8/9 June - Peninsula Azuero

Hi all, we ventured across the country from Portobelo (Caribbean Coast) to Chitre, Los Santos and Pedasi on the Pacific Coast. We both got across the whole country by bus for a grand total of $6 EACH. That´s for about 6-7 hours of road travel.

Chitre and Villa de Los Santos were primarily a church/museum tour... baroque stylings in Los Santos, simpler in Chitre, and hot local museums with ceramics from Pre columbian and BC era, and other local costumes and documents including the independence document for Panama.

Pedasi is a little laid back fishing/farming town on the bottom of the peninsula with a yum dulceria (cake shop). And just off the beach is Isla Iguana, which we´ve renamed as crab island due to the astounding amount of crabs - both small hermit crabs and these handsized purple and orange crabs. The noise of them scuttling through the undergrowth is amazing... there were iguanas too (hence the name) but the crabs were something else.


Karen and Ben (a dutch guy we befriended) went snorkelling while Phil was off diving the local reef again. Heaps of fish and at least a dozen moray eels. The first dive site was actually called Los Moranas (Moray Eel). Second dive site was south of the island, similar fish, but a bit murky, but with large schools of jacks and apparently a circling Wahu (I think it was).

For those surfers out there Pedasi and Tonosi are known for their surf - the billabong pro panama comp is held here, and proof in the form of signed posters were on the bakery wall. The beach at Pedasi was pretty calm, but apparently southern facing beaches have much better waves.

3/4 June - Diving Day!!

We teamed up with ScubaPortobelo for Phil´s first dive (and Karen´s snorkel) in Panama!

Dive 1: San Marino, 45 mins @ 15 metres, Air: 60 bar used.

Loads of wildlife on a local coral reef, including parrotfish, trumpet fish, and numerous spyrochetes.





Dive 2: Drake Island, 35 mins @ 12 metres, Air: 60 bar used.

More wildlife including an Arrow Crab and a really tiny octopus.

Water temperature on both dives - 32-34 °C, so Karen could quite happily stay in the water for an hour..... gotta love diving in the Caribbean!

When we got back to shore, we were starving and had a really yummy seafood lunch.

1/2 June - Isla Grande

Isla Grande is about an hour NE along the coast by bus from Portobelo. It is a small island, we visited in the low season, so it only had about 5 other tourists, one of which was an 80 yo polish american named Stan. Stan had an uncanny ability to sneak up on us and start very slow conversations...

The island has a coral reef which is great for snorkelling, Phil saw a dozen lobsters and caught none. :-( Lots of fish to watch, and plenty of sandy beaches. We walked across the island to a local resort, Bananas, and then around and across the rocks until blocked by rocks and sea. Rock climbing was out as the rocks crumbled underhand, and we were too lazy to walk all the way back and around. So we field tested our waterproof bag with camera and all inside... As our only means of escape was to swim for it around the point, to somewhere accessible.

Question for all... What animal is this? If it helps Karen´s response to seeing it was EEWUGH, where as Phils response was to grab the camera, and nearly fall in the rockpool in his eagerness to get a better look!

ESPANOL

Isla Grande es una hora por bus, norte-este de Portobelo, y necesita un barco pequeño para ir alli. Es una isla pequena, que visitamos cuando no hay muchos turistas. Pero uno de los turistas eran Stan, un americano de 80 años que vive en Seattle y visitar sus amigos en sud america cada año. Era un hombre amable pero no puede escuchar muy bueno.

Isla Grande tiene un Reef de coral que es muy bueno para snorkellear. Phil vio muchos langostinos pero no podimos comer esto para cena. Tambien era muchos peces y algunas playas con arena blanca.

30/31 May - Portobelo

Portobelo is an out of the way town on the Caribbean coast. During the 16th and 17th Centuries the Spanish fleets carted the Inca treasures from Peru to their homeland transporting gold by Ship to Panama City, overland to Portobelo and by ship back to Spain. A third of the world´s gold was weighed and taxed in the Portobelo Customs House before it continued on it´s (its) voyage to Spain.

Portobelo was attacked seven times by a mixture of pirates and the English Fleet, with such lofty names as Sir Francis Drake amongst them. Drake died of yellow fever in 1596, and was given a burial at sea just outside the Bay of Portobelo. Anthropological groups have identified the coffin and offered to send it home, but the British Ministry of Defence has declined, saying Drake should, quite appropriately, be left in peace.

Portobelo itself is a small town, yet with lots of life. Our balcony over the central plaza provided a good view of the passing human traffic. Kids playing soccer, old men on the corner, people waiting for buses and rotissery chickens. With minimal shops and no bank (which led to a priest being mugged for the collection plate money, the town is best known for its Iglesia de Cristo Negro (Church of the Black Christ). This statue inspires an annual pilgrimage with a strong African (Congo) influence on the festivities.