BACK IN THE LAND OF CONVENIENCE-PART III

We regularly see Ulu’s like this one, under sail. Today it stopped by selling crab and lobster. Due to the fact we still have not had anyone stop buy selling fruit or veggies we decide we need to go to Nargana, a two hour trip for this much needed fresh produce. The closer we get to Nargana we can not believe all the floating plastic.

It’s SLIM PICKENS at the grocery store I’m afraid. We manage to purchase a dozen eggs for $3., one cabbage, 6 buns, 5 onions and a cucumber for $7. We ran into Frederico whom we had met last spring. Commenting on our disappointment on not finding any fruit he took us to another store where we managed to get 3 tomatoes, a melon and 6 carrots for $6.25. We were also charged the $10.00 tourist fee. Oh Well!!

The next day we went back into town for fuel which was $4.65 a Kuna gallon, which is 3/4 of a gallon, plus we managed to find a few potatoes at $1.00 a pound and beer was 80cents instead of the usual 49 cents.
After two nights we decide to head back to Green Island. Initially we are the only boat. By sunset a few more boats arrive. All in all a quiet anchorage but the water is definitely not as clear as when we were here in the spring. We had heard there was a resident crocodile and sure enough we saw it 500 yards off the stern of the boat. It’s an easy decision not to snorkel this time round.

Back in Chichime we meet Celia and Gene (Last Laugh)

Celia organizes a series of dinghy races with Loic.

12 Year old Loic is very competitive and wins the special trophy.

We’ve gone to Porvenir to check out AND LOOK WHO THE WIND BLEW IN…..
We have not seen Ton and Tonnie (IMSIM) for months. It’s so nice to spend some time with them before they head for Cartagena.

We have unexpected company on board:
First our resident Geiko,

And then as we are pulling up anchor an Ulu approaches us asking for a tow back to Chichime. Grandma (Mootn )and Grandson(Monchot ) join us in the cockpit and the men stay in the Ulu.

We’re back in Portobelo taking advantage of the rain. We were down to our last 30 gallons of water.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a nice reef on the west side of Portobelo Bay.
We will make a point to come back to snorkel.

Portobelo has a new cruisers hang out. “Captain Jack’s” with their resident mascot “Cheeky” has wi-fi available at $2.00 a day plus they make light lunches starting at $2.00. Beer is $1.00 and wine $2.00.
We have tried to do a bit of provisioning by bus from here but have decided we should go into Shelter Bay Marina for a week or two as it is much easier getting supplies onto the boat from a dock.

We also have a few repairs to catch up on so until our next leg of our journey…..Adios amigos…..