“Hello, is there anybody out there?”  No, I’m not messing up the lyrics to Comfortably Numb, it is how we are feeling as we move into the off-season.  Suddenly the normal flood of familiar names heard over the radio or anchored nearby has become nothing more than a trickle.  For our land-based friends, the off-season (June-Nov or hurricane season) sees many cruisers leaving their boats and heading back home.   Many Pacific Ocean cruisers set sail for the South Pacific (think soft white beaches, palms and friendly Polynesians – but only after sailing 3 weeks across an ocean) or head back north into Mexico’s Sea of Cortez.  We have chosen to move south and east where we are safely out of the hurricane zone, but well within the rainy season.  Not only are there very few cruisers out there, Western Panama has very few people, period.  It is tranquil to say the least.

Islas Las Secas

Crab coconut condo

Lucy loves this place and did not want to leave

It is a rugged, very tropical, wet, jungly and sparsely inhabited land. There are indigenous peoples mixed in all about and everyone lives a subsistence lifestyle, as there are virtually no cities for miles around.

Fishing cabin

Some of the little villages we saw didn’t even have roads going to them. The locals move about by boat or when necessary over unforgiving trails through the thick forests.

Neko anchored in Bahia Honda

We dropped anchored in the beautiful bay of Bahia Honda and were promptly greeted by life-long island resident and friend to cruisers, Domingo.   Although my Spanish is still that of a 3-year-old, Domingo’s constant chatting somehow sunk in and we were trading goods for fruits and herbs, visiting his home and being his guests to visit Salmonete a tiny village up a river to buy lobsters from the fishermen, undoubtedly his buddies.

Domingo’s house

Red bananas, yellow bananas and pineapples from Domingo. Problem with this many bananas is they all ripen at the same time. So even freezing some for smoothies, left us with A LOT of bananas

Domingo’s pig, who lived with a terrified cat in this pen. Never got a straight answer why the cat was in there. Maybe we don’t want to know.

Domingo taking us up the river

Young villager welcoming us

Larry, Peter and Domingo and Lucy

Lobster dinner

Larry and Debbie from “Tropical Blend”

Kayaking in Bahia Honda

sssssssnake

On our second day there we were joined by Larry and Debbie from “Tropical Blend” (whom we met back in El Salvador)  and it was nice to have friends join us on the lobster adventure and kayaking through the estuaries.