We say Western Panama because it is like a different country than the rest of Panama. Panama has over 1500 islands and a great majority of them are in this part of Panama and most are just rocks sticking out of the water. But the tourist board knows how to put a good face on everything.
If you don’t know right off hand, Panama basically runs east and west. It has the northern side and the southern side. So we are on the southern side at the west end. There are almost no towns in this area. They have one – it is “David” and the third largest city in the country. But it is inland and we will soon be taking two different bus trips to get there in order to get fresh fruits and vegetables – since we are all out and have been for the last three days.
We left Costa Rica without any sadness, and headed straight for Isla Parida, the first island group in Western Panama. With a single overnight passage we arrived and were immediately offered lobster for $5 each from the local fisherman. We negotiated for $4 each and then paid $6 plus two packages of instant milk. Then we had to figure out how to clean and cook the things when our biggest pan was only big enough for ½ of one of them. We ended up dunking them head first into boiling water and holding them down for the count with a wooden stick. Finally the mess was over and we had a great dinner.
We snorkeled the area and found visibility to about 5 meters. That was the best we’d found since the Sea of Cortez back in 2006 in Mexico. We thought we were doing great when we got an email from another cruiser saying the visibility was fantastic at the next island group – the Isla Secas. We spent two days at two more remote and picture perfect anchorages (with pristine beaches) before getting there.
The main island is Isla Calvada and we found 13 – 20 meters of visibility and lots of fish and coral that hadn’t been killed by global warming yet. It was, as our friend promised, just great. We free dove to about 25 feet and gathered Conch for the first time and had to figure out how to get them out of the shell. The Pacific Conch is much different than the Caribbean Conch. The shell is 2-3 times thicker. We used a small sledge hammer to break them open at first. Then we heard about hypothermia treatment and that was much easier. You simply put them in the refrigerator for 8 hours, they basically go to sleep and lose control over their muscles. Thus you can them pull them out of the shell, clean them, and pound the meat to a pulp. Fry it up and voila, you’ve got a first class meal.
We spent 10 days in that one location; snorkeling every day, hiking some days, had two cruiser bonfires on the beach and one big potluck on the beach. Then within two days we all went on our way and the number of cruisers there went from seven to zero. We are in Boca Chica now waiting out a big rainstorm. Tomorrow is the trip to David to restock so we can head back to some more good diving areas. Then, alas, it will be onto Panama City and Perlas Islands for good anchoring but not very good snorkeling.
If you don’t know right off hand, Panama basically runs east and west. It has the northern side and the southern side. So we are on the southern side at the west end. There are almost no towns in this area. They have one – it is “David” and the third largest city in the country. But it is inland and we will soon be taking two different bus trips to get there in order to get fresh fruits and vegetables – since we are all out and have been for the last three days.
We left Costa Rica without any sadness, and headed straight for Isla Parida, the first island group in Western Panama. With a single overnight passage we arrived and were immediately offered lobster for $5 each from the local fisherman. We negotiated for $4 each and then paid $6 plus two packages of instant milk. Then we had to figure out how to clean and cook the things when our biggest pan was only big enough for ½ of one of them. We ended up dunking them head first into boiling water and holding them down for the count with a wooden stick. Finally the mess was over and we had a great dinner.
We snorkeled the area and found visibility to about 5 meters. That was the best we’d found since the Sea of Cortez back in 2006 in Mexico. We thought we were doing great when we got an email from another cruiser saying the visibility was fantastic at the next island group – the Isla Secas. We spent two days at two more remote and picture perfect anchorages (with pristine beaches) before getting there.
The main island is Isla Calvada and we found 13 – 20 meters of visibility and lots of fish and coral that hadn’t been killed by global warming yet. It was, as our friend promised, just great. We free dove to about 25 feet and gathered Conch for the first time and had to figure out how to get them out of the shell. The Pacific Conch is much different than the Caribbean Conch. The shell is 2-3 times thicker. We used a small sledge hammer to break them open at first. Then we heard about hypothermia treatment and that was much easier. You simply put them in the refrigerator for 8 hours, they basically go to sleep and lose control over their muscles. Thus you can them pull them out of the shell, clean them, and pound the meat to a pulp. Fry it up and voila, you’ve got a first class meal.
We spent 10 days in that one location; snorkeling every day, hiking some days, had two cruiser bonfires on the beach and one big potluck on the beach. Then within two days we all went on our way and the number of cruisers there went from seven to zero. We are in Boca Chica now waiting out a big rainstorm. Tomorrow is the trip to David to restock so we can head back to some more good diving areas. Then, alas, it will be onto Panama City and Perlas Islands for good anchoring but not very good snorkeling.
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