It seems that every time we enter a new country, we meet someone who inspires a blog post. Panama is no exception.
We crossed into Panama as we left Punta Burica to port, heading east. Punta Burica is a narrow peninsula that extends south into the Pacific, the east side of which belongs to Costa Rica, while the west side belongs to Panama.
Our fist stop in Panama was Isla Parida. We were instantly impressed by the number of remote islands that dot the Panama coastline.
On our second day in Panama, we stopped by Isla Secas on our way to Bahia Honda. Isla Secas was to be a temporary stop, luring us in by the offer of a calm anchorage within snorkeling distance of a reef. We anchored, snorkeled the reef and quickly agreed that the location was too nice to leave so soon. We let the anchor lie and spent the night. During our first two days in Panama, we felt as if we had the islands to ourselves.
On our third day, we sailed to Bahia Honda. Bahia Honda is a wide, calm bay that wanders deeply inland beyond a relatively narrow entrance. As we approached our targeted anchor location, it began to feel as if we would have another bay all to ourselves, this time surrounded almost entirely by beaches and layers of green rain forest from which came the greeting call of Howler Monkeys.
Then the boats began coming. Within minutes, two boats approached us even before our anchor had time to rest under water. One of the boats was propelled by a small horsepower motor and the other by a long double oar, each resembling oversized canoes.
"¡Hola!" The first to introduce himself was Domingo. Domingo, who is 80 years old, was happy, enthusiastic and clearly proud of Bahia Honda. He was also proud of the fact that this anchorage location has been identified in Navionics (perhaps the most widely used marine navigation software available) as, "Bahia Honda - Domingo."
We also met Domingo's son, Kenady, who had rowed over in a second boat to also meet us. Domingo and Kenady enthusiastically ran down a list of goods they would like to offer for sale or trade. Coconuts, bananas, limes, grapefruit and onions. We mentioned that we would be interested in all of those. Domingo went off to fish in the remaining daylight with his nephew, while Kenady continued to chat for some time. He left to row home just before dark, promising to return the next morning with some local produce.
As promised, we saw Kenady rowing toward us at 9 AM. He pulled along Traveler once again and proceeded to offload a bunch of 36 bananas, 12 limes, 10 grapefruit, 6 coconuts and an onion. He also presented a bowl he had carved from local wood. We asked what he would like for the bowl and he said, $20; however, Kenady seemed more interested in trading than selling.
The availability of goods in and around Bahia Honda is limited by economics and accessibility. From Bahia Honda, shopping at a department store requires a three-mile trek to a main road, followed by a three-hour car ride, each way. Kenady described a list of items he would prefer to receive in trade: lightweight long sleeve shirts, shorts, sandals, hats, backpacks, batteries and Neosporin. From his wish list, we were able to produce a hat, several batteries and a tube of Neosporin. Had we only known of such needs beforehand, we would have been more prepared.
To complete our purchase, we requested a total cost for the produce. Kenady asked us to pay him whatever we felt was fair. For the wooden bowl and the produce, we handed him $40. Kenady's limited English and our gaps in Spanish made the exchange a bit challenging at times, but eventually Ned realized that Kenady was telling us that $40 was too much and asking if we had the denominations for $35 instead. All of this occurred while Kenady was periodically pausing to bail water from his leaking boat.
After finalizing our exchange, we explained that he should keep the coconuts for himself since we had no way of opening them. He said he would be back later in the afternoon with a machete.
Our last couple hours of daylight were spent with Kenady again that evening as we talked, laughed and admired his skills with a machete. Standing in his boat, which was tied to Traveler, he would lop off the end of a coconut with one swipe and offer us the liquid to drink. Once drained, he would take the coconut back and, holding the coconut in one hand and the machete in the other, proceed to raise the blade and whack downward, creating slices around the coconut. Once opened, he would then take the top that had been cut off originally, carve it into a scraper and pry the meat from inside. He also peeled and sliced grapefruit with the same multi-purpose culinary device. We were entertained and impressed. We joked that we now understood his request for Neosporin.
Before we said our goodbyes, Kenady asked us to tell other sailors about him and Bahia Honda. He was hoping we would describe to others the beauty of the bay, the hospitality of the locals, the produce available and the need for items to trade.
To emphasize all of this needed no convincing. Bahia Honda was another anchorage we were fortunate to visit and sorry to leave.
Love watching along from the Teton Valley! I'm a map-visual kinda guy, so I've been editing this map to follow along. https://caltopo.com/m/70K94/6NC2H0A1HCHR65QN
Anyone else should be able to view that map too.
What I made complements the PredictWind tracker (https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_Traveler) with just some dates of various places you've been.
You are having some really neat experiences and meeting some really awesome and interesting people! This is so cool. Will continue praying for safety and fun!! Love ya!❤️