so many awesome flowers

On our hike near Cerro Punta I had a hard time restraining myself from taking pictures! Here's a few. Ok, one's not a flower but those giant green leaves are so endearing..

Escape from boat work.

Yesterday, I finished my sewing project reinforcing our sun awning and Brian finalized all the boat parts being shipped to us. We packed in about 5 minutes and hopped on a local bus to a small town on the side of a(inactive) volcano called Cerro Punto. We are so sick of working on Nomad! We have escaped to a beautiful wooden floored lodge where there are no project for us to do. There are only rain forests to hike through and a cozy balcony outside our room to watch the hummingbirds from. I have also challenged Brian to a game of Fusball. I expect to lose.

Here's where we are:
losquetzales.com

where are all the iguanas?

up until a couple of days ago, I'd been wondering where the iguanas and other wildlife might be. Anchored in a mangrove estuary there should be plenty of iguanas in trees or basking on the mud flats. Nothing. Brian saw one, slowly making his way across the muddy flat exposed next to the marina parking lot at low tide. He pointed it out to me and I watched it and took pictures. Soon, we heard shouts and excitement outside. A few of the marina workers had spotted our handsome reptile. Soon they were lobbing fist sized rocks at the iguana. They were all very bad aims. One narrowly missed and all the rest were wildly off. The iguana made it to the edge of the water and dove in. Still the 8 - 12 men gathered around didn't lose interest. They called over two men in a small dugout canoe that were paddling by. For half an hour, men called back and forth to look in one place or the other. Then the iguana was spotted again. He'd crawled under a pier. The excitement was on. The whole time, Brian and I were secretly rooting for the big creature. Only after an hour of futile hunting did people finally disperse.

Now I know why I haven't seen much wild life. It's all being hunted and eaten! I guess I should have put the facts together when the security guard told me how delicious the peccaries were that they catch in the mangroves.

Tree Enth

Here's a picture of a mangrove tree near the Marina. It reminds me of a Tree Enth from the Lord of the Rings.

Provisioning

We have been in David, Panama for 9 days. Almost every single one of those days has been spent researching items on the internet or taking the bus to town to hunt down desired items.

Items I'm looking for are all related to food, medicine, or navigation. Finding food items without MSG is very difficult. MSG is in campbell's soup, soy sauce, powdered soup mixes, sausage, Chef Boyardee products, bags of chips, etc. Even "natural" foods have it sometimes.

Brian's searches all have to do with the engine. Spare parts, engine lubricants, gaskets, tubes, pumps, and other things I don't even know.

In the evenings, around 6pm we stop what we're doing and pull some cold drinks out of the fridge. We lower our dinghy into the water and go for an evening drive up and down the various fingers of the river/estuary we are in. This is instead of an evening stroll. The town next to the marina isn't very pleasant to walk in.
That's a glimpse of our daily life lately.

Sunset at Pavones, Costa Rica

(Note: This was written before the Panama entries. It is out of chronological order)
Pavones- where the Bar, “Esquina del Mar” opens by 10am to welcome surfers paddling in from their morning sessions. 20 and 30year olds with unshaved chins and bare chests sit at the counter that gives them a direct view of the sets coming in, or not. I just sent Brian off on the yellow school bus to Golfito. Today is his turn to try recovering a full propane tank. He’ll ride 2 hours 20 minutes and have 30 minutes to obtain our fuel for the next 2 months of cooking, then back on the same bus for the last run of the day to Pavones. (author’s note: Brian returned with an empty propane canister.)

Meanwhile I’m tucked behind the low seawall under almond trees, coconut palms and others, listening to the dance beat and repetitive lyrics from the “Esquina del Mar.” I can see Nomad nose into the wind as surfers languidly wait close to shore for the next set to roll in.

From Pavones there are a couple of surf spots to check out on our trip around Punta Armuelles, and the border of Panama. We’re looking forward to exploring the reported clear waters and beautiful islands between here and Panama City. Pavones has been a nice place to stop. It’s a quiet yet living town with soccer games all weekend. Locals picnic from the backs of their cars parked next to the ocean or by the cold clear river that empties into it just south of town. Travelers are not a novelty and yet we don’t feel like every local sees dollar bills walking down the street as we approach. It’s a comfortable, clean small village in a beautiful setting. Palm trees lean out over the beaches and scarlet macaws announce themselves overhead. There are pleasant places to sit in the shade.

Maybe the reason I like Pavones so much is that it is so UNLIKE Golfito. The dirty broken looking bars with drunks wandering the street at all times of day are only part of the unpleasantness of the place. The only clean shady place to be was at Tierra Mar, the cruiser “clubhouse” next to where we anchored.

Ollie's

1. The well-known surf spot in Northern Costa Rica, is also known as Bahia Potrero Grande. It is also a sea turtle nesting ground. We didn't see the turtles but did see the mama's tracks up to her nest and some shriveled egg peelings. That's in Brian's hand.

2. Ollie's with off shore wind. For all you surf junkies.