Buenos dias! After struggling with my ever-diminishing Spanish skills in Panama City for a day and a half and finding the only $4 beers in the whole country, I was glad to board the plane to El Porvenir. Check-in was fairly simple at the airport (the former American military base in the Canal Zone). They bilked us for our extra luggage (gringo surcharge??), but not too bad, and we didn't have to leave all those nuts and that Dunkin' Donuts coffee we acquired as gifts behind! Security is considerably lax and they only asked to see the rum we had in our handbags-really, they looked at it and gave back to us. It was a bit disconcerting to see 5 guys standing around fixing the plane before we boarded, but we trusted the pilot and when he gave the okay, we boarded.
While the small size of the Twin Otter we were directed to was no surprise, what we didn't know about was the size of the runway in Porvenir. I'm pretty sure it would be considered a palm-lined driveway in some neighborhoods. The dude had won the window seat, which left him scanning for coral reefs. I got the aisle seat, which left me looking at the cockpit controls and the approach. I can't say I didn't utter a "Dios mio" under my breath when I saw this thing! We skidded to a halt 50 feet before the beach on the far side. B and M were there to meet us and M said he saw some pretty green folks deplane-I don't think we were among them, but I'm glad to be avoiding that runway on our return trip. Of course, he just flew back to Porvenir and didn't mutter anything about this runway-obviously he is tougher than I when it comes to sketchy airports! A great start to this adventure, at any rate.
We checked in with the Kuna congreso who lightened our pockets a bit and then it was off to the boat to chill with some coffee and breakfast snacks and watch the rain storms roll in. And it rained. But then it cleared and we took off for the West Lemmons-and as we were approaching, another rainstorm rolled in and this one was serious tropical rain. B bore the brunt of it, being on reef watch on the bow. Though, with a track-line to follow, we anchored without much ado, got settled, and took off snorkeling in the afternoon.
After a scrumptious dinner of lobster and pasta, some good times meeting the Tumshis, and several glasses of wine, we all crashed at cruisers midnight (which fits my sleeping patterns perfectly). A little bit of rain kept us on our toes during the night, but all and all a good rest was had by all.
Today we moved on to Green Island which is a picture perfect Caribbean island. We did a nice long snorkel in the afternoon and Mark and I tried to make up for the lack of fishing joy we had on the passage by trying again from the dinghy-so far we're not bringing much luck to Astarte to go along with all that tackle we brought…there's always tomorrow…
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