Surviving on Mogo Mogo

Our first stop after rounding the dreaded Cabo Mala was the Pearlas Islands.

The Pearlas, made up of approximately 100 various size islands lying 40 miles southeast of Panama City, used to be fertile pearl territory.  The Spanish, who named the islands, stole a great many from the locals, before defeating and enslaving them.  One pearl,  "La Peregrina" was given to Mary Tudor as a wedding gift by her intended, King Phillip II of Spain.  The pearl passed through many hands over the years,  including those of Elizabeth Taylor, earning it the name "The Wanderer".    It's current owners bought it from Taylor's estate for 11 million dollars.

We bounced around the islands for a week or so, before retreating to the narrow channel between Isla Chapera and Isla Mogo Mogo after a harrowing night of high winds while anchored off Isla Contadora.

For fans of the TV show survivor, Mogo Mogo might ring a bell.  Several seasons were filmed there, including the first all-star season.

Of course we had to check it out.

It's not a particularly pretty island with low scrubby vegetation, but it is close to Isla Contrador and it's hotels where the film crew probably stayed.

We found the remains of one of the camps.  Not much was left.

We soon saw why.  Locals have been stripping it for their own special projects.

There were a few artifacts left that we might recognize were we to watch the show.  For one, the bench, which we put to use.

 Secondly, an oddly shaped chunk of wood.  We also put it to use.

Steve, Patty from Armagh and Judy and Kris

I mentioned retreating.  We have a very rough night of high winds while at anchor off Contradora on a lee shore.  Not a good place to be should the anchor drag, as it did for this unfortunate catamaran.  It was pulled off the beach and seemed to be ok.  We pulled the hooks up,  and retreated.

2295.2 Miles from La Cruz, Mexico

Panama City!!!

We're here, and all is good.  I guess all the useless worrying I did about the boat, the crew, the weather, lightening strikes, and all the rest of the things I have no control over has paid off. 

Now we have to figure out what's next.  But before that I want to take a look back at some of the favorite places SV Grace has been lucky to travel through. 

First, Behia Honda in Panama....it was about the kids.

As soon as Grace dropped anchor off the village in Behia Honda kids showed up rowing thier little dugout canoes, as they do for all arriving boats, looking for candy, pencils or anything of value.  Some brought coconuts, mangos or hand made trinkets for sale or trade. 

One day while we were having beers in the local cantina, a doll came in dragging a shy little girl with her.  The big Nikon camera was drawing it like a moth to a flame.

The shyness began to evaporate........

And was gone.

A friend showed up moments later, and suddenly we had a photoshoot going.

They loved posing with a pair of glasses.

This is the biggest smile I could coax
her to make.  She had lost her two front teeth.

I would take a picture, show it to the girls, they would laugh and giggle, tease each other, then demand another photo.  It was like catching lightening in a bottle.  These may be my favorite pictures of the whole trip.

The village the girls live in is on an island in Behia Honda, comprised of a few tiendas, a couple cantinas, a church that is visited by a priest once a month, a police station and a very nice school.  Most of the homes are scattered about the forested island.  Recently paved paths wending through the jungle tie the community together.  It's an incredibly idyllic setting.

Across the bay and up a narrow but deep river is another village.  A group of us Gringos made the trip up river following a panga.

About half a mile up we came to the village landing.

We created quite a distraction at the village school.  Students saw us walking by and came boiling out of class to watch the strange sight.  The teachers were quite nice and invited us in.  None of us spoke Spanish, so it was a bit awkward. 

On another day we were guided by Phillipe, a young man who adopted us, to a waterfall visible from the boat.  We scrambled upstream from the beach for a quarter mile or so to the falls.

Felipe

Niether village is connected by roads to the rest of the country.  Everything is brought in by uniquely designed pangas.

The most popular personal transport are elegantly carved dugouts.

Finally, we have a new contestant for the worst bathroom award.  These are in the cantina where we spent afternoons on the very slow national internet system.

In 4 days.....Las Perlas Islands

Tomorrow we start the final push to the Perlas Islands via Punta Mala.   Punta Mala is aptly named as it is a pretty rough stretch of water plus there is the Panama Canal shipping, and about 80 miles of rain and lightening between Mala and the Perlas.  Should be fun.

1961 Miles from La Cruz......Islas Secas

We're currently anchored off Isla Cavada, a private island in the Islas Secas group of islands located in the Gulf of Chiriqui.  The Gulf is the body of water lying off the western Pacific coast of Panama.  The Gulf
 of Panama is off the eastern Pacific coast, and is our eventual destination. 

I'm picking up the wifi signal of a high end resort located on Cavada.  For a mere $1000 one can spend a day in a yert buried in a splendid coastal jungle.

The resort does not have password protection on thier wifi probably because they are so far away from everything.  Except predatory sailboats.

Days here have been nice.  The water is wonderfully warm and clear with beautiful coral and sealife, it's like swimming in an aquarium.  We hate to leave, but we need to get around Punta Mala, the single most congested turning point for all ships from North America and the Pacific bound to or from the Panama Canal.  Punta Mala also has weather and current issues that inspired the early Spanish explorers to name it.....Punta Mala. 

Kris has been practicing his rock piling hobby in some remarkable locations.  They never last long, being brought down by winds or waves.

Hasta la Bye Bye Costa Rica

We've had a nice two weeks or so here in Golfito tied up to the one and only slip in the marina.  The rest of the boats in our little group that has been buddy boating down the coast are tied up to mooring balls.  The marina has one slip and 20 mooring balls.  Being tied to a ball is nice, but not at all different then being at anchor, and being at anchor means going without 120 volt power and dock water.  It also means you have to dingy back and forth to shore,  In Golfito, the wettest place in very wet Costa Rica, one often arrives drenched to the skin..

Marina Tierra Mar has been run by a couple of very cruiser friendly ex-pats for the last twenty years.  Marina fees are affordable, the Cruiser Club upstairs is comfortable, the showers are nice and Tim and Katie are great hosts.  If you're bringin' your boat to Golfito, stay here.

   

Tomorrow afternoon we start a 90 mile overnight leg that will finally bring us to Panama.  We will drop the hook off Isla Parida in western Pacific Panama, the first of many, many Panamanian islands we will be visiting this summer.