Portobelo has lots of home-grown murals.  Curious to know what these ladies are up to ...

a few more:

We left Bocas last Monday, stopping at Crawl Key, Bluefields, and Escudo Veraguas.  Rock outcroppings and caves run along the north side of Escudo.

From Escudo we had a twenty-hour trip to the Rio Chagras, part of the canal watershed.  Here's Nilaya leaving the island.  

Rain, our crew, going up the Chagras.

When we left the river, we crossed the Panama Canal near Colon.  Here's a faster boat cutting across our path (or his, actually).  We came about hard.

Now we're in the lovely town of Portobelo, where some boats bring their own cocktail waiter.

Well, goodbye from Bocas- we're checking out this morning and heading to the San Blas Islands.  Rain Guo is crewing with us, and Jim and Laura on Nilaya will be on the same route.  Probably making stops at Bluefields, Escudo Veraguas, and the Chagras River.  It's hard to log on to the web in some of these places, but we'll try to stay in touch.

Tutti, a Ngobe-Bugle girl from Chiriqui Bay, with a white-faced monkey.  There was a music festival this weekend, and so local people, cruisers, and assorted sea gypsies all came to Loma Partida.

Same girl, better photographer.  And the monkey's a black-capped Capuchin.