9/25/2011 Perlas Islands

We’re still in the Pacific side of Panama, getting ready to transit the canal.  Not that it’s really going to take much preparation of the boat, but the shopping here is the best and cheapest we have seen since Mexico, and I think it will not be nearly as convenient on “the other side”, so we’re stocking up on all the things we might need. 

We were getting itchy feet though so we decided to visit a local island chain called the Perlas Islands (Pearls) with a buddy boat Jeorgia.   The Perlas are an easy day sail from where we were and most are uninhabited and pristine.  On the way there we saw lots of whales spouting and playing.  Unfortunately, none got close enough to get a good picture.  On the other hand, I don’t want a big whale too close to the boat:

The weather was overcast and rainy, typical Panama in the “green” season, but the water was warm and clear.   We got a couple of good snorkeling days in, only one of which I brought my underwater camera.

The highlight of the snorkeling was having a white tip reef shark cruising by all of us for a few minutes.  I did not take the following picture, but if I had had my camera, and had it been real sunny, this would have been the shot I could have gotten :-)  This is exactly what he looked like.

We also saw lots of colorful fish, a few big stingrays a.d a turtle grazing on the bottom.  Unfortunately most of the fishes wouldn’t stay still long enough to get a good picture.

Can you spot the stingray buried in the sand?  This guy was probably 10 feet long tip to tail.

One afternoon we also took the dingys  up a river.  Paul racing to get there first:

We saw lots of birdlife

The jungle was incredible dense

But soon we found the river entrance

It was eerie going up through the tunnel of thick jungle.  In places we had to duck branches or go around obstacles.  Lots of birds and even a few wild orchids. 

We probably got at least a 1/2 mile up the river before it got too shallow, so we turned around and headed back

It wasn’t all fun, we also spent hours scraping and cleaning the bottom of the boat.  It’s amazing how fast stuff grows here in warm water. 

After about a week in the Perlas, we had a nice 5 hour sail back to the mainland.

Next Monday, September 26, we are getting the boat measured for the canal, then once we pay the fees, we’ll set a date. 

Cheers,

Carolynn & Tom