Las Perlas - Isla Contadora

I promised pictures of the Las Perlas Islands and here are some of them.  Like I said before, it was paradisaical - and gorgeous.  Here is an agouti - these large rodents run around like squirrels.  I think they are similar to the gibnut, which I ate in Belize.

 

Here is the beach we anchored off, and landed with the dinghy.  It had beautiful blue stone cliffs.

There were flowers everywhere, as well as lots of jungle greenery.

This is a wrecked ferry you can prowl around.  There is nothing left but the hull.

 

 

 

Right now we are back in Panama City, preparing to leave next week for Ecuador.  One of the boats that left here took a record 25 days to get there - but they had the weather against them and no working engine.  We will likely have headwinds and a contrary current as well,  but we have a working engine.  I am talking to everyone I come in contact with who has done this passage, so I should be pretty well informed when the time comes to choose the route. 

 

We have been really busy since we got back - Mike installed a new solar panel and has to change out some of the toilet plumbing and he is not looking forward to doing that!  We got a new barbecue grill - it seems to work really well.  You have to have a gas grill unless you want to sacrifice storage space to bags and bags of charcoal.  We had a grill that came with the boat, but it did not work well (problems with temperature control) and recently the top blew off and was lost to the sea.  Then we discovered the fancy ones on sale, so one thing led to another and we have a new grill.  Mike made awesome ribs on it last night.   

 

I have also been active on the SSB net and will be the net controller two days this week.  I like doing it and we have a really good radio that picks up almost everyone.  We got all new anchor chain, and today we will switch out the old chain.  We got and installed a new shower head system.  All the electronics and working, the watermaker is making water like crazy, and despite really liking it here, we are getting itchy to leave and get underway for a new place.  I am amazed to think that soon I will be in a new hemisphere and will have crossed the equator.  There are ceremonies involved with crossing the equator - before you do it, you are but a slimy polliwog, but afterwards, you are a Shellback.  Mike told me the Navy does all this hazing type stuff as a ritual, so I said he would have to come up with one for me, but I did not want it to be just assigning chores.  So we will see. 

 

So that is really it for now.  We are happy and busy, and things seem to be falling together nicely.  Time to get up on deck and help with the chain on load!    



"Concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don't care who's listening."  (Allen Ginsberg)