PANAMA CITY-OLD TOWN

Birthday Celebration in Las Perlas, Panama

We rented a golf cart to tour around the island of Contadora in Las Perlas - stopped for lunch at Geralds for a special birthday celebration, which was a great local spot

Have always wanted to see a sloth & finally found one on the way to this restaurant outside of Panama City. Dinner with Dave, Holly, Dave, Marian & Peter.

Celebratory Canal Passage

Celebrated our successful transit through the canal with a bottle of champagne at the Westin Hotel in Panama, thanks to Dave & Holly. Our advisor, Harold,  was quite the character & thought he was hysterical giving everybody rabbit ears every time a photo was taken!

THE CREW

We needed 4 line handlers so Dave & Holly from Vancouver & Dave & Marian from Ontario came to help us with the transiting. We all got special t-shirts with boat name & Canal logo on them.

Transiting the Panama Canal

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There are 6 locks in total going through the Canal. The first 3 are in Lake Gatun & we did those at night. At 1st, I was a little disappointed, but as it turned out, going through at night was quite interesting.  The 1st set of locks started low & we rose up. We were centered tied, which was preferable. Overnighted in Gatun Lake. There were 7 on board - 4 line handlers, the captain, the advisor (a local Panamanian working for the Canal) & the photographer.

The Miraflores locks are the ones which open up onto the Pacific. We started high & then dropped. This time we were tied to the side which wasn't the safest spot as there is quite a bit of turbulence & unpredictable currents. Luckily, we didn't have any issues due to Capt'n Pete's skilled piloting.

LA PAZ

There's a beautiful malecon running from the Marina Palmira to the downtown core of La Paz. We were there over Semana Santa, which is onr of Mexico's busiest weeks of the year.

GOOD TIMES WITH GOOD FRIENDS

We reconnected with Jennifer & Richard off "Our Rose" after meeting them in Cuba last season. We spent a wonderful Christmas & New Years with them & it was great fun spending time with them again.

KUNA YALA - A MATRILINEAL SOCIETY

The Kuna women dressed in their traditional garb. They come around to the boats in their ulus & sell their "molas" which are intricately designed patterns cut & sewn into many different layers of colorful cloth.

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEARS

Bonfires, cockpit parties & bows of the boats are all good places for sipping on a cold one!