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Thanksgiving lunch at the Calypso Cantina was a treat!  The marina provided the turkeys which were beautifully moist and tasty and the Cantina and cruisers provided all the trimmings, vegetables, and desserts.  With about 40 people attending there were lots of choices so following the great American tradition, we fed well and were pretty much useless for the rest of the day.  And it was beautiful and sunny, as have been the last couple of days, lulling us into wondering whether the rainy season was ending early.  However, after a couple of clear nights with glorious views of the full moon, this morning has been overcast and wet again but thankfully we have not seen any lightning for a while (famous last words…) so that is an improvement.  When it is cloudy and breezy, it actually feels a little cooler but when the sun is out, there is still no doubt about the tropical heat.

We managed to watch the University of Florida Gators versus Florida State University football game (a long-standing, in-state rivalry) on the Sky TV at the Cantina on Saturday (Nov 28^th).  Apart from the joys of watching the Gators win decisively and seeing our star quarterback, Tim Tebow’s, last home game, it was a pleasure to see pictures of Gainesville on a cool but sunny afternoon.  It made me quite miss the place and all our friends…

Otherwise we have been very busy filing our insurance claim for the dinghy and outboard, ordering things to pick-up in the USA, and generally getting ready for our month-long trip.  This included booking hotel rooms in David and Panamá City, the plan begin to take the local bus from Almirante to David and then a national bus from David to Panamá City.  Because of the rainy season and the risk that the road to David might close if conditions were bad (it has been closed for a few days already this year) we had decided to leave Bocas a few days before our flight to Seattle which, all being well, would also allow us a couple of days to look around in Panamá City.  Such a simple plan…

Never make travel plans without checking on all the local holidays first.  After we called five hotels in Panamá City to be told that they were fully booked (in some cases for the whole month of December) we started to get a bit panicky.  So we went to the Mexican Madness dinner at the Cantina to ask around for other hotel suggestions and then learned the magnitude of our problem.  Our Seattle flight is early on Dec 9^th but the day before is Mother’s Day, the biggest holiday in Panama and a time during which many, many people get pay bonuses and head into the cities to do their shopping.  So not only were all the reasonably priced hotels in Panamá City  likely to be booked but David would be packed and the buses would probably be very crowded, none of which seemed to be good for us.  So we had to start reconsidering our plans.

After a rather short night (waking up early worrying about whether we could sleep in the bus stations or airport), we took the marina manager’s advice and asked Elizabeth, the very competent marina office manager if she could help us.  She was said to have friends in various hotels in both cities and might have better luck at finding a room than when bumbling Gringos like us phoned.  In the meantime, we went to the airport with great relief were able to book ourselves on the morning flight from Bocas to Panamá City on Dec 8^th.  This would cost more than the bus and shorten our visit to the city but it would reduce the total hotel bills and avoid having to worry about the possible closure of the road to David.  On our return in January, we could take the bus and see a bit more of the Panamanian countryside, when the timing was less critical, the weather was drier, and the cities should be less crowded. 

Finally, we discovered that the faith that been recommended in Elizabeth was well founded and by some method she had got us a room in Panamá City for Dec 8^th at a reasonable cost.  Thank you, Elizabeth!  In retrospect, it does not sound like a big deal but there are not many ways to get to Panamá City from Bocas and we are anxious not to miss our flight to Seattle.  Had we realized the date and significance of Mother’s Day when we booked our flights several months ago, we might have picked another date or made hotel reservations much earlier.  I have checked to find that there is another national holiday a few days after we return from the USA but we should be back on the boat by then.  The appearance of unexpected complications to things that should be so simple seems to be an occupational hazard of our chosen life-style but this how we learn about other cultures and how to ask for help!

Tomorrow we move over to Red Frog Marina where we are leaving Tregoning during our trip to the USA.  There is no internet access there so we may be out of blog and email touch until we are in Seattle.  I hope to post a few photos on the blog this afternoon and then at some point when I have time and a good online connection I plan to reorganize the recent posts (adding more sites and photos and reorganizing but not making many additions to the text…yeah, right).  I will also change the title of this blog to The Caribbean Coast of Panama so that I can start a new one for the Pacific coast in the New Year.  So there may be many changes over the coming weeks but not all will add new text.

We are thoroughly excited about staying with generous friends and family in Seattle, Olympia, and Spokane and seeing many family members over the holidays.  It will be a bit of a climate shock but Randall is really looking forward to the cold and even I admit that it will be a nice change to cuddle-up for warmth rather than hear the tropical cruiser’s plaintive nighttime cry of “It’s too hot and part of you is touching me!”