Another sailing season began for us with a November 3 departure from California. We had left Mañana in Bocas del Toro for the summer while we headed home for golf and farmer’s markets. We flew from San Jose, CA to Panama City, spent the night in town, and then caught a puddle jumper to Bocas. We arrived in to beautiful weather and in the midst of the Independence Day parade (Nov 5) in Bocas (Google Earth 9° 20.259'N,82° 14.434'W) where, once again, we were struck by the “parade a week” atmosphere of Latin America. Just “one more fiesta” is the motto.
After sufficient celebrating we caught the water taxi to Bastimentos Island where we found Mañana floating serenely at the Red Frog marina dock (Google Earth 9° 20.188'N, 82° 10.650'W). Lobo and Erika had opened and aired the boat regularly while we were gone, and one of the ladies from the nearby Indian village had spent a full day removing the evidence of mold, mildew and heavy rains which had turned our decks green during the summer. Despite the rains and wet weather the boat has never looked better.
As with all of our “returns to paradise” we had several projects planned before we could start sailing, and we had lots of new gear in tow. We began by replacing our jib and mainsail with new sails from UK. Beautiful. We also installed new Lexan windows in the cabin and we made a minor adjustment to last year’s motor installation. We still have new wire rigging to hoist up the mast, but (before the water pipe broke) we had happily commented that this is the very best condition this boat has been in “ever”. The water pipe turned out to be minor anyway.
We will depart Bocas sometime around Thanksgiving headed for the very picturesque San Blas Islands (Google Earth 9° 32.578'N, 78° 47.718'W) which are about 200 miles to the east. The San Blas is still a remote, undeveloped province of Panama dominated by the autonomous Kuna Yala Indians. The San Blas archipelago is a prime Caribbean sailing destination with a vast system of reefs protecting the anchorages from the rolling seas. Overland access to San Blas is by four-wheel vehicles only, and the majority of visitors arrive by boat. Internet access and even electricity are rare amenities in the San Blas. They sell no liquor (yes, we are taking plenty) and fresh produce is scarce, but this is island sailing at its best. Sometime in January we will reverse course and return to Bocas.
We have filled our days prior to Thanksgiving with books, beaches, and happy hours although we had promised ourselves that we would try the zip line tour, hike the island, and even try the scuba diving. So far none of that. Rain is frequent and bugs are annoying, but that’s paradise everywhere. All plans we make have to take into account “rain delays”, and in fact the weather is the only thing keeping us from heading east sooner. We did find a tiny Thai restaurant tuc ked into the jungleat the top of the island and hiked to lunch with eight friends.
As previously stated… when we arrived in Bocas del Toro it was Independence Day. Panama was celebrating it’s independence from Colombia in 1904. That was the November 5 celebration. Parades, speeches, hot dogs, beer… typical Independence Day and very much like what we saw last year in David (okay, maybe they didn’t have hot dogs). Now we get to November 16 and we have another Independence Day celebrating?… yes! independence from Colombia in 1904. Sound familiar? Well Nov 16 is Bocas Day. It seems that Bocas del Toro celebrates both the actual Independence Day AND the day word of independence reached this outlying province (likely by mule or slow boat). This is very much like Kentucky celebrating July 4th and also celebrating July 20th because that’s when Kentucky first heard about July 4th. Next week is Bastimentos Day which I suspect has to do with a canoe trip across the bay to let Bastimentos know about the same Colombian independence.
The celebration was again a day long parade (10 AM to 4 PM) filled with marching bands. There were local bands from the schools plus a fire department band, a police band, and even a Department of Public Works band. Bands also came from other communities and filled the two large ferry boats to the island. All of the bands wore uniforms and while the feature band at the end of the parade had saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, glockenspiels, drums, etc. almost all of the other bands could best be described as “two instrument bands”. The only two instruments were “big drums” and “little drums”. Everybody plays the drums. 50 or 60 band members with nothing but drums. We saw one little guy with a mini size uniform and an oversize hat who was about 3 feet tall banging away on a 2 foot drum with some serious attitude. You would have thought he was a Dave Clark (Ringo Starr?) impersonator.
The bands marched many blocks in some intense sun, and most of the pom-pom girls wore full nylons, yet the Americans watching the parade seemed to be the only ones affected by the heat. . The parade route was a little difficult to find at first because the parade crossed through itself at one intersection in town requiring the band from one street or the other to give way. Overall this was exceptionally entertaining.
The weather and procrasination have conspiered to keep us in Bocas a little longer than expected, but we have day sailed to try the new sails and we have completely stocked the boat for 6 weeks without stores, and we are ready to sail for San Blas. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you like the blogs) we will be posting nothing to the internet until we return from San Blas in January. Best to all.
Tom and Andrea
