OUR RETIRED ADVENTURE
qUEREMOS VIVIR AL SOL
KSha
Costa Rica is amazing! Beauty abounds.
Panama is "home" for now. Loving life!
South America is next! Columbia here we come.
Costa Rica is amazing! Beauty abounds.
Panama is "home" for now. Loving life!
South America is next! Columbia here we come.
We are enjoying the "quieter" life outside the "big city" of Bocas Town back at Playa Tortuga. Cars are moving a little faster along the road for our morning walks; but walking along the beach is hard to beat. We've had some good rain showers in the last few days, but every day has always turned into a sunny day and in the mid 80's. [As I write today it is still cloudy at 1:30 PM, unusual.] Last Wednesday we took an excursion by boat, that was set up by our general manager here at Playa Tortuga (got us 50% discount for the trip), that had us visiting several islands, sightseeing aquatic life and snorkeling. We boarded a van with several other people from our hotel that took us into town to the dock to load onto the boat. At about 10 AM, eighteen of us boarded the canopied boat and we set out to sea. Our captain cranked up the 250 HP engine and we were flying across the water in no time. Once out in the open water, although you can still see land masses, I lost my directional perspective pretty quickly. We didn't know exactly where we were going, but we knew our first stop was to see dolphins. Now before anyone gets too excited, we saw several of them, but I failed to get a picture of any of them. I know I'm not as good as NGG, but we were in a large open area with about 10 or more other boats and when the dolphins breached the water they were a ways off, sometimes near other boats and there wasn't a great opportunity to get a pic-although I tried! We then drove a short ways around and through islands of mangrove trees to look for sloths; where I did manage a picture...thank you very much. We said goodbye to our sloth friend and headed back out to sea. After a while of speeding along, we started to slow down and then the engine stopped. As the captain spoke in Spanish, we weren't sure what was the plan, but soon found out we had stopped to do some snorkeling...in the middle of open water! As we looked around we noticed we could see the bottom--maybe about 10-12 feet deep, and there was coral there as well. The captain was handing out the snorkeling masks to those that wanted them, including me. Not understanding the protocol on how to get out of the boat, I watched a couple of "younger" people show me how...put your legs over and go! Sha was still undecided as I went into the water. Sha noticed the small ladder that was our reentry back onto the boat and passed on getting in. The water was comfortably warm and enjoyable to float in. I saw the different kinds of coral and a lot of small fishes as I snorkeled around the boat with about half of our party getting in the water. The ladder back onto the boat wasn't quite as difficult as I had imaged and I reloaded without incident. After everyone was back on the boat, we drove a short distance to a restaurant on the water to order lunch...not eat it-just order it, and have an opportunity to hit the head if necessary. After everyone ordered lunch, we left. I'm not sure if everyone else thought this was weird, but after Sha and I exchanged some "WTF" looks we soldiered on. Our furthest destination was next; Zapatilla island #2. These two tiny islands are the last land masses of Bocas Del Toro as you head into the open Caribbean Sea. Approaching Zapatilla #2. A lone palm tree on a rock offshore of Zapatilla #2. Piece of Zapatilla beach. We all voted for a 2-hour stay before unloading at the dock. This was a popular destination as we saw multiple other tour boats offshore and many people already on the patches of beach that we could see. The area was a National Marine Park and there was a marked walk way through the jungle that was located at the end of the dock where we got off the boat. We walked along the trail for about 15 minutes until it started moving away from the water, and then we returned to the beach. I added these two driftwood pieces for our good friend Karen in Coco because she loves them as much as I do. Hi Karen! We were enjoying the sunshine as we waded in the water, we also noticed that off in the distance it looked like it was raining. Then we noticed it was getting closer. Before too long the wind had picked up and we decided we needed to head for the covered palapa about 50 meters off of the water. We made it to cover as the light rain came down. We had about a half an hour before we were to reload onto the boat; and by the time that came around, the rain had passed and the sun was on its way back out. We all reloaded the boat and headed back to get our lunch in the bright sunshine. From Zapatilla to the restaurant is about a half an hour ride over the open sea. When we arrived, we were told to sit down and our food would be out shortly. Sha and I were trying to theorize how this all would work; having ordered our food about 3 hours ago, would they remember who ordered what AND then be able to find us all sitting around at different tables. I gotta say they handle it pretty well. A man would come out of the kitchen with 2 plates and be calling names...he would walk around and find the person(s) with their hand up and then deliver. Only a few times did he have to walk around the different areas twice--probably because someone wasn't paying attention and missed their name being called the first time. Sha got her order first and I wasn't so sure they hadn't forgot mine; but a few minutes later it came out. After you ate, you then went up and paid your bill. We could see our captain checking in with the kitchen to see if any of our group still needed to pay before we got the call to load up the boat. While we waited, we saw some cool fish. A pair of needle fish. There were literally millions of these tiny fishes in swarms under the dock and around the pillars of the restaurant. After reloading the boat (once everyone had paid their tab), we headed back to our home dock. About halfway "home", I was thinking this was a nice long day and a wonderful trip when the boat started slowing down...we were no where near anything, and then the engine cut and we were floating. The captain didn't say anything right away; and just when I thought we might need to call for help, the captain said, "Do you see anything?" Looking harder into the shallow water I realized I could see starfish on the sandy floor. Captain asked if anyone wanted to snorkel with the starfish; and yup I certainly did! NGG got these two great shots from the boat as I did my aquatic investigations. Interesting to see the different colors of them. What a cool last piece to experience during a wonderful day. Seven hours after boarding our boat in the morning, we got back off at our home dock. We got the van ride home, changed and headed off to Skully's for BINGO. Good thing we did as Sha was a big winner in the second game of the night! We took it easy on Thursday as the jarring of open water travel required a day of relaxing by the pool. Friday we went back into town to our favorite deli by our old hotel Gran Bahia for lunch. We each had a wonderful cheeseburger that costed us $8...for both of them! We added a $0.65 bag of chips and a $1 soda. I love a $10.25 lunch! We then strolled the downtown streets until we got to the park (still decorated with the lanterns) and played cribbage for an hour and a half; Sha is still kicking my behind. We then hit a Happy hour for a little refreshment and then walked back to La Buga to have sushi by the water. After a good walk this morning, we've had a relaxing day while I've caught you up on our continued stay on Bocas. Sha is wanting some pasta for dinner tonight so we'll be planning where we will go soon.
Update on the house rental...Seems that making payments to Panamanian accounts and banks is more difficult than one would think. Oh it can be done, but the fees for transfers or apps are way more than we want to spend (% of total sum, plus bank fees on the sender and receiver's side). We didn't retire to pay to use our own money. So we are still trying to work out how our security deposit and first month's rent won't cost us an arm and a leg to make them. Stay tuned... We miss you all and hope you are well. We will see our Chi-town family in less than two weeks! Pura Vida!
1 Comment
LOIS SEIBEL
2/7/2023 11:47:48 am
we love all those beautiful pictures! good to see you both have a gorgeous tan! Were the starfish moving slowly?
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