Creature of the day:  Comb Jellies, or Ctinophores


These creatures are taking over the ocean- at least the warm ocean.  Sometimes there are thousands of them out there when we swim.  They are non-stinging; not real jellies.  Yesterday we saw them with a number of large Moon Jellies, which do sting if you touch them.  In Panama, jellies of all kinds accumulate in the bays around Bocas del Toro, making them unswimmable.  But we'll figure out where to swim when we get there.  All hail our new masters!

This impressive thing is the north sea trawler Stahlratte, which just left Providencia this morning.  It travels a course in the northwest Caribbean in winter- and in summer ferries travelers back and forth from Columbia to Panama.

Apiary!  We bought some honey.

Boat race:  2 sailboats and 5 support dinghies.

South West Bay:  Roland Roots Bar, and swings

Creature of the day:  Spotted Eagle Ray

This little one was feeding in shallow water just a few feet from the footbridge in town.  You can see the duck-like bill.  They feed on mollusks, cracking the shells in their jaws.  We saw his parents swimming out on the reef yesterday afternoon:  5 or 6 feet long, and definitely past the cute stage.  They can get up to 16 feet, and 500 pounds.

A trip around the island by golf cart.  

At the Divino Niño restaurant, where the lunch platter includes a whole fish, lobster tail, conch, shrimp, and assorted extras.

The black crabs are in the middle of their annual migration to the beach.  These guys were hiding along the road, waiting for dark so they can cross.  When they all move en masse, it's  supposed to be quite a sight.  

Mother's Day baseball game:  key sport here.  The guy sitting next to us is a big Sox fan, and was able to bring us up to speed on their ranking:  2 games behind the Yankees.  Is there any other meaningful statistic?

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View Guanaja to Bocas del Toro in a larger map

We arrived in Providencia this morning.  Perhaps there's a sister city in Rhode Island.

This is the route we took from Guanaja.  The pink pins are still to go:  the Albuquerque Keys and, finally, Bocas del Toro.

The stops we made were all beautiful deserted islands- nobody around but the occasional fishermen.  We were ready for them:  they like to eat anything BUT fish.  One of them motored out quite a way to ask us for cigarettes- we felt bad for him.  Later we brought him some sausage, and he showed us how to clean conch.  

Some prime snorkeling out there- just wow.

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