It’s now roughly two weeks since we arrived in this group of mini islands just off the coast of Panama and we finally managed to have some internet, so here some news to complemen what Judith had already put on the blog (Vielen Dank Judith).

Our sail from Aruba to here was the roughest we had until now. Not for the wind, which staid reasonable at below 35knots, but for the waves, which pushed the boat around and sent us water into the boat from time to time, causing us a dilemma to choose between heat when keeping the openings closed or wetness when leaving them open… In the end it was wet and hot. The waves were only three meters high, but strangely steep, with white caps. Almut said the noise of these white caps was like the one of a lorry load of gravel sliding down the loading hold. This noise sometimes was there for several seconds before the wave finally would get to us, quite scary and we were all glad when it finished on the third day. Our arrival here was in the calm on the fourth day, accompanied by a school of dolphins.

Have a look at Google Earth to see this myriad of sandy islands

Have a look at Google Earth to see this myriad of sandy islands

We first went to an anchorage nicknamed “Swimming Pool” to recover before doing formal check in at customs and immigration. This was done three days later at the local “capital” Porvenir. People were nice, but took us more money than ever before. 200$ for a cruising permit for the boat and 100$ per person for Visa. To my surprise they wanted the full rate for all the kids except Lotte, So we left 700+$ in Porvenir and needed again some recovery, which luckily is very easy on these beautyful islands.disappearing islandsurfers

Some of them are not higher than a few handwidths out of the water, with beaches and palm trees all over and very friendly Kuna Indians living in bamboo huts on them.

The kids exploring the islands

The kids exploring the islands

We now move from island to island chasing for “Vedge boats” who are bringing in  vegetables, fruits and sometimes eggs or meat.

We also met two other boats with kids “Zorba” from Belgium and “Bechard” with a dutch family on it, so the kids have plenty of folks to play with.

Zorba

Zorba

kids ith zoe & maxime