Off to the Islands

Luggage reportedly at the airport, but we have left. We made it to Contadora today and will be out and about the Perlas islands for the next week or so. Beautiful sail out today, perfect winds ~20 knots, sailing at 8-9 knots (we are loaded for the South Pacific no less). Nice day at the beach and the awesome tree house at the park. Getting back into the travel mode after being stuck in the errand mode for so long. Caught a Bonita on the way out and had fish tacos for dinner. Lots of wind, so we are even running the fridge. Getting spoiled now! Now off to bed, thinking it's going to be a snorkeling kind of day tomorrow.

Nice beach day - Intrepid found an eel, maybe a small Moray eel? saw 2 eagle rays swimming by, lots of jelly fish floating by the boat, Vitality caught one and they put it in a pan, had watermelon on the back swim steps, lunch, and now it's quiet time. Getting back into the routine. Probably leaving Internet this afternoon. We were going to swim, but the jellies floating by were a bit of a deterrent.

Feb. 18, off to Chapera to snorkel with the white tipped sharks!! Nice winds, sails up, kids napping, see you in a week!

Made it to Boyarena - nice little island that is all sand on top and no trees. It gets washed over at high tides. Nice snorkeling today, kids played in a large tide pool that was like a kiddy pool with no waves, sandy bottom, and about 1 -2 feet deep. It was perfect for them. Then cool watermelon on the back swim steps with sandwiches for lunch. Good half to the day.

Immigration Fiasco - Stuck in Mexico City

Panama has this policy that if an airline flies someone in, they are responsible to confirm they have a way to leave the country. If not, they have to fly them out. We came in by boat; now the 15 year old has flown to LAX and is on the RETURN leg of a round trip ticket to return to the boat in Panama. We entered the country by boat and will leave by boat. She has the boat papers. She has a 6-month visa approved for French Polynesia. She has an airline ticket booked from Tahiti in July. We are NOT staying in Panama! They don't believe her. They need her to buy a ticket from Panama to LAX to prove that she's going to leave the country. What the _____? She's NOT going to be on that flight, so why do we need to pay them to book it?? It's a ransom. So she's stuck in Mexico City indefinitely. The ticket was even purchased, but over an hour before her flight left, she was bumped. So we paid the ransom, but too late. Insane!! Maybe going to get her on a midnight flight out of there!! I sure hope so!! Seriously?? Judy on Grace had the same ransom threats and had to buy a ticket. It's a round trip - Panama to LA to Panama. Can they do this??

My complaint letter -

I have a 15-year-old daughter who was flying your airline for a visit to the United States for one month. She flew OUT of Panama City to LA to visit her father, and then was to return to Panama to be with her mother and mother's family with whom she lives on a boat traveling the world. We arrived in Panama by boat and are leaving it by boat. We have received a ZARPE from every other country and we immigrate legally. We are legally in Panama currently and planning to go to the Galapagos, then French Polynesia in March. 

Her return flight was on February 13th at 12:01 am. She didn't realize the details and missed the flight thinking it was that night, not first thing that morning. We paid a change fee and she left LAX on Feb. 15th to return to Panama. She had a layover in Mexico City. She was allowed to fly from LAX to Mexico City. She was at the gate in Mexico City, but was denied entry to the plane because your gate agents couldn't prove that she was going to leave Panama. She had our boat documentation with her, which is all we've needed. We entered the country by boat and are leaving by boat. We are here legally on visas. She is on the RETURN leg of a round trip ticket. She was allowed to fly half way. We sent her an email showing our approval for our long stay visas for French Polynesia from the French Consulate. We would not buy these if we were not planning on going. She has an airline ticket from Tahiti in July for her visitation. She showed them this ticket was booked. We are clearly not lined up to stay in Panama. We were then forced to buy a return airline ticket Panama to LAX (I want a FULL refund of this!!) that we have no intention of using. We never did and the gate agents know this, so how is this PROOF that she is going to leave Panama. It's a RANSOM and everyone involved knows it's just a scam ticket. She HAS PROOF with her that we show intention of leaving. That is all the proof anyone has before actually departing. We need her and her passport back to get our ZARPE by the 28th of this month. So, we paid the ransom and she went to the flight that was just boarding and they told her she'd been bumped over an hour ago. What?? She was running around trying to prove to them that something is going to happen in the future. And she met all their demands. Now they wont' rebook her for another flight. She's 15 and stuck in Mexico City, with her father in LA and her mother in Panama City. This is NOT OK@@ She had $20; she does not travel with money. We have been on the phone with Copa (the airline carrier that refused to let her on her scheduled and paid for flight) and Aeromexico (who booked it). We are now trying to pay for yet ANOTHER airline ticket as required by aeromexico to get her home this last leg. Copa has "locked" the original ticket, so they are booking her a whole new one because they don't know why she was bumped. They can't take payment over the phone 1:45 min before the flight. She has no money. I gave her the credit info, but Copa only has gate agents, no one to take payment. My 15 year old is trapped in Mexico City due to your gate agents. 

All we get over the phone is run around and finger pointing. I can't do anything; Copa locked the ticket. I can't do anything; you have to pay Aeromexico a fee. Seriously, we paid for the ticket, provided everything necessary, your gate agents failed to interpret it correctly and a young girl is trapped at an airport in a foreign country. You have effectively taken her hostage and demanded a ransom. 

Finally it seems that we paid a $150 change ticket fee - again, and she is going to go. We sure HOPE no one in Cancun is going to bump her for the same ridiculous reasons as she was held up and charged all kinds of fees in Mexico City. I want a refund of my $150 change fee; we did not want or need to change that ticket. I want my Panama to LAX completely refunded - NOTHING taken out of that. And I believe you owe me for the stress and difficulty, not to mention hours and hours of phone time working to sort this out on her behalf.

Finally got the girl, no suitcases. They didn't know where they were so they sent out emails. What are those bar code trackers for if they can't locate them? Since they sent out emails and were pretty sure they weren't in Panama, we left. Probably go back in a couple of weeks when we return from the islands and try to get them again. . . Must say they royally screwed this one up.

Preparing for Ocean Crossing in March

In March, we are going to do the Pacific Puddle Jump crossing where we head across the Pacific Ocean to the South Pacific islands. It's a 20-30 day crossing, then we arrive at remote islands for 3 months or so. When we get to Tahiti, we can resupply, but everything is very expensive due to the fact that it's imported, so we don't want to have to plan on that. We can supplement what we have, but hope to not plan on needing to shop for 10 months until we are somewhere more mainstream.

We have a water desalinater for fresh water, and we collect rainwater. We have 4 propane tanks, use about one per month, will fill them just before we leave. Getting parts to adapt to the French system, can refill in Tahiti. And just bought a little two stroke motorcycle so we can get around the islands!! We will be OK.

Mega Provisions Delivery

Got 2 months stowed in the bilge (still needs some cans of things, but probably 75% of the month's supply is in there). Hoping to get 2-3 more done this afternoon. Will be nice to get our rooms cleaned up and re-organized.

Preparations for Ocean Crossing to French Polynesia

Spent the week in Panama doing our appointments with the French Embassy for our long stay visas for French Polynesia, then provisioning!! Wow, provisioning! I think I've spent about $3,500 thus far. Mega Depot (7 fully loaded shopping carts and $2,500 of the food) delivers to the stairs, then we take it down the stairs, load a dinghy and bring it to the boat, bring it up the stairs, then sort, organize, clean, then stowe everything. Everything else must be taken back by taxi and dragged from the parking lot to the stairs. I tried once to bring the groceries down the rocks only to take off a chunk of my pinky toe. No easy way to do this. All of the food must be prepared for long term storage in a humid, wet, and tropical environment. The flour is very questionable here, so I bake it before allowing it onboard to erradicate it of moths, weevils, etc. Everything must be in vacuum pack bags or ziplocks or plastic containers. I now have 10 piles for each of 10 months laying out in the bedrooms currently not occupied. Now I need to update my spreadsheet of what I have, what I need, then find the bilge space for it all. Met another boat today that just came from there and indicated that everything is VERY expensive there if you can find it. Many islands have limited options. "Bring everything and then some" was their advice. Should be interesting to see how this goes. So there's my week in review!! Today came to Taboga island to continue to get the food organized and stowed before packing more on. Here we are away from the city, have more options at beaches, clean water for swimming, more protections from waves (created by boats passing who are going to the canal) and nicer atmostphere. In the meanwhile, Courage laid our new living room flooring which looks GREAT!

Provisioning for French Polynesia

Well, today Innocence, 5 years old, and I bought $2,500 worth of food from Mega Depot which will be delivered semi-near the dock tomorrow (they make vehicles park at the entrance, not near the gate or dock). Another $350 of food from Riba Smith brought home in a taxi. I had us dropped off at the rocks along the causeway, which is a short dinghy ride to the boat, because I thought scrambling down the rocks with a 5 year old and that many groceries was easier than the walk you have to take to the stairs which slope downward and are mossy at low tide and in the dark. Found a 1" piece of rebar with my bare foot along the way. Not sure which is more treacherous. The Riba groceries are all safely stowed, now to drag the $2,500 from Mega tomorrow to the stairs and find places to store it all. I have officially begun the provisioning for French Polynesia - Priceless!!

Native Life Up the Crooked River

We left the Rio Sambu this morning at sunrise.  Had a gorgeous run down the river with the sun rising over the trees.  It was so peaceful with only the sounds of birds chirping and water flowing.

This was our third trip to the Darien region.  This time we brought 5 other friend boats with us on the "Darien Rally".  We returned to our favorite village, La Chunga that is an Embera village.  They live very traditionally, no roads, minimal electricity, no Claro dishes, etc.  They grow most of their own food, make their art from locally grown materials, build their own houses form materials grown in the local area, cook over open fires, etc.  It's all very impressive.  They are a hard working people.  They also seem to have excesses despite their daily manual labor.  They are able to sell us eggs and bananas, and gift us coconuts and papayas, etc.  They have time each day that we are there to visit, both in town and out at the boat.  Often they walk us down a mile long trail back to the boat from town.  So they are not burdened with work or effort despite their limited use of machines.

The other beauty in their society is that they appear to have fewer stresses.  They certainly don't have the material goods that we have, but they have some; pots, pans, clothes, toys, etc.  When you have material goods, you worry about protecting them, taking care of them, charging the electronics, getting newer/better ones, etc.  They don't have these worries.  They don't worry about accidentally leaving their cell phone or keys somewhere (by the way no doors = no keys) and someone taking them, about dropping and cracking their iPad screens, about having the latest iPhone and keeping up with someone else who has something better or more, etc.  There is no dependence on electricity, Internet and technology.  You miss some things, but you gain others.  They have free time to be spontaneous.  They appear to accept each other, there certainly appears to be no judgment about the "haves and have-nots".

They seem to look out for each other, make sure that everyone is taken care of, and share food when they have excess.  Obviously there is no refrigeration (I can relate!).  A guy came into town with a nice bundle of fish he caught.  Later that day I saw a girl carrying a bowl with some of the fish to another house.  Of course they are unique, some do the Jagwa (tattoo art), some do the dances, some cook the food, almost all the women make the Canasta (woven plates and bowls to sell), and some seem to lay low when we are there.

Upon arrival we were greeted by the male leaders of the community who had gotten word we were there and came out to the dock (a mile walk, then another mile on the boardwalk).  We picked them up, brought them out to the boat, invited the members from the other boats, and had "negotiations."  They asked what we wanted - dance, music, sugarcane press, etc. and we laid out a great day of entertainment.  It worked out to $30 per couple basically for music, dance, sugarcane press, then a traditional dinner (rice, beans, chicken, and coconut milk).  It also covered the fee for the Didigente up the river (chief of the region).  It was really a great price considering a day in Vegas, LA, or anything else trying to "see the city".

Just as negotiated, there was a wonderful presentation, greeted at the bridge with music, a dance which brought in the audience members, then a treat of fresh pressed sugar cane juice.  We had a little downtime, so we took the kids to the "pool", a little eddy in the river, which was a swim hole for the locals, especially the kids.  Very refreshing!!  Cool river water.  The kids jump from a hillside way up on the side, maybe 15 feet?  After some building up to it, Integrity was in just like a local kid, right off the top!  From the swim hole, we went back to the "community center" for the dinner.

We had many impromptu hosting parties on our boat, took the local kids for dinghy rides and rides on the towable.  They tried out our kayaks and went to visit the other boats in the fleet, at one point abandoning one of the kids on another boat. They tried the fishing gear to no avail.  We served many dishes of popcorn.

Loyal found and captured an awesome Huck Finn log raft.  It was 5 logs rafted up together.  The fronts and backs were cut with machete into a semi-pointed shape.  The fronts had a notch with a piece of wood in them.  This piece of wood was held into the raft with wooden "nails" that were driven into the main logs.  I've got pictures, hard to explain, but it was impressive. Apparently these rafts are made quite a ways up river.  They ride them downstream to the main town of Sambu, and then discard them.  I can't imagine this much work as a disposable raft!  I also am not sure how they get home?  We got extensive use out of the raft!  The kids rode it; Courage took it up the river to the town.  Heather and I paddled it back out to the boat from town.  That sure took some work, both to push and to steer.  But we made it.  We were losing the left two logs by the time we were done with it.  Guess it wasn't designed for ongoing use?

This trip up the river I think we got more bugged than the last times.  There were mosquitoes, no-see-ums, and probably chiggers too.  We all have lots of red, itchy bumps everywhere and are doing our best not to scratch and let them heal.  Bumps are tolerable, hoping that we don't get anything subsequent like malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever or anything else those pesky mosquitoes carry; so far, so good.  We had bug screens on our windows and doors as well as over the kid's beds as a secondary protection.  We used bug sprays as well as the thiamine patch.  All with limited benefits.  Imagine if we hadn't done all that!

We bought the village out of eggs almost every time we went to town with each of the boats wanting eggs.  On our final trip we bought 45 eggs, all they had, we had been given bundles of bananas and coconuts and a papaya.  We were restocked for a few days at least!

We headed back down the river early one morning and made a direct passage over the mud flats and back to the Perlas Islands.  We celebrated Integrity's birthday the day after we returned.  He told me that he didn't want it to be his birthday until his friend Isobel arrived.  She was with us in the Darien and returned to the Perlas the day after we did (on his birthday), so that evening we had his birthday party.  We made pizzas, swam and kayaked at the shore, played some games, and then someone spotted a turtle swimming by the boat.  We all ran out to see it.  Courage noticed it had ropes hanging from it.  We went to help it.  When Courage and Bill and a gaggle of kids arrived in the dinghy they found the ropes to be wrapped many times around its neck as well as a fin.  They'd been there a long time, his neck was swollen and his skin mottled.  They brought it back to the boat, gathered more sharp tools, and then used a spatula to pass under the ropes to protect the raw skin when they were cutting.  Finally they freed him from a large wad of ropes!!  They let him go and he rapidly swam away, popping up 20 feet away and looking back, then off he went.  He must have felt sooo free!!  Yeah turtle!!  We got some pictures, that'll be a memorable experience for us for a while!

We will be out another day or so, then head back to Panama City to have our meetings for our long stay visas in French Polynesia, resupply for another month, hopefully get our tarp cover for our cockpit installed, drop of Cassidy and Grandmother for a trip to the states, then head back out again.

Shannon

Low Water

The last few days have been pretty busy from dusk to dawn.  No wind and pretty overcast so no spare power for the computer.  A few of the boats got together and hired a guide to take us on a tour of the jungle.  We set off at 7am.  Early enough to still see the birds, but late enough the mosquitoes would not carry us off. Actually the mosquitoes were not all that bad. A little Deet and baby oil seems to keep them away for most of the day.  Our guide was amazing at spotting the wild life.  He would hear a bird call; tell us what it was, and start calling back to it. We all wanted to see a Toucan and when he heard one calling out we decided to follow its calls. In a few minutes our guide pointed up in a tree and there sat a Toucan. We ended up seeing a few hawks too. Along with many very colorful birds I can't remember the names of.

There were several frogs too, including the poison dart frog.  As we got further into the jungle it got denser, and the trees higher.  It was not long before the only way to make progress was to walk in the river. There we found an older gentleman with an axe.  A tree had fallen and it was just the right kind to make a bowel for husking rice. We watched him work for a while. I was impressed at what he was able to do with his axe.  The whole thing was about 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide. I'll have to see if I got a good picture of it.

On the way out I spotted a banana palm with a nice bunch of bananas that looked close to ripe. With a quick whack of a machete they came crashing down. I filled my backpack full and one of the other boaters grabbed a bunch too. I think we had over 50lbs of bananas. Paths sure seem to get longer when you are carrying a heavy load. I am pretty sure those last two miles were closer to ten.  Luckily there is a swimming hole just before entering the village. Us wimps climb down to steps in the clay; the kids of the town (and Teggy later on) jump the twenty feet making a great splash. There are little fish in the pool that just love to feed on you.

They also have a type of fresh water shrimp. One of the villagers caught a few and cooked them up for me. Not being a fan of shrimp I politely took a small one. They were so unbelievably good I ended up eating several. They are boiled with some local roots, and a little oil. You may be asking yourself how big were the shrimp. Well a small one is about 5 inches long, big ones over 8.

Today we are headed back towards the Perlas Islands.  Departure will be at around 6am with the outgoing tide. It is so nice moving at 7kts with the motor just over idle.

Until next time,
Loyal

Huck Finn

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yes, here it is New Years Eve. Here we are trying to keep cool by spending the day in the cool river playing with the local kids. Tally and Innocence are chasing chickens while Teggy and Intrepid are playing with some small parrots - - - such cute little guys.

Mother and I went back to the boat to take a quick rest and make sure the river had not deposited too much in the way of logs and other debris on the front of Lil Explorers. While clearing the logs from the front of the boat we spied a small balsa raft drifting by.  I quickly grabbed a rope and with the help of a friend we captured the raft, a beautifully simple little transport instrument.  It is four logs next to each other. A small branch runs across the top and is held in with wooden pegs. It is so simple, yet strong. I was able to tow it behind the dingy at almost full speed without it even noticing.  I gave it to Teggy as an early birthday present.  He got the first ride down the river.  It is quite the sight him drifting down the river with a stick as a paddle. As he drifted past a few of the other boats I had to think of Huck Finn and his little raft. I will have to see if I can still get a copy of the book for the little ones. I think they would enjoy it. Hopefully it has not been fully banned.

Right now there are four kids playing on one end, while Valiant is trying to get his leg between two of the logs up front. He is becoming quite the adventurer.  Anything his older brothers do, he has to do too. And it does not matter what that may be.

Early Tomorrow a few of the people on the boats are going for a hike into the mountains. I plan to tag along and get a little bird watching in. I will give a report tomorrow.
Good night and Happy New Year.

Loyal- - - -

Back up the Darien River

Going up the Darien River today, back to the La Chunga village.  We have 5 other boats with us this time and made a gentle downwind sail yesterday crossing the large bay from the Perlas to mainland.  We are all staged, waiting for a rising tide to cross the mud flats up to the river.  Once in the river it's not such a big deal, just crossing the mud flats that it gets shallow.  We draw less than most of the mono-hulls, so we usually take the lead and depth-sound out the channel.  We have 2 Canadian boats and 3 other Americans, including Sunrise with the 4-year-old girl.  Cassidy went with them yesterday to see how sailing on a mono-hull and with another crew was like---just a change of pace.  Sounds like it was a nice time.  It was a mild wind and downwind, so minimal heeling.

Need to go oversee schooling, and then off we go to the Darien.  Since we are motoring and caught a little rain in a squall last night, we may even get to wash a load of laundry!!

Shannon