Day 133, Year 1: Slight Delay in Plans
Date: Monday, February 27, 2006
Weather: Continued Sunny and Warm
Location: Balboa Yacht Club, Balboa, Panama
We are ready and waiting to head west, but Carnival is causing us to have a slight delay. The Yacht Club office closed today at noon and will not reopen until Wednesday because of Carnival. That means that mooring fees cannot be paid until then. We are heading out with Aqua Magic and they got to shore just a little too late to catch anyone in the office. Fortunately, we paid on Saturday when we went to the dock to fill up with diesel and water, but we were almost glad for the delay as this will give us the chance to enjoy the last day of Carnival. We should be headed to the Las Perlas early on Wednesday morning and will stay there for a few days to catch our breath before beginning the nine day journey to the Galapagos.
Margaret from Aqua Magic and myself went to shore at 0830 this morning. I called Roosevelt, a taxi driver we had used on Saturday, and had him pick us up at 0900. Roosevelt is from the part of Panama that borders with Costa Rica and speaks great English. He explained to us that everyone in that part of Panama speaks English and that he actually had to go to school to learn Spanish. He is a great asset as he can interpret for us. Besides that, he’s just a great guy and it has been a pleasure doing business with him. He charges us $8.00 an hour and takes us wherever we need to go and goes into the stores with us to interpret and find the best deals. This morning we went into the fresh fruit and vegetable market. It was so big we had to drive from one area to another. No one spoke English, so Roosevelt’s translation skills were most helpful. He also knows how to choose the best of local produce and he knows where to get it. At the end of the hour, I had bought a large stalk of bananas, a huge bag of oranges to share with Aqua Magic, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, green peppers, cantaloupe, egg plant, okra, broccoli, limes, Chinese cabbage, Bok Choy, Daikon radish, pineapple, and more. We are not going to starve-that’s for sure. We returned to the marina to take the bounty back to our boats and stow it away before making the second provisioning trip of the day. At 1400, Roosevelt retuned and took Mark and I and Patrick and Margaret to PriceSmart. This is like a Sam’s Club and were we found most of the items on our lists. But not all. So Roosevelt took Patrick and Mark back to the marina and dropped us off at a 24-7 grocery store. There we were able to complete our provisioning. Now we need to find places to store all this food. Then we can rest.
So tomorrow will be a little bit slower than today, we will have to have everything done by 1400 and then head into Via Espana for a little Carnival fun.
 |
| 060227 Day 133 Provisioning for the Pacific Voyage |
