Ten Days in the Wilderness

Western Panama is beautiful.  If I didn't miss home so much, I could easily spend a month or more here.  The weather is pleasant, the islands are virtually uninhabited jungles, and the water is clear.

The temperature here most days is in the upper eighties, and nights in the lower eighties.  For the first time I can remember, we can turn off the generator, turn off the air conditioning, open up the boat and enjoy the fresh air -- free of bugs.  It is May, we are in the Inter-tropical Convergent Zone (ITCZ), and rainy season is beginning.  The resulting squalls which pass by several times per day, bring short spurts of intense rain and lightning with gusty winds, however the rest of the day is pleasant.

Jungle Living

It would be very difficult to see and enjoy all that we have been able to if we were not on a boat.  The islands are a remote archipelago, far removed from the mainland of Panama. 

Our first stop in Panama was Isla Gamez, off Isla Parida, 80 miles and 19 hours from Golfito.  After lunch and a much-needed nap, we explored the tiny uninhabited island, dug in the sand and swam in the water.  It was a lot of fun to have an entire island all to yourselves.  Around 9:00 pm, we  headed on for a twelve-hour motor-sail to the small Isla Jicaron, off of Isla Coiba.

On our dinghy ride in to the beach at Isla Jicaron, we saw some dolphins swimming in the cove.  We idled our outboard and drifted around watching the mother and baby dolphin swimming around us- at times they were just yards away!  Once ashore, we walked along the beach- at times in the heavy rain- and listened to the monkeys howling in the jungle around us.

The following day, we went back to the same beach.  Robert walked, ran, climbed, jumped and swam the length of the entire beach.  After about an hour of exploring, we found a place that was dry- not covered by the tide, and open- no bugs, which we thought would be an ideal place for our picnic.

A short walk to the top of the sand revealed a fresh water stream coming out of the jungle, and just as we opened up our sandwiches, the rain started.  We sought shelter under a small tree and sat on a felled tree trunk to enjoy our PBJ's in the rain.  After lunch, Robert crossed the stream to pick some fruit and delighted in sliding down the sand bank as the sand gave way under his weight.

Once back at the beach, we SAW the monkeys that we had heard the day before.  Mark and Robert called to them, and the monkeys called back!  Robert played in the sand, and we all played in the water before heading back to the boat.

Is this Gilligan's Island?

Our next stop after Jicaron was Isla Pedro Gonzalez.  On the beach stands one lone, very well taken care of, bamboo house.  As we walked the beach, we saw remains of other houses and I wondered if it used to be a small village.  I reflected on the one couple living there now and thought they must get very lonely all by themselves.  However, in the few days that we were there, several boats stopped by- some to visit, some to deliver fish, some to work on their fish nets.  Mark thinks they probably have quite a social life.

Here, we went snorkeling.  All three of us put on our masks, fins, and snorkels to investigate life under water.  Robert's snorkel lasted a short time, but he swam around with us, easily floating on his own in the sea water, for quite awhile.  He would put his masked face under water from time to time to look at whatever creature we had spotted.

After enjoying a couple of days at Jicaron, we headed for the south end of Isla del Rey, the largest island in the Perlas archipelago.  Here, we adventured up the jungle river in our dinghy.  We arrived a little after low tide which allowed us to turn off the outboard and travel quietly upriver, carried by the rising tide.  Well, as quietly as is possible with a curious  and loquacious three year old.

Along the river, Mark enjoyed the scenery of mangroves and crabs and listening to the birds in the trees overhead. 

Robert enjoyed getting out of the dinghy from time to time and pulling it across the sand bars that we encountered while the tide was still low.  I spent the journey worried that the large reptile, whose tracks we'd seen on the beach the day before, was going to jump out of the water and eat my son for a snack.

We all made it back out of the river intact (physically, if not emotionally).  As we dinghied back out, we passed through hundreds of pelicans who use the Perlas Islands as their flight training grounds.  Apparently the juvenile pelicans come here to learn how to fly and fish!

The Reality of the Jungle

The islands are beautiful, and we're having lots of fun, but ten days may be too much...or too little.  It may be too little time  because I feel like we're on a ten-day vacation, and we're compelled to have fun  and see all there is to see and do all there is to do.  Hence, I'm a little pooped- a feeling many over-ambitious vacationers may be familiar with.

On the other hand:  too much jungle.  I guess I just need a little civilization every now and then.  We have ten days of laundry spilling over the hamper, I've made ten days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, followed by ten days of dishes (which Mark usually does).  Fortunately, we only have seven days of trash on board because we paid the Cebaco Bay fuel barge $10 to take our trash a week ago- money very well spent.  Plus, God bless my little family, we only have each other to talk to for ten days.

Technical difficulties

After our jungle river experience, we motor-sailed up to the northeast side of Isla del Rey, next to Isla del Cana.  About two hours before dark, just outside the entrance to the anchorage, we motored through a "trash line" in the water and caught something  on our propeller.  This caused us to pull way back on the throttle and rely on the foresail to bring us in the remaining distance.  Doing 2.3 knots, less than one-half of our normal cruising speed, we arrived and anchored after dark.

But, we didn't let any of that stop us from having fun.  In the morning, Mark dove under the boat and extracted a three-foot diameter ball of two-inch polypropylene rope which had wrapped itself around our prop.  Luckily, it had not melted around the prop and so it came off very easily.

In the afternoon, we dinghied around the corner of the island to  some rocks that were connected at low tide.  One of the rocks has a hole in it that looks like a bridge, which captured Robert's attention.  So, we anchored the dinghy in a semi-sandy place amongst the rocks and began our ascent of the rocky hill. 

We climbed over rocks- some sharp, some steep, some slippery from the tide.  We into and ascended a ten-foot crevice before climbing over more rocks and reaching the forest.  Robert, of course, was a trooper.  The forested part of the hike was easier for him than it was for us because he was able to walk beneath the vines and branches that Mark and I had to work our way around, over, or through.

On the far edge of the jungle, Mark, already complaining about his choice of hiking shoes (flip-flops), stepped in the midst of ants.  Large,two-inch-long black ants with large pincers, and they left two  nickel-sized welts on his foot.  We all quickly climbed down all the slippery, steep, and sharp rocks, back up to the tiny beach where we had left the dinghy.

Once back at the beach, we were able to relax and enjoy our picnic on an uninhabited beach in Panama which is only above water for half the day because of the 15 foot tide swings.

On the way back to the boat, the outboard engine on the dinghy had some difficulties.  This made the long trip back around the island back to the boat a little longer and more adventurous than the first ride.  This problem seems to have "worked itself out" now, but needs some attention soon.

With all this in mind, I am quite proud of ourselves.  We have spent ten days in the jungle, completely cut off from civilization, and we have not only had fun, but we also survived!!