Burning the Inheritance

Off the Caribbean coast of eastern Panama. The indigenousKuna Yala tribe have authority over the islands. We signed up for a 5-6 day sailing adventure through Blue Sailing (blue sailing.net) to take us from Panama City to Cartagena, Colombia. We met up with 1/2 of our fellow passengers as we set off for a bumpy…

On January 26th we made a very early departure from Bocas del Toro by water taxi followed by a 12 hour bus ride through the rain forests and over the continental divide and the Panama Canal back to Panama City. We stayed in a place in Casco Viejo, the old historic district. Ritchard was thrilled…

Caught our shuttle at 5:30am, three hours to the coast where we then caught a very wet small boat ride to our 50ft sailboat, the Koala X and our captain Fabian. We’ll be off the grid for the next 5-6 days as we travel through the San Blas islands (google them!) and then on to…

A short boat taxi to Bastimentos and then a rather challenging, at times, hike through the jungle and over the mountain to the far coast and Wizard Beach. It was worth the effort! Relaxing afterwards at Guari Guari with a cold drink and tasty lunch!

Decided to go on a two day getaway from our vacation in Bocas by heading up into the mountains back on the mainland of Panama. First a boat taxi over to Almirante and then we found a taxi driver willing to drive us the 3 hours to Boquete, this was better than the alternative of…

The main road out of Bocas Town runs along the eastern coast of the island to Bluff Beach, our favorite spot so far, about a five mile bike ride away. There is only one other main road which splits off of the Bluff Beach road and runs to to Boca del Drago on the northwest…

Bocas del Toro Province, with a population of about 180,000 is located at the western end of Panama on the Caribbean side. We are staying on the archipelago commonly known as Bocas del Toro, on the island of Colon, near Bocas del Toro Town (“Bocas Town” or just “Bocas”) with a population of about 8,000,…

While we are in Bocas del Toro, we are renting a one-bedroom efficiency in a nice little neighborhood on Saigon Bay, just a bit outside of Bocas Town on the way to the best beach on the island (big surprise). Neither the place nor the neighborhood are anything fancy, but it gets the job done…

We planned to relax for awhile after the busy last few months of retiring, packing and moving everything into storage. Our plan is to settle into “being on the road” as a way of life by spending the first few weeks in our waterfront studio on Isla Colon. Given that, there will likely not be…

First stop, Panama. We arrived in Panama City, but only stayed long enough to find our way north to Bocas del Toro, a lovely little archipelago. We have three weeks to explore, already found yoga in the jungle, so we’re off to a good start.