When passing through Panama City, lots of people we know stay at Cruisers' Casa, a modest apartment that offers a shared kitchen, laundry, and security.  We didn't realize until we got here that the view goes on for days.  Very magical.  I am not one of those people who says 'oh, our hotel room doesn't matter- we're never there except to sleep'.  The weather has had us indoors a lot, and it's been very tolerable here.  We go to DC tomorrow.

If we go swimming late in the day, we seem to see more big fish.  Usually nurse sharks are found sleeping under a rock, but we followed one for quite a while at dusk the other day.

We have not posted much recently because the internet connection here is spotty and we're not really doing much besides swimming and hanging with friends. We're now in the Kuna Yala region of Panama, a semi autonomous nation ruled by the Kuna Indians. It runs from the Columbian border to just about the canal on the NE shore and includes the coastal mountains and about 300 islands. They do not allow ownership of land, development, hotels, scuba diving, surfing, kite surfing, wind surfing, on and on, Nada, Zip. There is one road to Panama City, so it is possible to go there shopping for the day, but that's it for 200 miles of coast. A few towns with huts that sell stuff, but they do come around once a week with fresh veggies and fruit and such so there is no real need to go anywhere. We're anchored out 10 miles from the coast in a coral reef with about 10 boats. A friend got a grouper the other day and we have been eating off it, the cats too. The locals bring us their cell phones to charge, and load us up with all the fresh coconut you could want. The towns have great medical clincs and unlike other parts, there is no petty theft. Also no Dim Sum, but we coming to DC and SF soon and will load up.
Come on down if you want to kick back for the rest of your life.

Hanging in the Kuna Yala, San Blas Islands
Rain, our only crew, left today for Panama City and other adventures- we will miss her knack at taking underwater pics with a $30 camera. We're off to the Coco Bandersas islands to see some friends before they head for Providencia. Things are getting quiet here as the snow birds head north for the summer.  Supposed to be rainy and very quiet.

We're going from one island to another, spending a lot of time in the water.  The place is relatively undisturbed, so you see healthy coral and big fish.  In the afternoons there are lots of rays, always fun to see.  Yesterday as we were anchoring one appeared in a new color scheme, with black and white patches- probably a manta.  We immediately jumped in the water, and saw this guy swimming by.

Now we're in the lovely low-bandwidth San Blas Islands.  Lovely and friendly.  The Kuna are always paddling up to the boat trying to sell things -mostly molas, but also out-of-season lobsters, which no one here buys, and the occasional fish.  There are separate fruit-and-veggie boats that ply the anchorages every few days.  Other cruisers come over to check out the new boats- yesterday, an Italian woman we know from Roatan actually swam over to visit.  It seems like more European and fewer American cruisers, and more relaxed than other spots.

Portobelo