BOATBUMMS LOG: MY NIECE STEFANIA'S VISIT

Sid’s dodger project is coming along slowly and slowing down. With the high heat and humidity Sid can only put about 3 hours of work in per day, it gets so hot under the shed he is exhausted for the rest of the day.

He’s done with the primer work and it’s ready to be painted. The only problem is Sid can’t find the right spray gun nozzle size here in Panama. He’s waiting for Susan on Running Shoe to come back with the parts on September 11^th, so the project is on hold for now. But he found a new project: bird patrol! Yep those little martins are out and about to land and poop on any boat in sight.

End of July Roberto and Carmen announce in an email that they were coming to Panama to look for property and three days later they arrived.

It was a great reunion between so many people here who knew them from Cholon, Columbia.

Reunion BBQ

Teresa and Carmen

Roberto and Binnie's Sid

Carmen and Binnie's Sid

Binnie, Carmen and Susan

Susan, Carmen and Regi

The clean up crew: Debi, Carmen and Susan

Stunning beach by Green Turtle Marine

Caribbean Jimmy's in Pelenque

Aren't they cute, there must have been 20 of them on the roof

Jimmy's Hotel is soon open

It was great to see them and we drove them around as much as we could. There still is plenty of property for sale. The only problem was, the good ones along the waterfront are out of Roberto’s range. They were here for a week when Dean, who just sold his boat, was looking for a place to rent somewhere in Chiriqui, they made a deal that Dean would drive and Roberto would pay for gas. Dean has never seen the area either and was glad he had company to go up there. We thought for sure they would be gone for at least a week as there are so many places to stop and see. They came back 3 days later. Dean had found an apartment to rent and wanted to come back and pack, never mind that Roberto and Carmen never got to see what they went for in the first place, bummer. Can you imagine Dean wouldn’t even stop for lunch on the way up, nor stop to get Carmen a phone card so they could use their borrowed phone. Guess he was on a mission. So Roberto and Carmen really didn’t get to see much, but got a bit of an idea and will have to come back another time and explore Panama some more.

August 7^th my niece Stefania arrived. I haven’t seen her since she was 12 years old the only other time I saw her she was still a toddler. I was all excited to have her here for two week and to get to know her. We bonded right away and had a wonderful time from the day she showed up until the day she left.

Poor girl was underway for 17 hours, arrived in the dark at Summer Place, had some dinner and went to bed and had to get up early again as we had to leave at 7 am.

Our little KIA had developed a bad oil leak and needed to be brought in for repairs, what better way to take Stefania, Carmelita and Roberto on a Panama Canal tour in Colon, while the car is worked on. We dropped of the little KIA and ventured off with “El Trucko”.

Naturally everybody was amazed by the huge ships going through the canal. No matter how many times I go it’s still amazes me. After watching a few boats come through and taking too many pictures we drove across the canal alongside the gates to the remote area towards Fort Sherman and Shelter Bay. As we all were hungry we decided to have lunch at the Shelter Bay Marina restaurant. Bummer the restaurant was under construction so only a few fast food items were on the menu, never less everybody loved their lunch. Then it was off towards Fort Lorenzo and we didn’t drive long before we heard howlers, we immediately stopped and found them in the trees. One of them started throwing things at me; I did not want to see what it was, as they are famous for throwing dodo, so I got back into the car. We stopped several more time to see more howlers before arriving at Fort San Lorenzo.

I just love Wikipedia; this is what I found on Fort San Lorenzo:

Chagres, once the chief Atlantic port on the Isthmus of Panama is now an abandoned village at the historical site of Fort San Lorenzo. The fort ruins are about 9 miles west from Colon up on a high cliff overlooking the mouth of the Chagres River.

The Chagres River was discovered in 1502 by Christopher Columbus on his fourth and final voyage.

By 1534 the Spaniards, after following its conquest of Peru, established a rainy-season gold route over the Isthmus of Panama. Las Cruces Trail – most of which consisted of the Chagres River connected the Pacific port of Panama City to the mouth of the Chagres River, from where Peru’s plunder would sail to Spain’s storehouses in the leading Atlantic ports of the isthmus Nombre de Dios at first, later Portobelo. During the dry season they used the overland route Camino Real which connected Panama City with those ports directly.

Attracted to the treasure, pirates began attacking Panama’s coast around 1560 and to protect the Las Cruces Trail the Spaniards built Fort San Lorenzo at the mouth of the Chagres River. From 1587 to 1599 the fortification evolved into a sea- level battery.

In 1670, famous Henry Morgan ordered an attack that left Fort San Lorenzo in ruins. He then invaded Panama City the following year, using the fallen Fort as his base.

In the 1680s, the Spanish constructed a new fort 80 feet above the water. Set on a cliff overlooking the entrance to the harbor. The fort was also protected on the landward side by a dry moat with a drawbridge.

In 1739 and 1740, British Admiral Edward Vernon attacked the Spanish fortifications at Portobelo and Chagres. With destruction of Portobelo’s fort, Spain abandoned trade there. Instead they strengthened the Forts in Chagres and upstream Gatun and became the chief Atlantic port of the isthmus.

By the middle of the 18^th century the Spanish had largely abandoned both of the old trails over the isthmus, preferring to sail around the tip of South America, Cape Horn. For over a century Fort Lorenzo was then used as a prison.

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 stimulated new vitality at the mouth of the Chagres River. Westbound prospectors who didn’t want to cross the “Great American Desert” or round Cape Horn followed the old path of the las Cruces Trail, beginning their transcontinental journey at “Yankee Town” or “Yanqui Chagres” the wild west boom town that sprang up on the bank opposite the original village and fortress.

The rebirth of Chagres was short-lived. Although the advent of steamboats service on the Chagres River had, by 1853, shortened the time required to cross the isthmus from several days to about twelve hours, the 1855 completion of the Panama Railway further reduced the transcontinental travel time to about three hours. As a result the railway’s Atlantic terminus, Colon, became Panama’s Atlantic port, and Chagres receded from importance.

The construction of the Panama Canal completed in 1914 and required the construction of the massive Gatun Dam, about 7.2 miles upriver from Chagres, permanently sealing off the river from inland trade.

Although Chagres fell outside the original boundary of the Panama Canal Zone, that zone expanded in 1916 to include the mouth of Chagres River. The town of Chagres which, which by then, had only 96 houses and 400 to 500 inhabitants was then “depopulated” and its former residents were resettled to Nuevo Chagres, located about 8.2 miles to the SW along the coast.

Fort San Lorenzo has been designated as government-protected since 1908. Currently the ruins of Lorenzo and the Chagres village site are contained within the 3000 acres of the San Lorenzo Protected Area, all former Canal Zone territory.

In 1980 UNESCO declared Fort San Lorenzo together with the fortified town of Portobelo about 30 miles to the NE to be World Heritage Site under the name “Fortifications on the Caribbean Side of Panama”. The organization describes the fortifications as follows: “Magnificent examples of 17^th- and 18^th- century military architecture, these Panamanian forts on the Caribbean coast form part of the defense system built by the Spanish Crown to protect transatlantic trade.

I always wondered the significant of the Fort. I am glad I looked. For those of you who are history buffs, read Michener’s Caribbean, it’s a fascinating book!

Mouth of Chagres River

found a trail of leave cutter ants

We toured the Fort and picked some fallen ripe mangoes, took photos and enjoyed Stefania entertaining us.

It was priceless to watch my niece scream then wildly swing her arms and run around when she saw a grasshopper, then a bee, a small spider and on and on. We could tell she’s a city girl, we enjoyed it tremendously.

On our way back we did a little side tour to the one beach accessible by car. While turning onto the dirt road we heard more howlers and all got out of the car. Not just did we see many howler monkeys but also 3 beautiful yellow throated Toucans right above us in a barren tree. They looked at us as curious as we did and finally took off and disappeared in a nearby lush tree.

The ride down to the beach was exciting as this was something totally new for Stefania. Driving through the jungle with all the possibilities of spiders, she was on edge, but of course we all teased her. We all enjoyed the beach and her and Sid walked way out to the reef.

On our way back we stopped again at the Toucan tree and sure enough they were in it again.

We arrived back in Colon too early to pick up the car so we killed the time with the boys having a cocktail in a nearby bar near all the tourist shops at the cruise ship terminal.

At 17:30 the car was ready and since we all were hungry we stopped at Captain Jack’s in Portobelo and munched on some juicy hamburgers. Again we arrived late at night and all Stefania ever saw of Summer Place was the patio to her apartment and of course her apartment.

Roberto and Carmen were flying back to Colombia and decided to head into Panama City a day early. Stefania was all for it to see Panama City so up again early and two hours later arrived in Panama City. I dropped them all off at Deb’s Penthouse on Balboa and headed to the motor vehicle office to obtain new license plates for the car. Yes they do renew the whole license plate not just the stickers but they also are on the plate. Back at Deb’s ,Roberto decided they were going to rest before going shopping so we said goodbye and Stefania and I were off to the Albrook Mall one of the biggest malls I have ever seen. First store was Victoria’s Secret, which is well known in Switzerland but they don’t have a store. Stefania was beside herself to be in a Victoria Secret store and left with a bag full of stuff. El Costo was the first store I took her in she almost did a summersault and could not stop pointing her finger in any directions as she was overwhelmed with all the clothes that seemed to be no more than 10 dollars. She was in shopper’s heaven and found quite a few beautiful dresses, shoes and, and, and, to fill her bags.

Of course we arrived home in the dark again and still Stefania has not seen Summer Place. The following morning after breakfast I took her on a tour around Summer Place; she loved it and was at first a bit intimidated by Dooger but then cuddled him. She met all our cruising buddies at ping pong.

Teaching Stefania to make beaded braceletes

While Debbie highlights and cuts Manuela's hair

Like all the visitors we had, her favorite also is Mame island, when she stepped into the ankle deep and crystal clear water by the white sandy beach she said: “Wow, I can’t believe it, I am in the true Caribbean?” priceless.

The real Caribbean

Oli Joined us

OOOPS!!!!

I guess it's broken!

Another day we did a fun kayak tour to Panama Marina where Sid met us for lunch. You should have seen her chow down that huge burger. She loved burgers so much she ate 5 in her 2 weeks with us. The last day she insisted on inviting us for lunch so she could have another Panamarina Burger and she got it.

beautiful reflection

Sid and her teased each other the whole time she was here. At first it seemed like Sid was the instigator but then after a while I realized she was really good in starting the instigation of instigating, it was fun to watch, but she always ended up running away from something screaming: “Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiid Plaggeischt”! This became the name she called Sid. She said it was just like at home with her brother and father! They had fun and it was huge fun for me to watch and snap an occasional picture.

She is sooooo easily teased, especially with spiders or any other crawly critters and she is deathly afraid of bees. On our kayaking trip, sitting in the shallow water in the mangroves she wanted to know if it was fresh or salt water, I told her salt so she tasted it, then she wanted to know about crocodiles and what kind of noises they made. There was a little crackling noise in the mangroves so I said “something like that” that got her attention and she looked all around. So she said that she knew they only stayed in fresh water and tasted the water again, making a funny face after she tasted the yucky salt water. I told her then that Alligators live in fresh water while crocodiles are found in salt water. I hadn’t even finished the word crocodile when she jumped out of the water and was ready to sprint back to the kayak. It was hilarious.

Film is in Swiss German but her reaction to the crocodile remark is priceless:

She’s a trouper though and tried out everything even though she was afraid or shall I say on edge all the time.

Dr. Ida our dentist called me and invited Stefania and me to visit her in Panama City. Her daughter Adriana is 23 so the girls should have fun. I think Ida and I had more fun than the girls LOL. The first evening we went out to Casa Blanca, my favorite restaurant, then afterwards to the Habana Bar for Salsa and Meringue. Ida’s friend Isabelle joined us as well and we all had a wonderful time watching the incredible band playing Cuban music. The singer, she, he, it, we still don’t know what it was from Cuba and did a good job explaining songs. She, he, it was a true entertainer. At one point she called women to the stage by country names and named pretty much every country in Europe except Switzerland so I went up there myself. I did not realize that it was going to be a salsa contest and there I was among 15 other women doing each a solo. It was huge fun and I was a pretty good competition for some of the Latina dancers I was told.

Stefania enjoyed it as well and danced away on the dance floor. We did not realize how time went by but did admit we were all pretty tired when we got home. No wonder it was passed 2 am. The second day we did Stefania’s favorite: shopping. We were all exhausted by sundown and decided dinner at home was just fine.

Ida with Stefania

We had a day of rest, might as well it was yet another rainy day. The sun was out the following day and with Debbie and Reg we all drove to the Green Turtle Marina and enjoyed a so so lunch at the now open beach restaurant and enjoyed a couple of beers sitting under shady trees on the beach. On our way back out the dirt road we saw a beautiful black snake with red belly. Stefania refused to get out of the car but was fascinated by it.

The following day Sid found a tarantula in the empty garbage can and called us. I brought a camera and we both watched the spider until Sid molested it with a stick and it swiftly moved out of the can, us both screaming bloody murder and running away, igitt. I don’t mind them if they don’t move! If it has more than 4 legs and I can’t eat it I don’t like it!

A while back Pat and I bought a lamb and we split it, the extra parts we said we’d get together and make a lamb stew and we finally did that. Stefania had a wonderful time, so did we.

Jesse and Pat

Habanero peppers

Wow, Stefania doing dishes!

Zzzzzzzzz..............

Guess she did too much dishes!

She had to have one more burger before she left

Hmmmmmm!!!

Plus dessert

Nice Dress

Stefania with Paradise

While we had fun Sid was working his butt off

As always time went by way to fast and before we knew it, it was time to get Stefania back to the airport. My sister in law Anna begged me NOT to let her get another tattoo as each vacation Stefania came home with yet another one, so we played a little trick on her. Stefania bought a fake tattoo and applied it the day of her departure; it was a kewl tattoo of a naked woman.

Anna had a cow when she saw the tattoo at the airport. Not just that after we had seen the snake we sent photo to Anna while talking on Skype video and when she opened the email she jumped up and ran away from the computer. We laughed so hard and oh well came up with a rather cruel joke. In the car on her way from the airport she told her mother that while packing her suite case a snake was in her room, but while we tried to chase it out, it disappeared and we have no idea where it went. Stefania had told me one of the first things Anna does is open her suite case and take out the dirty laundry bag. And she did just that. It had a pretty real looking rubber snake hidden in the laundry! Well, I did immediately receive a Skype call from her LOL.