JUNGLE WILDLIFE

Sloths, Frogs, Birds and many others, brought us intrigue...

The famous Red Frog only found on the island of Bastimentos.
He's poisonous (if you want to eat him..)

Sloths galore..!

catapillar

Sloth in a palm tree beside the path

A Kiskadee bird. He had an enchanting manner and song.

Big old roach..

BOCAS JUNGLE AND BEACHES

Bocas and Bastimentos scenes.

Floating bar near Bocas town.

North coast of Colon island

cycling through bamboo forests

Dense undergrowth

more beaches.

view from the club infinity pool

sand and sand

nice

related to the banana plant

Red Frog resort entrance

wide open spaces

STAYING IN BOCAS DEL TORO

Bocas del Toro is a huge sheltered archipelago of mangrove and jungle covered islands. The main town of Bocas is situated on the Island of Colon. The town has a beautiful setting with a coastline of semi colonial buildings set on platforms over the water. There is a negligible tide in this area so the town and buildings do not get swamped in seawater.
 The choices of anchorages for your yacht is vast. You can literally explore for many months and anchor in a different place each night. However we liked visiting the town of Bocas to enjoy the restaurants, cafes, and shopping so we anchored beside the town for a week.

When the hustle and bustle got too much we moved over to the Red Frog Marina on the big wild island of Bastimentos.
This is where we stayed for almost two months. We explored the island jungle, swam off the surf beaches and generally relaxed in calm waters listening to the jungle sounds and savouring the smells.

sunset over Red Frog Resort beach

sunset over Red Frog Marina..1

beach scene

the beach of 'the point'.

surf beach

this is the resort club swimming pool

FROM SAN BLAS TO LINTON AND ON TO BOCAS DEL TORO

Our time in San Blas was fairly short because we had ordered new batteries from the USA for Kwanza, and we had a delivery date of 21st March in Bocas del Toro Marina.
After leaving the islands of Hollandes Cays on the 11th March, we sailed West to the island of Linton and the marina of Linton Bay. This was to be our 'check in' point where we bought our Panama cruising permit and took a taxi to Portobelo for passport control and entrance stamp.
With that done we rested in Linton for a couple of days and found an adequate weather window to continue towards Bocas del Toro.
Leaving the shelter of Linton Bay we headed out into the Caribbean and across the huge shipping lanes North of the canal entrance of Colon. This was fairly hectic because the ships move fast, and a yacht moves very slowly in comparison. Thankful for our AIS system we managed to avoid the ships and continued West over the underwater volcanic plateau of 'Banco Volcan'.. This feature provided us with some very unusual waves including tidal turbulence. A strong 2 knot tide flows down the Panama coast heading west and meets the Trade Wind swell at the volcano so naturally there are wave overfalls.
It took us 30 hours of sailing and motor-sailing to get to Bocas, where we dropped the anchor just outside the Bocas Marina where the batteries were to be delivered.
We stayed at anchor for a week while we received and installed our new Trojan wet cel batteries and disposed of our old ones.

anchored in Linton Bay

Linton Bay Marina

Crossing the shipping lanes at the entrance to Panama Canal

Dolphin escort

This is our route through the shipping lanes (pink lines)
and over the shallow Banco Volcan

Arriving in Bocas del Toro

THE MAGICAL SAN BLAS ISLANDS

We were ready for a quiet swim in the azure waters of the Hollandes Cays of the San Blas Islands after being stuck on the stark Columbian coast. The sea was certainly nice and clear but the area was difficult to navigate because the charts were not accurate. Extreme caution was the order of the day.
But we tolerated this and settled down to enjoy the experience.!

small islands dotted the calm ocean

expanses fo blue

clear water..!

Kwanza at anchor

secluded beaches

Palm trees belonging to the Kuna people

Sublime sunsets

amazing "moonrise"...!

LEAVING SANTA MARTA

We were trapped in Santa Marta for much longer than we wished, and this was due to the extremely high winds just off the coast. These are seasonal Katabatic winds which lasted too long this year. Everyone was fed up with the conditions especially the yacht people.
Next stop was the dream island nation of San Blas. These islands are inhabited by the Kuna tribe of people who are starkly opposed to being integrated into the general Panamanian population.
We left Santa Marta on the 27th February at 09.00. Leaving in daylight in order to cross the Barranquilla River entrance with good visibility. This river drains the whole of Columbia so has a lot of debris which is dangerous for boats. Our course passed close to Cartagena and then on to San Blas. Needless to say the night sail was pretty scary with high waves and above average winds..

weather grip file showing high winds off Santa Marta

Kwanza was strapped in well and truly..

on the trip to San Blas we picked up a lot of flying fish during the night.
This is a sign that it was very rough sea. The fish get confused and don't know which way to fly.

arriving in the calm San Blas islands

some other yachts anchored of BBQ island in Hollandes Cays.