Accidental Hiatus - Dean
Sorry for the hiatus. One day flows into another here and next thing you know … it’s been almost 3 weeks since the last update.
In our own defense, there has been a ton of stuff going on. Here’s a short list: We made an offer on a property and are now in contract, boat prep, new mattress, new friends, outing to Escudo de Veraguas, kayak purchase, dead phone, indoor recess day, cook top install, Shady off leash, and Burn Bocas Burn.
So, settle in with your favorite rum (currently drinking Plantation 5 year, but trying to find Diplomatico, my new fav.) and off we go in somewhat chronological order, ha ha.
Probably the biggest news first. We’ve tour and re-toured a property in Dolphin Bay, on the island of Cristobal. It’s a fixer upper but very much the style that we wanted. There’s a lovely little over water casita that will be easy to bring up to speed and will eventually be the guest house (nudge nudge, wink wink). We’re in contract and have made a deposit. The lawyer now needs to make sure everything in order with the property, government listing, etc. We’re scheduled to close on Nov. 1st.
Here’s the link: https://www.unitedcountry.com/properties/pan/dolphin-bay-for-only-239000-oceanfront-panama/1104364/
Once we had Kirin cleaned and had moved in, the real work began. We had to figure out the electrical systems (still not sure how the solar works). After 2 nights on the boat we knew two things for certain: 1. We needed AC to sleep. 2. The bed needed a new mattress. When we woke up the second morning in tiny hallows, bathing in our own sweat, we rented a window AC unit from the marina. It was difficult fitting in the gangway each night, but much better overall. That day we ordered a portable AC unit, and a new closed cell foam mattress.
On a related note, if you’re wondering how we get things here from the States, it’s not too bad. We use a local company here called RednBlue. They have an office in Miami, Florida. When you order things online, you have it sent to the Miami address with your account number as part of the address. They then forward it to Bocas. They charge by the pound for the forwarding. You honestly don’t want to know how much it was to ship the AC unit lol. Generally, it adds about 4-5 days of shipping to most orders. Island time, mi amigo.
Now with a good night’s sleep we tackled the other things like raising and lowering the sails (no problem) and starting the engine the first time. It’s a 38hp, 6 cylinder diesel beast. Alex, the marina all around expert on boats and most anything else, helped us start it. The fuel is hand pumped into the lines then the coolant water valve is opened. After showing us the relevant parts, Alex left. After about 15 min, we decided to turn it off and realized that simply turning the key off didn’t work. A quick check of the pdf manual we had downloaded showed us where the cut off knob was located. It was a pretty funny “Uhhh, now what?” type of moment.
Quickfire round:
1. We bought a 2-person ocean kayak so now we can paddle over to floating bar whenever we want. No, Shady hasn’t been on it yet. Still debating if we want to take it over to town for our Sunday conversational drunken Spanish gathering.
2. We had a couple of storms last week. One was most of the day with high winds and lots of rain. It was an indoor recess day with snacking and playing Yahtzee. Fun tidbit - a local person went viral on tic toc rowing a shopping cart down the street. Look up @thebocasbreeze if you’re on that social.
Indoor recess
3. Shady has earned the privilege of being off leash when we’re here in the marina. She gets off the boat and waits for me to put my flip flops on, then off she goes down the dock to the sidewalk and green spaces. She comes when called and has been mostly good when told to stay out of the kitchen area. She’s made friends with the other dogs – Sam, Rex, Cuna, Lisa, and Minnie. Of course, she wants to play with the biggest dog, Sam.
Cuna came to visit
4. One of the first things we did during the cleaning of Kirin, was to remove the old alcohol burning oven and stove. Jodi ordered a propane cooktop and installed it with the help of some reclaimed ocean wood. Cooking on a real stovetop sure beats 1 pot cooking with ramen and veggies.
Jodi's newly installed cooktop
Our big outing last weekend was on Saturday. We went with new friends Bill (he ships things from US to Bocas and took our household stuff) and Tamara (she runs a tour and expat information website), her friend Michael and our captain and a guide. The island of Escudo de Varaguas is about 2 hours away by panga, the small boats used by most people here, so we left the marina at 7:30am. It’s quite a way outside the normal archipelago of Bocas del Toro and you need to cross a considerable space of open ocean to get there. I can’t say enough wonderful things about this mostly untouched slice of nature. The scenery was unbelievable. The snorkeling was exciting and unique. We had lunch and swam and did a complete lap of the island by boat, through the mangroves, and surf, and the shallows. Unfortunately, I believed the internet and thought my phone was waterproof up to 10 meters for 30 minutes. It wasn’t. 6 inches and 9 seconds was about all it took to go belly up. The pics I’ve shared are from our new friends. We left about 3pm for the trip home since a storm was rolling in. We tried to beat it, but the ocean got choppy and spent 3 hours bouncing on our butts and being pelted by rain. Still absolutely worth the trip.
Escuda
Escuda
Escuda
Escuda
And lastly, after spotting a post on the community forum FB group, we met with the local burner group here in Bocas. Burn Bocas Burn is planning their 2nd regional BurningMan event just 4 weeks from now. Jodi and I were welcomed with open arms and hugs then had an informal planning meeting last Sunday with a wonderful group of people. We formed some smaller groups and I offered to cook a meal for the camp one night. Looks to be between 40 and 60 people attending. We’re thrilled to be part of a burner community. I had told Jodi years ago when we were on the search for the right spot here in the Caribbean, that I wanted to live somewhere that made me feel like I do when I’m at the big burn and the regional burns. Bocas has that feel and now it’s even better. Confirmation that we have made the right choice at the right time!
Ciao!
