Costa Rica-Panama-Ecuador

Well hola from Panama although we will not publish this until we reach Ecuador for reasons which will be clear when I have finished this episode of our “Great Adventure”.
We had a couple of days in Golfito—a sleepy port which had been the major port to export bananas until the “Panama banana blight” which wiped out the industry in the 1990”s. Now there is a small amount of palm oil exported but otherwise nothing happens there. We did our clearance from Costa Rica which took all day, requires lining up in the bank and paying $20, took an hour as the line was the same one where the locals go to do whatever serious banking they do—not the regular teller line. Then to Immigration, this was in an obscure location up a little side alley a mile down the road. The town is about two miles long and runs along the coast—there is jungle right up to the road so it is only one building deep. They then informed us that we didn’t have enough photocopies of our passports, we required 3 so that meant a trip to the “copier” which was nearby—I suspect is probably the sister of the immigration lady. Then back to immigration who after stamping our documents gave us vague directions to customs a mile away, our next stop. After wandering in the vicinity for about another 45 minutes we finally found someone who understood where we wanted to go and took us there it was in an obscure part of the duty free area—not sure of the significance? This got us another stamp and then she told us to go to the port captain. That was another mile down the road. He asked us to wait “un momento” which became thirty minutes and then stamped our documents—when he asked us if we wanted to buy the $1 stamp required from him or did we want to go to the post office and buy it we quickly bought his last stamp---finally we were done. Luckily we had cleared into Costa Rica at an earlier port as if you do it here there is an added inconvenience of the agriculture inspector. This dates back to the time at which it was a banana port (20years ago) and they checked if you had any fruit he still asks if you do or not and you pay $30 regardless—I guess he had the job originally and didn’t tell anyone it is now redundant!!!! Roz and Bob experienced the wonders of bureaucracy in the other world. They were leaving to go to San Jose to go home the next day and we were going to go to Panama.
We had been told not to bother clearing into Panama until Balboa—near Panama City as everywhere else is a hassle. We cruised the beautiful small islands in northern Panama which reminded us of the Gulf Islands except they are totally uninhabited. They have beautiful white sandy beaches with a backdrop of green lush hills. Air plants grow all over and we now have a table centerpiece of a small one we found broken on the ground.
We are finally a sailboat—we have gone from the 4 to 5 knot world of motor sailing to the 6 to 8 knot world of sailing with good winds every afternoon. Unfortunately the rainy season has started so the waters are not clear any more so snorkeling is not great. The water is warm but each day it rains so we are not as hot as we were earlier. We did some kayaking which was nice but the jungle is so thick you cannot walk beyond the beaches. We met local fishermen who traded us red snapper. We asked if they had any Langosta (lobster) and they said manana. They came back the next day and indicated that Ken should go with them and they would all dive for some. After lots of free dives none were found so we settled for snapper. Ken did learn how to get one if he did see one in the future—a long stick to which is attached a piece of rubber with a barb at the end and then a pair of heavy gloves—hopefully future expeditions will be more fruitful. After returning from one kayak trip a bright green lizard appeared on the boat—“Kermit” had somehow hitched a ride. Lucky for him we were too nice to tell him to swim back the 100 yards to shore so we caught him and gave him a kayak ride back.
After a couple of weeks we decided as the weather is definitely deteriorating, although no thunder and lightening yet, we would just head straight to Ecuador and forgo Panama City and the hassle and expense involved in going through immigration. The only problem being that we were short of fuel and fresh food. There was a Port up an estuary but we couldn’t go there as we are still illegal here, not having cleared in, the Port Captain would require our documents. Well we would go into the biggest part of Isla Cebaco where we had been told we could get fuel and there is a store there. Oh well not quite!!! The store had canned goods, of which we have lots of already but no vegs, meat or fruit and there is no diesel here. She did have eggs but when I was about to tell her I would buy a dozen she produced a bowl with 5 —today’s bounty—I guess her family does without the days she makes a sale. We managed to negotiate with a local using my best and almost adequate Spanish (no English here!!!) to be taken to the mainland up a river in his panga where they would take us to get food and fuel. They picked us up in the morning and we had a blustery crossing of the bay to a river entrance which we surfed in—pretty wild!!!! We then walked to small tourist resort and someone drove us to the nearest village. Got our jerry cans with diesel and then went to the supermarket—well sort of—had eggs, meat, potatoes, tomatoes and carrots. White bread and no fruit of any kind, not even limes which are generally considered a staple. Guess we will be having meat and potatoes!!!! My goodness, after the bounties in even the smallest villages in Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica it was a shock. This area appears wonderfully fertile so am not sure why the locals do not produce papayas and bananas which are so plentiful everywhere else. I am not sure if I had mentioned the usual way they give you eggs—just in a plastic bag, so if I have forgotten to bring our yellow plastic egg container which I invariably have we gingerly carry the bag back and onto the dingy for the trip back to the boat. It invariably leads to at least one broken one but we are getting pretty good. We took a walk along the tiny village which runs along a small beach—no road—all transportation is in a panga—even watched them hog tie two cattle and with much yelling and grunting 9 locals managed to get them loaded into the panga to go to market. We did finally have someone offer to sell us pineapples for a $1 each so we have two for our journey to go with the meat ,potatoes and eggs.
The other significant experience here are the downpours of rain—we filled our water tanks which were half full with the rain we collected in buckets as it drained off our bimini top in about thirty minutes.
Tomorrow we will head south and go to Ecuador and will probably return here in January to cruise in Panama in more favorable weather conditions. Will know enough to go into Balboa first and stock up well!!!!
Obviously there is no internet anywhere near here so it will be in Ecuador when I publish this.

Part 2 to Ecuador
I am adding to this off the coast of Columbia. We have a 500mile trip which involves head winds of about 15 knots and bumpy seas. The seas whenever you are going into them are very uncomfortable. We are grateful for our comfortable catamaran as our back bunk is very stable and when we get to sleep you are unaware of the bouncing around in the rest of the boat. This coast also has the Humbolt Current which comes up from Peru and is about 1 to 1 ½ knots against us too. This makes for a 5 day passage which would be a lot shorter and more comfortable if we were going the other way. The great thing is we are sailing!!! After months of motoring and at the best motor sailing we only need to start our engines to boost the batteries every now and then. We left three days ago and our fuel tanks are still showing full. Guess we did not need to go to the hassle of getting fuel but as we are so used to motoring we do not dare take on such a long passage without topping up everything. It is so much nicer and the boat handles the seas much better under sail. We are looking out for drug runners—were flown over by a navy or coastguard plane yesterday so guess they are too!!! Have only seen three tankers after leaving the Panama area where they were lined up to go through the canal.
We have hit great winds and the current has eased so we are now doing 8 knots and the opposing current is only ½ knot so we will be a day earlier—yeh!! Actually not as good as it could be as we will arrive at the entrance to the estuary sometime tomorrow—our 4th day but you have to go over a sand bar at high tide and are taken in by a pilot but high tide is at 7am and we won’t get there by then. You anchor in an open bay but apparently the anchorage is not too rolly and we will have to wait till 8am the following morning to go in. Oh well better than our present rolly passage!!!
A highlight earlier today off the cost of Columbia was when we were hailed by a panga—70 miles to the nearest land—the two fishermen held up a lovely dorado (mahi mahi) and asked us if we wanted it. They wanted $2 which we transferred in our fish net and got the fish back in it. We have had ceviche for lunch and tonight will be blackened mahi mahi what a treat. These guys lead a hard life—an open panga with no cover and presumably would only get $1 for the fish when they get home.
We finally crossed the equator at 6 30 am today the 6th June. We were 20 miles off the coast of Ecuador—somehow 6 30am when we have been doing night watches for the last 4 nights does not make one wish to have a big champagne celebration so we had a small glass of wine and a cup of tea!!!!
We will be here for at least 6 months maybe 8 as we explore Ecuador and Peru and go to Canada in September and New Zealand in October. It will seem strange not to be sailing off somewhere and to have no real agenda. We did book to hike the Inca Trail at Machu Pichu on September the 2nd for 4 days—this is such a heavily booked trail it was the earliest we could get— it will be a thrill.
We feel as though we have reached a milestone on our journey as we are now in the southern hemisphere—at what moment did the water run down the pipes the other way??
One last note for this blog—we did manage to get in through the sometimes 5foot deep sandbar to come in a 6pm. There is a lower high tide and seeing as our catamaran only has a 4 foot draft they decided to bring us in so a great night at anchor!!!
Baria Caraquez, where we are appears to be very pretty—more like Mexican ports than we have had since. The weather is much cooler than Costa Rica and Panama and it is the dry season so will be very pleasant.
We look forward to having a lot of time to explore these countries and will keep in touch with our new adventures