We took an inland trip to Boquete, near Volcan Baru, in Panama while the boat was still at the marina. The rainy season was still going strong, but we managed some hikes both in the rain and in great clear sunshine, too. Mike hiked up to the continental divide and was able to see both the Atlantic side and the Pacific side from the top. The highlands are lovely with cliffs, large trees covered with epiphites, including many orchids, and crystal clear streams due to the daily deluges. We had a lovely dinner up the mountain at an Italian restaurant situated right next to the creek's falls. The environment was a delight and food excelent. Boquete is a bit of an expat hideaway in Panama with lots of contstruction going on. The climate seems great, except for the rainy season, but that gives the flowers the extra they need to be glorious!

We also found a great book on the history of naturalists in Panama who have worked for the Smithsonian and before they began research in Panama during the construction of the canal. Boquete was featured a lot in the book as a retreat that has been popular since the early 1900's and it's noted for the abundance and diversity of creatures and plants living there.

Costa Rica’s Gulfo Dulce

During our time at Golfito, we traveled to Rincon, a lovely bay up in the far end of the gulf. Here are a few views of the bay and Finisterre anchored there. We hiked, swam and dodged rain squalls which happened every day. The wildlife here was a delight due to mangroves meeting jungle along the shore. We were delighted to see scarlet macaws up in a tree, but they quickly went into their hole and even though they are very large birds, they were all the way into the tree before Mike could get a good picture. We also saw this snake curled up, warming up in the morning sunshine atop the shrubbery along the road.




Boca Chica, Panama
In our travels from Costa Rica toward Panama City included the lovely island group of Isla Parida and then, Boca Chica. Here in Boca Chica, we have met the owners of a hotel/fishing/restaurant place called Gone Fishing Panama Resort. The owners are eager to continue helping the local school with their needs to support literacy in the community. Currently they are working with Rotary to get textbooks for the school and also want to support student reading through collecting children’s literature in Spanish, English and bilingual. Cruisers who travel down the coast of Panama, will find a great opportunity here to contribute to a local effort already underway to help the school children of Panama. If you are planning to come to Boca Chica, drop off donations of books and school supplies to Donna at Gone Fishing, right up from the sailboat anchorage. You may also donate funds to help with the project at Gone Fishing Panama (gonefishingpanama.com) The resort will be holding a fishing tournament this coming spring to benefit the local school as well.

We have found Boca Chica to be a great place to get some of the supplies we need for our month in Western Panama. Everyone has been very helpful here and we found that both Panama cruising guides were helpful to us in getting into the Isla Ventana anchorage, and from there we checked depths during high tide all the way in to the Boca Chica anchorage. Everything was as pictured and written in the guides. There is sometimes surf running at Playa Grande just south of the anchorage and we sampled restaurants here as well, an amenity not often found in anchorages along the way to Panama City.