Moonlightsailing    

 

From the canal and Colon we sailed over night to Bocas Del Toro, Panama and were ready for a little inland touring of Panama and Costa Rica.  Just off the boat.  Bocas is okay but you have to appreciate third world amenities and the nasty little microscopic no-see-ums that leave even nastier welts all over any exposed legs and arms.  So we departed as fast as we could to Boquete, Panama and Alajuela, Costa Rica as these are a couple of locations that should not be missed.

We parked at Marina Carenero on Isla Carenero.  In 1502, Christopher Columbus stopped at this island to perform repairs to his fleet before continuing on.  Now 504 years later we are here to perform repairs to Moonlight.  Some things never change fortunately.  But also fortunately we plan to sightsee and enjoy the surroundings before continuing on.   

 

Here is a local house on Isla Carenero.  Some amenities and infrastructure are lacking but who cares.  The rain water is captured for drinking and sanitation is .......... in the following picture.  In addition, there are many beautiful homes on the island that certainly only rich Panamanians and gringos own.   

 

 

The windows are quite airy and the restroom facilities are state of art for this part of Isla Carenero.  Our marina is right next door to this ocean front property.

 

 

 

 

By boat, by bus, by another bus, by walking we traveled to Boquete, Panama up into the coffee plantation country.  This is a beautiful mountain resort that is developing fast for Panama.  We looked at properties here and realized that their property prices were copying California boom prices.  We will stay with our 360 degree view ocean front property that is easily movable.  

Yen tours a coffee field with a guide.  Starbucks has to buy this coffee as it was the best and smoothest we have ever tasted.   It was enough to even make Yen a coffee drinker for a few days.  

 

 

We then went on to Costa Rica and first found friendly fluttering butterflies (Mariposas) even the elusive blue morph.  After spreading a little banana on our hands the butterflies were our best friends.  They would sit and sip the nectar and let us hold them and enjoy their incredible beauty.  It was an experience to remember and the butterflies always made us smile with renewed appreciation for their charming friendliness. 

      And more butterflies.         This Morph easily entertains cruisers and tourists.  

 

The Costa Rica rain forest is fascinating and damp.  We were sissy and walked on the provided trails.    

And there were interesting "things" falling out of the trees.  This lizard broke a branch right in front of Yen and fell to the walkway that we were strolling on.  He (or she) was quite a surprise.       

The orchids were out of this world  

The waterfalls were definitely a nice wet treat and walking through this rain forest was very cool.