see the stitches, but in the "not so good ones" you can see stitches, but what the heck I tried it and almost went blind and boy could you see my stitches. Traditional ones have geometric designs, but others have cats, dogs, alligators, medicine men, etc. etc. Now they get ideas from US magazines and I even saw one that was their rendition of Ninja Turtles. Howard saw one of the old ad for RCA Victor records complete with the dog and an old fashioned record turntable ($80.00 for the blouse with two molas). He didn't buy it. . Molas sometimes take as long as a month or longer to ~complete selling anywhere from $2.00 to $100.00. The most expensive ones we have seen were $80.00 and was very intricate. The cheapest one we bought was $2.00. After a while we get tired of the ladies sometimes arriving at 7:00 a.m. in the morning and hanging on the side of the boat till we Come out. Because of the very detailed designs and tiny, tiny stitches on the molas the women went crazy when they found out that we had some of the "cheapo" eye glasses. On one island the word got out and there were about 5 ulas around the boat asking for glasses. They also liked some brightly colored kids hats. They are really tough people, paddling or sailing their dugout canoes known as an "ulu" from island to island in all types of weather. The ulu is hand carved from a single tree trunk using only a machete to cut and dig 9ut the hard wood. Some of them hardly hold 3 people while others can carry 8 easily. Some have sails. Their mast and the boom are the trunks of very skinny trees. We've seen sails made of old bed sheets and other mystery material some very brightly colored. They have a wooden paddle that also acts as a rudder when sailing. During the windy season it is not uncommon to see a son or wife hanging out over the water on a trapeze with their butts level with the waves for balance while someone else bails the water out with a half gourd.. Again, they are tough people. The men travel from islands to island in their ulu's selling lobsters, crabs, fish. Poor us we "had" to buy lobsters each day for a while. The last time we bought 3 lobsters and a crab for $5.00 (yummy, yummy). Some of the islands have small stores with basic stuff, potatoes, onions, sodas, sometimes tomatoes and "Kuna Bread". Kuna bread is about the size of a hotdog bun but have the consistency of sourdough bread, and sometimes it is round. We have to eat them each day as they obviously have no preservatives and get hard the next day. But then for 10 cents each no big deal. Don't you feel sorry for us??

The snorkeling is absolutely wonderful. The best we have had since the sea of Cortez! Most reefs have schools of brightly colored fish which swim right up to us. I was expecting the coral to be brightly colored as in the Virgin Islands, but in the San Blas most of the reefs have more subdued colors with an occasional splash of purple, red or orange. Some of the reefs have a resident barracuda or sand shark that hang around. The first time I snorkeled and ran into a group of barracudas I was not sure what to do (except maybe think I should get the heck out of there). Sometimes a lone barracuda will just follow snorkels around because they are curious or maybe they think will get a chance at a free lunch if the snorkeler get a fish and leave it in a bag unattended. We were anchored in about 8 ft. of water and I was cleaning the bottom of the boat and looked down and a sand shark was swimming slowly UNDER me going back to it's reef. Yikes, even though it completely ignored me my heart beat did not go back to normal for a long time. So far Howard has not seen any sharks to get his heart beating too fast. HAPPILY,.

Cruisers get together on some of the islands and have "trash burn", drinks, food and generally have a good time. Trash is always a problem for cruisers as we just can't throw stuff overboard whenever we want or the islands would look like a trash pile pretty fast. So on certain islands there are designated places to burn paper products (no food cans). Food garbage is cut into tiny little pieces and dumped overboard outside of the anchorages or at night as the tide is going out. Never during the day as it's tacky to be swimming or snorkeling and see a piece of garbage or egg floating by.. Beer and soda cans are squashed and give to the Kunas who trade them in. Regular cans, tin foil, etc. are kept and disposed whenever a cruiser gets to land.

We have gotten some wonderful large conchs. Howard found one while snorkeling, and hung it up on an island so the critter inside would die and fallout. Don't want to do that on a boat cause the smell would drive us all the way back to Calif. After 2 days went back and the shell was clean. Then he punched a small hole in the end and now has a conch horn that is blown when we leave an anchorage, again when we go into one, and at sundown when cocktails are served. This is a normal thing to do. I can't blow the darn thing, just can't get my lips or something in the right place (no comment folks).

As you can tell we are really liking the San Blas Islands. We plan on staying around here till probably October and then take the 2 day trip to Cartagena, Columbia and stay there till after Christmas. Cartagena is a safe place to be in all of Columbia and all the cruisers who have been there just rave about it. We'll let you know.

Donna & Howard

San Blas Islands, Panama