Lisbon, In Bits And Pieces (October, 2017 and October/November, 2019!)

Why Blog About Lisbon Now?

Our visits to Lisbon were in 2017 and 2019 so Why now? is a fair question. Or rather, two questions:

Why not until now? -- That's not clear to us, honestly. Our 2020 was spend in only two places, so travel events from 2019 often seem to have happened "just last year" and sometimes we want to think about a trip for a while before blogging about it. But we also recognize that even if 2019 was "just last year" in travel terms, 2017 would still be several years ago. So - not clear.

Why finally now? -- Friends recently celebrated being vaccinated by booking a Fall trip to Lisbon, Sentra, Coimbra, Porto and the Douro River Valley. We applauded their travel optimism, enthused about Portugal and promised to send links to relevant Travels on Abracadabra posts. At which point we found we had exactly zero posts about those places; we had spent almost four months in Portugal and created only one post about a 2017 walking holiday in the Alentejo region and another about our time on the island of Madeira in 2019.

We Were There -- We Have Pictures!

Small loss to the Greater Blogosphere or our friends -- the Internet offers a lot of information about Portugal -- but we use this blog for what attorneys call "refreshing one's recollection" and our recollections need a lot of refreshing these days. See above re: 2019 having become "last year" for 2021!

So, this is our first attempt to address our Embarrassing Portuguese Blogging Failures - a post about Lisbon.

From Covid California Back To Pandemic Panama - March, 2021

Being Here 

After 4.5 months of quarantining estilo estadounidense in Sacramento (more below) we are now back on Isla Bastimentos (locally: Basti) in Bocas del Toro, Panamá. 

Same Caribbean - Different View

We have found a soft landing spot in a vacation villa at the Red Frog Beach Resort while Bryce and the guys at Bocas Yacht Services finish up a few below-water-line projects on Abracadabra. Importantly, after months of only WhatsApp pictures, Bryce has finally been able to take a first hand look at the work done in his absence, including the dried-out, rebuilt and seriously reinforced rudder. 

This Baby Could Crack Ice

All's well -- though life on the hard has left Abracadabra spectacularly grubby. Cleaning =  project next.

While work on Abracadabra is underway we will enjoy the beautiful view from the back porch of "our" comfortable and very nicely appointed and equipped villa. Which comes with its own front-row seat to the Basti Island wildlife show. 

In only a few days of residence we have observed big birds, little birds, colorful birds, humming birds and Capuchin monkeys - several in the trees, one strolling across the lawn and one old chap who pointedly left his scat at each end of the back porch, gang marker style ("this area is controlled by the Westside Basti Capuchins!"). 

Elderly Capuchin, Refusing To Make Eye Contact
(Picture Cropped To Eliminate Scat)

One afternoon a hawk flew into the house through the open front door and bonked itself against the glass sliding door in the back. Molly flapped and hooted something helpful like "Oh my god! Oh my god!" while Bryce covered the (fortunately only slightly) stunned hawk with a towel and carried it outside. After shaking its head in a WTF was that! sort of way, the hawk flew off to tell a wild story to its compadres. As have we (telling, not flying).

The owners of the villa arranged to have window and door screens installed this week which we originally thought would be helpful to keep the mosquito and random assorted insect populations at bay -- but now we are thinking their primary purpose may be to deter visiting birds and monkeys! 

Junier Wilson and His Assistant -
So Glad To See Them! 

Though we are glad to be back on Basti, and we are looking forward to the reopening of Nacho Mama's (beach bar tacos), it is with great sadness that we report the departure of both of our pizza purveyors; one high-tailed it to Hawaii and the other returned to Colombia. It may be time to learn how to make pizza dough. Hundreds of people around the world have used this pandemic stay-at-home period to perfect the art of baking bread -- surely one of us can figure out pizza dough. 

Getting Here

Our return to Panama was less personally stressful than our trip from Panama to California last October in part because it was our second experience with pandemic travel -- but mostly because we both are fully Pfizer vaccinated (thank you, County of Sacramento). We are as personally protected as one can be at this point in science. And yes, we still wear masks and distance ourselves from others.  

Panama requires everyone entering the country to provide evidence of a negative-result Covid test taken within 48 hours of arrival or to take a test at the airport upon arrival. Travelers who test positive at the airport must quarantine for 14 days in a government-approved hotel in Panama City: two weeks of delivered hotel food and CNN International followed by a whopping credit card bill -- and that's for the lucky ones who aren't terribly sick. We took rapid-result Covid tests in the LA area and, fortunately, tested negative. Also fortunately, our test results were accepted by the authorities at Tocumen airport. 

The comfort of having negative test results and being vaccinated also allowed us to join Molly's brother Rob, our brother-in-law, Tom, and family standard poodle, Bravo, for dinner at an out-door Italian restaurant in Los Angeles. We had not seen them for over a year!   

Being There 

Our time in Sacramento, much of it spent outside, passed pleasantly. We enjoyed watching the seasons change.

Spring Flowers Said Good-bye

Fall Colors Greeted Our Arrival 
(Official Delivery Van Of The Pandemic
Included To Date The Shot)

          The Best Part of Our Stay: 

Seeing our California peeps was wonderful - so much better than Zooms (not that those haven't been a pandemic-sanity-life-line). We primarily socialized outdoors, thankful for the up-side of a dry winter season. Fire Season will undoubtedly be brutal, but we chose to enjoy the moments we were given. A favorite social activity became "walk-chats" with friends through the area's many parks.

Camellias At Capitol Park**

               ** We did a bit of a U-turn to avoid a small "Recall Newsom" rally, complete with vendors of left-over Stop The Steal stuff, in front of the Capitol's West Door; not much enthusiasm, not much of a crowd.

We joined friends Anne and Perry for a delightful outdoor wine-tasting event at Miraflores. 

One evening, friends Irene and Frank convinced us to join them to view Sandhill Cranes return from their day-time haunts to their night-time resting spot at the Isenberg Crane Reserve near Lodi. Though the helpful docents we remember from our visit years ago weren't there due to pandemic restrictions (reservations required when they are) we were able to see the birds.

Indoor socializing was first limited to our "pod" - friends Ken and Claudia - but once our age-cohort began to be vaccinated we were able to enjoy indoor dinners at a couple of other friends' homes. Jacket-free dining! We wonder how difficult it will be to go back to the noise and discomfort of indoor restaurant dining, particularly for those of us with friends who are excellent cooks. [A few examples: Frank's back-yard tempura was oh-my!-level delicious and Toby and Patricia's ravioli was much better than the tortellini served at the restaurant in LA.]

          The Holiday Part of Our Stay:

(Much of This Is a Sub-Set of The Best Part of Our Stay)

It was fun to decorate our first full-sized Christmas tree in [a lot of / maybe 10?] years. 

A Real Sized Tree! With Long-Forgotten
Ornaments Found In Our Storage Locker

 

And wonderful to join our "pod" - Claudia and Ken - for holiday feasts. Thanksgiving passed without pictures, but we pulled out the phones at Christmas:

Christmas "Pod" Gathering -- Masked

The "Pod" At Table

We even hauled out some of our gazillion nativity scenes from the storage locker and spread them around our rental house. 

Arnold Family Nativity From Palestine

A Favorite From Mexico;
Hand Model To Provide Scale

          The Sanity-Preserving Part of Our Stay:

On our own, we walked and walked and walked along the Sacramento River levees and the greenbelt parkway which links the river and the flood control canals that seem to run on / branch out forever. We enjoyed recognizing and greeting our temporary neighbors (the young woman who talked on her phone while flinging a tennis ball that her dog loved to fetch; the retiree that working on his golf putt most afternoons; the elderly wheelchair-bound lady and her jovial care-taker; etc.) and viewing local birds.

An Honor Guard Flanks A Canal

Suburban Turkeys

We continued our Zoom connections. Friends Toby and Patricia have set up a monthly Italian wine tasting Zoom which has been a lot of fun. Toby chooses a wine, tells the group a little bit about it (the region of Italy, the grapes -- all that wine stuff) and has each viewer weigh in on what they think. We are not only impressed by Toby's knowledge of Italian wines -- but by his ability to gently herd a bunch of wine-drinking cats! We worry we may not be able to continue to weigh in from Panama. Our internet connection may be good enough, but Bocas del Toro is better known for sweet rum drinks than Italian wine.  

          The To-Do List Part of Our Stay:

In addition to Covid vaccinations we were vaccinated against everything on our doctor's list of stuff-old-people-should-get-vaccinated-against (flu, pneumonia, shingles - the works). We figure at this point we are practically invincible - or totally under the control of Bill Gates - or maybe both. Molly's cataract surgeries went well and she is delighted with her good eye-sight and that she no longer has to keep track of glasses, contact lenses and related cleaning liquids while traveling. Bryce had a post-cataract surgery issue taken care of as well.

Bryce purchased a new computer which involved moving documents and pictures from the old computer and to/from the cloud and was accompanied by a great deal of profanity; it's what they taught him during his Microsoft certification courses. All worth it from Molly's standpoint; OUR computer is now HER computer. 

We would mention that we got rid of some things in our storage locker but, well - it doesn't really look that much better. Sigh. Even small progress is progress.

So, Next . . .  

We will watch birds and monkeys; work on Abracadabra; contact shipping companies to see what we can find out about shipping Abracadabra to British Columbia; and take care of ourselves and each other. 

To All You-All:

Take care of yourselves. Let us know how everything is going for you and yours. We hope to see you soon -- even if only on Zoom! 

Getting From There To Here In The Time of Covid -- Panama to California

What an idea -- a travel blog with a post about traveling! The Panamanian government announced that its grace period for tourists overstaying their six month welcome-to-Panama-status would end October 31, so we thought it best to go. Here's how that went for us - though, spoiler alert: we have arrived in California in good health. 

Before we go further we want to be clear that this isn't intended to be a "how you can still travel during a pandemic if you ignore public health warnings" post any more than our posts about sheltering in place in Panama were intended to be about "how you can arrange to hide from the plague on a Caribbean island". This blog is about our nomadic life choice -- what we experience and observe. And this pandemic has been part of that. Currently travel is not recommended by anyone, including us.  

Jungle Lodge 1 To The Crowne Plaza, PTY - Day 1  (Oct. 29)

We arranged a private water taxi ride from the Red Frog Resort on Basti to Bocas Town for the crew of Abracadabra and our neighbor (and weekly pizza purveyor) Tatiana. 

Taxi!

We weren't surprised that our "private" taxi's first stop was the nearby Ngobe-Bugle village at Bahia Roja. Even before the tourist economy crashed, water taxis operated more like water buses -- anyone and any thing who could fit was welcomed by the driver. In a pandemic economy we just couldn't say no to either the driver or the Ngobe woman he took on board. Though we would have been more comfortable if she had worn a mask . . . 

The water taxi ride was uneventful as the bay is usually quite smooth on "winter" mornings. 

The Ngobe woman passenger masked up when we arrived in Bocas Town, apparently more concerned about the possible fine than the plague.

On the main street of Bocas Town we were approached by the attendant for a colectivo (a small passenger van operating as a private bus) who agreed to operate the van as a private taxi. A plastic sheet was draped between the passenger seats and the driver, the driver and attendant (the fee collector / ride negotiator) wore masks and it was one of the cleanest colectivos we have ever been in. Hopefully the town's public health campaign will have some lasting effects.

At the little airport's terminal a woman asked us questions and took our temperatures. We were required to use hand sanitizer. Everyone was compliantly standing on decals of feet placed 2 meters apart and sitting in the seats that weren't wrapped in caution tape. Masks everywhere. And then we got on a very full turboprop airplane. 

The seat assignments on our tickets were apparently meant to provide comfort that we would have a seat rather than a particular seat.

Bryce Forward, To Port
Molly Aft, To Starboard

The theme of "one bonus stop" also applied to the flight. As we were taxiing out of Bocas Town it was announced that our next stop would be Changuinola, the commercial town on the mainland - a destination we swear was not part of our original routing. Air Panama seems to have taken a lesson from the Bocas water taxi drivers. 

About half of the passengers disembarked at Changuinola and another crowd came aboard. We took the opportunity to move and sit together. A nearby couple seemed to be either very relaxed or completely exhausted - but just watching them made Molly's back hurt. 

Oh, My Achin' . . . 

We arrived at the small domestic airport at the Albrook area of Panama City an hour later, flying over the Bridge of the Americas at the southern entrance to the Canal. 

Bridge, Landing Gear

We entered the airport, dutifully landing on the feet decals and passing some sort of automatic temperature taking machine that kept announcing "temperature normal! temperature normal!". 

This is our last picture for awhile - unknown to us it is prohibido! to take pictures in the luggage claim area of the Albrook airport. Lo siento, señor!

After we claimed our luggage we had to wait for it to be scanned. We wondered whether scanning at our destination meant that no one cares if passengers are blown up on their way into Panama City from Bocas . . . ? That said, the dog let loose amongst our luggage suggested the real purpose of this post-flight search was to search for drugs. Bocas is a well-known party town.

Whatever the searchers were looking for they didn't find it in our luggage, so we exited and met Ricardo. If you want marine paint, a Canal line handler or a taxi ride -- Ricardo is your guy in Panama City. We asked for an extra stop (in keeping with the day's theme) for our neighbor Tatiana. Like us, Tatiana had to leave the country and was returning to her passport country, Colombia. She needed to get a quick-turnaround Covid test before she could enter Colombia. Google maps found the clinic and we dropped her off -- thanking her for the weekly pizzas and empanadas she had sold us during our stay at Jungle Lodge 1. 

The Crowne Plaza near Tocumen Airport (PTY) is fully Covid-equipped with plexiglass protectors at the front desk, no-touch check-in procedures and elevators with three sets of feet decals - facing the elevator wall. Everyone we saw was masked. 

The restaurant was open and offered a limited menu for travelers with limited options. Hint: Don't listen to your spouse when she or he asks that you leave your cell phone in the room to encourage dinner conversation - you will need it to bring up the restaurant's no-share menu.  

Scan and Download The Menu Here

We ordered okay dinners and two glasses of perfectly awful Chardonnay to celebrate the completion of Day One.

PTY To The El Segundo DoubleTree - Day 2 (October 30)

As we left the Crowne Plaza for the airport, one of the wheels on Bryce's brand new cheap suitcase broke off. The fact that he had purchased the second-most expensive suitcase in the whole of Bocas del Toro ($59 plus tax) made this a disappointing experience for him. We crab-walked/rolled into the airport terminal wondering how long the $89 suitcase would have lived . . .  

The check-in scrum at PTY was somewhat controlled by feet decals. We began to sense a lost investment opportunity . . .  were these little feet decals used everywhere in the world or only in Panama? Is the feet decal boom over - are they stuck on everywhere? Are the makers of feet decals conflicted about the development of a vaccine? 

Out of the crowd trying to check in to the flight to LAX we were spotted by Tatiana! The rapid-return test clinic she had put her faith in had let her down. She had not gotten her test results as promised and was at the airport trying to rearrange her trip back to Colombia. The universe was reminding us not to complain. It actually could be worse and for someone we knew, was. 

Note: We often spring for Business Class when flying to and from Abracadabra because we haul a lot of heavy baggage to and from our boat home ("we don't travel - we move"). Between Central America and the U.S. an Economy flight + heavy baggage is only marginally less expensive than Business Class. On this trip we didn't haul the usual boat parts and household goods but we figured that if there was ever a time to pay extra for even a small amount of extra distance from fellow travelers, this was it. 

The usual practice for flights to the U.S. from Panama is a double security check. The airport performs the usual check of carryon luggage, shoes, belt buckles and metal orthopedic parts near the departure gate. An additional check is then performed by the airline at the gate. No idea why - it just is. This has not changed in these "no touch times". 

Everyone was masked although we were asked to take off our masks occasionally by people checking to see that we were ourselves. Molly kept expecting to be challenged - her hair had become quite wild over the eight-ish months of hair salon closures.

The plane boarded back to front. We were served a boxed dinner (lots of hygienic and ecologically unsound plastic wrap). The only beverage on board was (ecologically unsound) bottled water. No alcohol and worse, no coffee. 

Oddly we were given plastic-wrapped "travel comfort bags" with socks and eye masks. We haven't seen those for a decade or more! 

Worth Paying For Business Class! 
(No, Not Really)

At LAX we expected some sort of Covid procedure but the only concession to the pandemic was a lack of customs check. No questions, no temperatures, no tracking. We don't know what procedures were applied to those who weren't entering as U.S. citizens or permanent residents.    

LAX has a new taxi procedure involving a crowded bus to a distant taxi stand. This may be an efficiency measure rather than a Covid-era change. 

Night 2 was spent at the El Segundo DoubleTree, chosen for its proximity to an Enterprise car rental lot. Plastic shields, no-touch check in, feet decals in the elevators (one can put four in an elevator in the U.S.) and very reassuring little stickers about deep cleaning connecting the door jam and the door (See! No one has been in this room since it was cleaned!). Remember when motels used to put that paper band around toilet seats?

The DoubleTree introduced us to a Covid protection practice that we actually like. Rather than the usual scrum around the "included breakfast" buffet we were directed to a line (more feet decals) where we ordered our plastic-encased breakfast items to take to our room; no crying children, no fellow travelers still in their pajamas. Not tasty mind you, but much calmer.  

El Segundo to Sacramento - Days 3 - 5 (Oct. 31 - Nov. 2)

We had planned our commute to Sacramento as a three day drive up Highway 1 and then up Highway 33 in an attempt to make this potentially awful trip more of a vacation. Anyone who has ever driven I-5 between Sacramento and Los Angeles (only about 8 hours if you concentrate and don't need coffee as often a we do) will know why we try to avoid that route like - well, the plague.

The first stop along Highway 1 was to purchase items for a beach picnic at a Bristol Farms grocery store. Here we insert the requisite "we're back in the land of amaaaazing grocery stores" picture for any of our readers still in Central America. Lisa and Michael - we see your Whole Foods picture and raise you one!

Produce! Piles and Piles of Produce!

Next picture -- it's been a long time since we have been in California.

CBD At The Grocery Store . . . 
Is It Everywhere Now?

We picnicked at Santa Monica until the fog rolled in; it seemed really crowded to those of us used to having the Red Frog Beaches to ourselves. 

Lunch

From Santa Monica through Malibu, Highway 1 offers some spectacular views of beach-dwellers' garage doors - but once we reached Oxnard we had great views of the Pacific. We made a coffee and boat-peeping stop at Ventura.

Look: Tourists!

We observed two Trump Caravans along Highway 1; very high school football rally-like.  

Our motel that night was - fine. Bryce was very proud of the fact that it was paid for with points. Dinner was take-out from a nearby Mexican restaurant. Ah, the taste of home.

 

In the morning we checked the latest CalFire map and confirmed our plan to find Highway 33 - a route we had never taken before. After an outdoor patio breakfast at Bonnie Lu's in Ojai we walked through the town's little (but beautiful) farmer's market. 

We picked up Highway 33 and started up into the Los Padres National Forest. There are better sites on the Internet to see pictures of the route, but we offer this one to (a) prove we were there and (b) entice readers to search out this drive. 

After the beautiful hills Highway 33 descends into Oil Country - miles of sad, dry land, Mexican restaurants (thank heavens!), rusty trailers and pump jacks. As we passed signs for the Petroleum Club in Taft, Ca., Bryce suggested we see if they offered some sort of reciprocal membership. Molly's grandfather was a charter member of the Petroleum Club in Tulsa, which has since closed. We took out from some place less grand.

Signs along the highway in Oil Country: Trump. Pray For Rain. 

We stopped for the night in the second largest town in Kern Country - Delano. Think grapes, Cesar Chavez and two State prisons. Pronounced "DehLAYno", Molly kept reminding Bryce whose lingering Canadian accent turned it into "DELLahno". Dinner was take-out from a pizza restaurant. Should have stuck with our Mexican food theme.

And from there it was a relatively well known route up Highway 99. Done. 

Here We Are

We are living in a little 2-bedroom duplex, "our" half of which has been turned into an Airbnb. Our clean, pleasant enough little digs are in an area of Sacramento called "The Pocket" -- a pocket of land created by a bend in the Sacramento River that was developed in the 1960's and 70's. There are green belt spaces for walking and though the residents get nervous every flood season we think we will be out of here before snowmelt in the mountains.

Shortly after we arrived we arranged to take a Covid test to determine if we were importing any Covid virus as a result of our journey. Once we got negative results we felt better -- at least that we were not adding to The Situation in Sacramento. We began seeing friends -- at a distance, outdoors, with masks. So good to say hello in the flesh after months of e-mails and zoom calls. Molly's latest realization is that though she has never considered herself to be "a hugger" -- she misses that connection with friends. You don't know what you've got till it's gone, as the song says. 

Not much is open in Sacramento but after months at Jungle Lodge 1 we don't find that constraining. Our one try at indoor restaurant dining was a little uncomfortable and restaurants were closed again a few days later. That's fine with us - we're good with take-out. We have also  mastered the skills of ordering groceries (e-cart pick-up) and communicating with our doctors and their schedulers via the internet when possible. 

So - between our deferred maintenance medical stuff (all just maintenance, gracias a dios!) we might have time to catch up on some pre-pandemic travel posts. Or maybe we will spend our time watching streamed content on the big tv in this rental. 

A final amusing note: On November 7, five days after our arrival in Sacramento we learned that the Panamanian government had extended its grace period for tourists through January 31. Go figure.

Hope all is well with you and your family. Have a safe Thanksgiving. We look forward to saner times. 

And Now - The Scary Part Of Our Pandemic Plan

After eight months of "sheltering in place" (remember that term from months ago?) we now plan to leave our Pandemic Paradise here on Bastimentos Island in Bocas del Toro, Panama. 

Jungle Lodge 1

Actually we have had several plans over the last few weeks, but here's what - as of the moment of posting - we think is our "final edit":  

The Plan

We have reservations on a flight from Bocas to Panama City on Thursday (October 29) and on a flight from PTY to LAX Friday (October 30). This gets us out of Panama one day before we would be considered turistas non grata by the Panamanian immigration office (or as they like to say on Fox News: illegal immigrants). 

From LA we will drive to Sacramento where we plan to spend six weeks in an Airbnb rental house which looks spacious, clean and well equipped (on the listing . . .) and deal with several routine medical matters. Amazing how much one can look forward to getting one's teeth cleaned!

This is the point in prior Leaving Abracadabra Posts that we have chattered on about plans to go walking in England, Spain, Portugal or France or take Spanish lessons in Mexico. Those kind of plans seem a bit ambitious - if not downright selfish - at the moment.

All we feel comfortable saying about the future is that our long term plan still includes: returning to Panama and Abracadabra and sailing Abracadabra to a place (Colon, Panama or Golfito, Costa Rica) where she can be picked up by a cargo ship and taken to Vancouver, B.C., Canada.  Stay tuned.

The Plan's Glitches

Glitch Related Background: The majority of marine insurers have decided to offer international insurance only for large, newish yachts valued at more than $125,000. Explain that to us, if you can. Our bottom line: it is very hard to insure a little, old girl like Abracadabra no matter how well she has been loved. In an attempt to maintain our hull insurance we began trying to arrange for an out-of-the-water insurance survey in August. 

We scheduled surveyors acceptable to our current insurer to travel to Bocas from Panama City (a ten-hour drive for them!) and for Abracadabra to be hauled out by Bocas Yacht Services on the mainland in late September. 

Up She Rises -- None Too Soon For A Paint Job!

The quick haul out and bottom paint job we anticipated turned into - more. Nothing catastrophic, just more. As in it won't be finished by Thursday. 

So - now what? 

Glitch: In May, after moving to Jungle Lodge #1, we prepped Abracadabra for her usual in-water off-season storage. We were working on the (now clearly overly optimistic) assumption that we would be out of Panama and back before we had to have her out of the water for a survey. 

[Amusing Aside: In pre-pandemic 2020 we had actually thought we would be able to get her all the way to Canada before having an insurance survey done, because insuring in Canada is less difficult than insuring in the Caribbean. Hindsight you are indeed 2020. Ugh.]  

As part of the usual "decommissioning process" undertaken in May lots of things came down and off the rails and decks for storage below (jib, safety equipment, bar-b-que, various sheets (ropes for non-sailors), etc.. 

See where this is going yet?  

Glitch: When we realized we couldn't wait to return to Panama for a survey we put everything back out and on in order to sail/motor Abracadabra the 14-miles to the boat yard on the mainland for a haul-out and survey. We also decided to unload stuff in order to give the surveyors easy access to the engine and chain plates and through hulls. Off came three plastic bins of parts and repair equipment, a huge roll of sleeping foam from the v-berth, pillows and, you know -- stuff. No problem - all that came to Jungle Lodge #1 in a couple of golf cart loads. We would put it all back inside when Abracadabra returned from the boat yard to the marina. Plus there was no need to take the dinghy over to the boat yard for the survey . . . . the surveyors were able to see the dinghy at the Red Frog dock.

See where this is going now?

Glitch: When we realized that Abracadabra would not be back from the boat yard before we left we further realized we would need to (a) take down the things we had previously taken down and then put back up for the survey (see above - jib, safety equipment, etc.) and (b) even worse, get the dinghy, two golf-cart loads of stuff and some kitchen items we had taken to Jungle Lodge #1 (pressure cooker, salad spinner, plastic storage bins) across the briny to Abracadabra. Ugh. Even for Bryce who had begun to think of "taking shit off of my boat and putting it back on" as his primary hobby - Ugh.

And then - ta dah - the cavalry arrived in the form of kind dock-mates Jim and Suzy and their beamy ketch, Octopus Garden. 

We loaded Octopus Garden with the majority of our homeless stuff and Bryce, Jim and Suzy took a fully loaded Octopus Garden across to Abracadabra. Molly stayed home with what we think was food poisoning but that's another story . . . 

Bocas Yacht Services -- A Tropical Style Office

Whew. Since that first major moving trip we have made several others to the boat yard, each round-trip involving six panga rides (Basti to Bocas, Bocas to Almirante, Almirante to Bocas Yacht Services; then repeat) and $40. As of last Thursday Abracadabra was deemed almost ready for storage and Jungle Lodge #1 almost free of stuff we won't be taking to California. Whew.

Hopefully the work on Abracadabra and our ability to re-enter Panama will come together at the same time. Those of us watching international borders shut tight around us throughout mid-2020 are a bit shy about our ability to easily move about the planet. 

This is the first time we have left Abracadabra out of the water for any significant length of time. We hope she's not mad at us when we get back.  

Thoughts On Our Return To El Norte

We have not been in the U.S. for 14 months. A lot has changed during that time. 

Red Froggers who have recently returned from the U.S. as well as those who have recently left and reported back describe their home country as A Very Angry Place. We do our best not to engage politically with dock mates we suspect will not share our opinions -- we keep to the weather and where to buy hardware and groceries unless someone else starts The Conversation and we feel we have found Fellow Travelers. But we think we are hearing about A Very Angry Place from across the political spectrum. 

Add that to the comments from the crews of non-U.S. flagged boats and we expect to find a place that is internationally and domestically recognized as A Very Angry Place. 

Can't wait.  

We expect our stay on Basti will feel even more like a gift from the universe than before. 

A Very Pleasant Place

 

We will miss our Pandemic Paradise -- but hope to see many of our California friends at small, distanced gatherings once we have self-quarantined for a couple of weeks. Take care until then!

Pandemic Period Summary (just skip it if you've already heard this one): 

We arrived back onboard Abracadabra in December, 2019 and spent January and February sailing and anchoring within the Bocas del Toro archipelago or docked at the Red Frog Marina on Bastimentos Island, enjoying the facilities of the related Red Frog Beach Resort. 

Long, Long Ago . . . We Sailed About And Anchored Out

In February, along with the rest of the world, we began to learn more and more about the spread of a new coronavirus and the disease it delivers: Covid-19. 

The marina closed to new boats and movement within the archipelago by boat was curtailed. The resort closed - no pool, no restaurants, no visitors. Travel within Panama of any kind (boat, plane, road) was limited to essential services. Panama's international borders were closed and commercial flights suspended. Curfews and quarantines were imposed and altered confusingly. Food and alcohol resupply got problematic and stressful. U.S. Embassy sponsored flights to the U.S. were made available, but only to places we didn't want to go (Texas and Florida). Many fellow boaters left to their home countries.

For March and April we made the most of the oddly empty private property of the resort - we took long walks and enjoyed observing the non-human island occupants which grew curious about the lack of human activity and came out on the jungle to observe us. Molly sewed masks and Bryce did boat maintenance and started tracking Panama's Covid-19 case numbers on a calendar. We wrote blog posts and communicated with friends in North America via video calls. There was one place for take-out pizza still open. We decided to sit tight and see . . . what . . . would happen.

Along with other Red Froggers, we reached out to the local community with some food donations. Bocas is a tourist economy and without tourists - there are very few jobs.

 

Thanks For Organizing This, Christine!

As Abracadabra began to feel smaller (the incredibly shrinking sailboat, we called her) we learned of a house on the resort property that the owners were happy to have occupied. We jumped at the chance and in May moved into Jungle Lodge 1. Paradise: space for humans and air to move about, water on demand (most days), our own private bathroom/shower room, a real refrigerator, a washer and drier, monkeys in the nearby jungle and the worlds' best deck with a view of the Caribbean - in the sun and the rain. 

Rain In The Forecast

There were bugs and geckos - It's The Jungle became our mantra. We used a lot of Off. 

Some Bugs Are Totally Cool

Geckos Are Too

But They Are Difficult To Photograph

Despite our jungle diversions, the outside world became more fraught with every day. Some days it affected us. Others, not.

Over dinners we shared confused/simplistic discussions about the political/social culture of the U.S. in the time of pandemic until we admitted we were repeating ourselves. We listened to the ocean or the rain. We did the dishes and settled in to watch Money Heist or the Good Place or Midnight Diner. 

We had occasional guests from the marina join us on the deck for a small, socially distanced drink or lunch or at the pool for a small, socially distanced dip. 

A Table Made For Social Distancing

Each of us celebrated a low-key birthday. Bryce had a small group lunch on the deck. Molly's guest list was more exotic -- a troop of capuchin monkeys passed us during her birthday afternoon walk! 

Things began to open up. People and boats began to move about. A regular business sprung up to address the need for people to reach the international airport in Panama City -- 10 long boating/driving hours away. After a while even the road blocks became wave throughs. We still decided to stay - we couldn't get enthused enough about leaving to take on the risk of travel. 

Some small restaurants in Bocas Town began to offer take-out food. One take-out pizza source on Basti closed and another opened to take its place. Boat shuttles to town resumed and over time became more frequent. A clever entrepreneur started offering a weekly boat delivery of fresh vegetables to the marina and nearby boats at anchor. 

Veggie Boat Comes Tuesday

Life achieved a new normal. 

More businesses opened in August. We were able to go into the hardware store rather than stand outside and request that someone bring us what they thought we wanted. 

In September we arranged to take Abracadabra to a local boatyard for an insurance survey and a "bottom job" (non-boat people: scraping off old paint below the water line, re-epoxying and re-painting -- one of the not-so-environmentally-friendly aspects of sailing). See above -- she is there now. Construction began on a jungle lodge unit next door. Right next door. Right. Next. Door.

Right. Next. Door.

The construction project was accompanied by a leak in the water system which didn't affect our water delivery but washed out the road. Going for a walk or a swim now requires driving down the muddy hill, parking beyond the mud-slide and then walking or swimming. Sigh. Even in Paradise!

In early October the government held a District Meeting on the Red Frog Property and we were specifically not told that the President of Panamá (Laurentino Cortizo) would be there . . . even when we asked. After he left we read about his presence in the paper. 

A Government Group Arriving At Red Frog Dock -- 
Can You Spot The President? We Can't.

In September the Panamanian government announced that regular commercial flights would commence in mid-October. Those who had overstayed their 6-month tourist authorization (ours: mid-June) were told to leave by October 31, apply for long-term residence or incur a monthly fine and eventually face limitations to our ability to return to Panama.  

Restaurants and guest houses are reopening. We are leaving. Abracadabra is staying. More to come.  

 

Panama Quarantine - Soon To Be Month Six

As we end the fifth month of our unanticipated pandemic sojourn on Bastimentos Island (Bocas del Toro Province of Panama) and find ourselves expecting to stay at least one more month, we thought we would write about why we are still here. We have written about being "stuck" here several times before, but recently an internal shift has taken place in both of us -- we find ourselves increasingly thinking of our time on Basti as a choice rather than an imposition by circumstance. 

Not every day. And not always in synch with each other. But mostly we agree that this is where we want to be right now.    

It's Not So Different In Some Ways 

Video chats and e-mails with friends and family confirm that our land-based pandemic life on Basti is similar in many ways to the lives of our North American retiree compadres. Like them, we make every effort to remind ourselves to be thankful -- that we are well (so far, so good, knock wood) and because we are retired, free from the stress of unemployment or having to work in a place we might feel unsafe. 

We also practice the pandemic coping mechanisms we know we share with others: 

• Naming each day's joy (see sunset picture above);
• Hoping for positive changes this pandemic may bring (universal healthcare or health insurance in the U.S. (ojalá!), reduced entertainment shopping and boredom-based fast food consumption and less frenzied, unnecessary movement using carbon based fuel); 
• Exercising (well - sometimes);
• Thinking of others' needs -- many thanks to Christine, a marina friend who organizes food distributions for local indigenous communities!  

One Of The Deliveries From
Marina Residents

• Reading -- though our concentration can be spotty and our book picks not always Fine Literature;
• Streaming a lot of entertainment content -- we've upped our streaming game and have signed on to Britbox and PBS and the house we are in has Netflix Panama;
• Making efforts to stay in contact with friends and family. [Note: Without Messenger, Zoom, Skype and WhatsApp we would have gone 'round the twist months ago -- so we might not think the next "how sad it is this younger generation spends so much time in front of a screen" comment is so funny. We say, leave the damned kids alone!]; and
• Cooking - and trying not to complain about cooking.

All of this helps keep us on an even keel most of the time. But there are times it doesn't override the frustration we feel at spending so much of our finite existence on this planet (however long that turns out to be) in one place. We know we share that sentiment with some of our generational cohort, too.  

But It's Different In Other Ways

Though in ways our life isn't that different, in others, because we are in Panama and at the sparsely populated end of an island, it is. 

          Many Better Differences:

We have enjoyed being removed from many aspects of North American culture: cable television and its relentless news, the tyranny of those who insist their personal freedoms should override community safety (even if they only come to our attention on cable television) and recreational shopping.

We confess to having had periods of championship purchasing (usually when we return to the States!) but the few stores in Bocas Town (the archipelago's only community of significant size) are closed and the extra shipping costs required to get things to our out-of-the-consumer-mainstream location protects us from entertainment shopping on the internet. It's felt quite freeing to realize how much stuff we don't need. [Side note: We did place a critical needs internet order of some new boxer shorts for Bryce -- elastic doesn't live long in the tropics. They aren't anything special even though with shipping they may be the most expensive plaid cotton boxer shorts he will ever own. TMI?]   

We are able to live most of each day outside - not only because the climate here is frequently pleasant, but because the house we are staying in is designed for an outdoor-friendly life. We have a breezy, second story deck where even humid or rainy days are nice. We do not look forward to returning to the land of central heat and air -- or, even worse, fire smoke. (Hang in there, California peeps. We don't envy your life during Fire Season.)

And of course -- this part of Panama is beautiful and interesting. From our deck we enjoy world class views (see above) and the sound of waves, parrots, other birds, insects, geckos and frogs. On a recent afternoon Bryce spotted a lost-looking capuchin monkey walking across the lawn and has worried about him ever since, as we have never seen a capuchin monkey moving about solo. They always travel in troops as far as we know.  

During dry moments (most days have some) we take walks along jungle roads and swim. The fact that the resort is almost deserted means the little community pool is our private pool. 

In sum, we are lucky to be here.

               Some Not Better Differences, Of Course: 

As we have mentioned, the closest medical clinic is a 15-minute fast panga ride away and the nearest real hospital is several hours over bumpy roads from here. We are betting on staying healthy rather than on needing the more immediate medical assistance available to us in the U.S.

Our food choices are more limited than they would be in, say, California (e.g., frozen strawberries are a delicacy, we don't know how we would get a real peach and we'd pretty much pay anything for some California-style sourdough bread). Bocas del Toro province has a 7 pm to 5 am curfew and a full curfew on Saturday and Sunday which means we don't take out for dinner (though we have a good fish taco place on Basti for lunch or early dinner). This just means our constant meals at home complaints are probably whinier than they would be if we were in the States.

And even though we list not being able to internet shop without a price penalty as a better difference -- we do occasionally long for a replacement t-shirt to show up on our doorstep. 

Life in paradise is not without some challenges.

               Just Different Differences: 

It's winter (or what passes for winter) here and it's been rainy for several weeks in a way that would impress even people from Ontario or Oklahoma. 

Spectacular Clouds Promising Spectacular Rain

We have a resident critter which, fortunately appears to live outside and has no interest in joining us inside the house. We first thought it might be a larger version of the hopping mouse we removed from the house a couple months ago - driven outside by the sonic rodent repellant machines that our landlords shipped to us from the States. Thanks, Libby and Jack! 

Bryce took a picture of this recent critter into town to try to buy a trap -- the plan was to trap it and take it far away, inflicting just enough trauma to convince it to find another place to hang out. The guy at the hardware store told Bryce that no one bothers trapping zarigüeyas -- they live in the bosque -- and that the store didn't have any traps that size. Hmmm. Bryce's Spanish vocabulary included bosque (forest - what we call jungle) but not zarigüeya. A dictionary search disclosed that our forest critter is -- a possum.  

A further internet search confirmed that some people keep possums as pets. We will not. No matter how boring we may occasionally find our own conversation, we do not enjoy having a possum staring at us during dinner. We have taken steps to discourage this particular possum from feeling comfortable near the house, and flicking it with a towel did cause it to quit ogling our dinner temporarily, but sounds on the roof suggest it has not moved permanently. Perhaps the recent heavy rains will drive it away. Or perhaps we will have to agree to coexist. As long as it remains outside.

And That's Why We're Still Here

Existing travel restrictions (as we understand them, summarized below -- you can skip them if you wish) make it extremely difficult for us to travel from Panama by land, sea or air to any place other than our country of legal residency - the U.S.. And on the whole, we prefer to be here (see above) rather than there. But - always one, yeah? - our permitted visitor status in Panama expired in late June. The Panamanian government will fine us $100 a month for overstaying our tourist status, and at some point may make it difficult for us to return to Abracadabra. So someday - maybe as soon a regular commercial flights recommence - we will have to go.  

That's pretty much it. We are here until we can't be any more and wishing all of you that are there or elsewhere the best. Say well, stay cool and stay fire safe. 

          Travel Restrictions (FYI):

• By Land: Panama's one land border crossing -- with Costa Rica -- has been closed to non-essential travel since March. We can't drive or bus out. Side note: Costa Rica is opening to commercial traffic this month -- but to only a few U.S. residents. 
• By Sea: Recreational boat travel is currently prohibited within Panama, though recreational boats have been able to obtain permission to leave Panama. The "sailing away" option is complicated because most nearby countries are currently closed to arriving recreational vessels except in emergency situations and in recent times even open international borders have closed without notice. Sailing connections tell us that being exhausted and running out of food, diesel or electricity haven't been deemed to be "emergency situations" by some countries. So - sailing off to "some place else" doesn't seem a safe plan. Sailing off to the U.S. (where we have citizenship and thus the right to enter) would require heading further into the Caribbean -- directly into hurricane season. All this to arrive in Florida. Not our preferred destination even before the pandemic. 
• By Air (Regular, Commercial Flights): Panama remains closed to international and domestic commercial air traffic, which will not open any sooner than September 21 (recently updated from August 21). Until Panama reopens internal scheduled flights, getting to Panama City means a 10 hour ride by government-approved private transport (4-wheel drive or van of some sort). 
• By Air (Other Options): There are repatriation / humanitarian flights for U.S. citizens and residents which travel from Panama to Florida, Texas and D.C. and occasional regular COPA Airline flights that are allowed to transit into Panama from other locations which travel on to the U.S. One of these flights is the option on the table in the event we feel it is best to leave here before commercial flights recommence.