Here is what happens when you have lived in Bocas too long. A friend of ours is quite the artist and has vivid imagination and a weird brain.

 He collects all the material here in the marina, anywhere from palm fronds to paint brush bristles. He also uses the new growth as the little shuts come out on the base of the Palms.

 The dragon body is a bean that grows on a tree here, the eyes are what they call hamburger seeds. On the Gulf coast we call the see beans.

This last photo is of a wind vain , you can see it on the table behind the bird. Sorry for the bad photo of the artist holding it in the air. Wait a minute the last one didn't show up.

 

See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

 

  Well how Y'all been doing, We are kind of dormant at the moment.We left for 2 weeks to go back to Texas to see our daughter and the grand babies. As you can see by tne photos everybody through us a party when we got back. Well maybe not for us, it could have been for the marina getting excepted to become an IYG marina. Well a good time was had by all.

  I know this will hurt some feelings in the states but we had to find any kind of shade we could find because it was nice and hot. All Y'all living above Interstate 10 are more than likely you are cold.

   Made a short trip to Panama City and did a little site seeing in Old Town. They are rebuilding the run down buildings and the ones that were damaged during the invasion. That's what the people call the troop arrival to put Noriega in prison for all his drug running.

 This is the sky line of P.C. with a little fog in the air, most interesting sky line. Trump has a building that looks like the Titanic in the stand on end and going down position, I can't find any way to get good photo to show Y'all but will keep trying when we go back.

 Well here we are at our favorite eating place and getting ready to leave to go back to Bocas. 

See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

Hey Y'all,  We had a October Fest weekend and Karen and I went to drink and have a little fun. The little fur ball in this first shot is a friend of ours pet. She is 14 and Omar or what ever his name is follows her like a dog would.

 There seems to be a lot of Texans here, this a couple we met that are heading to Rockport in a day or two to spend the winter there. They will then start out for the eastern side of the Caribbean.

  Just a group shot of the party, there was over a hundred people there listening to the two bands that was playing. Maybe next posting will be more interesting.

  See Y'all Down the Road,
Mike & Karen

OK, I know that we have been silent for quite a while, well that's because a new camera and new program would not let me upload photos so I had to find a way.

 Here are some photos of the things we have seen and done. Now I still can't get them in order so just bear with me and I'll try to explain what we have been doing. The top photo is Karen in our hotel in Panama city on the patio. We stay here because it is next to the airport and a easy way to be on time. The hotel would be classified as a 4 star with a great bar and restaurant.

The next one is pictographs in a remote area of Bogette where we spent a week just enjoying the climate ant the hot springs, The hot spring are 4 different temps. going from 140 to 120. Karen and I could not stay in any but maybe 5 minutes. After that there is a jump into the ice cold river, we past that one up.

  This is still at the hotel, I couldn't get Karen to play a game of chess. She said the board was too big.

  OK we missed the coffee plantation in Colombia so we found on here. The first photo is the bean drying. This is a small plantation with nothing but speciality coffee. Now don't think this guy is that small, his beans sell for $ 500.00 for a thirty five pound sack of dried beans. What you are looking at is about $ 1000.00 worth of beans here.

 These are the trees that they grow on,I know they look like bushes but they are trees. They keep them top off to grow a thicker foliage there for more beans.

  While we were there our guide roasted the same beans to 3 different roast, as you can see you have light,medium, and dark. The roasting is timed and we where told the more you roast the less caffeine you get. So the light roast has more of a kick than dark. Well we learned a hell of a lot more about coffee than I wanted to know. I probably should mention that getting to the plantation we were in an open bed truck and we were in a down pour at the time during the whole time we were there.

  Just another look at what the poor folks are doing while y'all are all out there making your fortunes So OBAMA can redistribute it among his people. SO EVERYBODY WHO CAN GET OUT AND VOTE THIS NOVEMBER.

See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

Hey Y'all, We just arrived here in Bocas del Toro. As we came in from the sea and rounded the end of the island we are staying at we had our first smell of the aroma of the jungle here. They have a tree here that the make Chanel perfume from and it smells great.
  We are getting on the water taxi this morning and going to town, will let y'all know how it is.
See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen

Hey Y'all,

Just a few random photos for you since we are not doing anything but waiting for Karen to finish all her dentist finished.

See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

Hey Y'all,
     I finished installing our new engine yesterday. It took me two and a half days to install but we have been waiting on parts for over a month.
     Karen fell or tripped on the dock the other day and chipped a tooth so we have to go to the denist Monday and start getting it fixed before we can leave here. I think we will be out of here in 2 weeks.
We are going to Bocas del Toro for the rest of the year, just to wait out all the big winds.
See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen

Hey Y'all, Today our new engine is being delivered. After 30 days of waiting and a few phone calls it will be here. I think it will be about 10 to 15 days before we head out to Bocas del Toro and we start back with blog.
 I just had a small operation in Panama City so that will slow me down just a little. This is just an update so my one reader in KW who lives vicariously through this blog will know whats happening.
See Y'all Down the Road.
Mike & Karen

Hey Y'all just a little note to let you know what's going on with us.

We are sitting in Puerto Rico for some doctor appointments and enjoying Marina de Salinas. We will be here for about 2 weeks and then back to Panama to put a new engine in our boat. That's right we blew the engine up on the boat. Now our engine is 12 years old but only had 3000 hours on it and that's just getting broke in. It seems like the Yanmar 3GMs or not rebuild able.

So we purchased a new one in Panama and it will be delivered when we get back. One good thing about it this one fits in the same foot print.

Here are a few photos that in my computer that Karen and I have taken while touring Panama and I thought y'all might like. The top one is one of Karens close relations that she is proud of. The Toucans are all over and so are the monkeys. We are use to waking up to the howler monkeys but here in PR we wake to dogs barking,quite the difference. Well in a few days I'll post again when the mood hits me.

See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

Hey Y'all, Karen left out or lost a few of the photos of our tour of Colon. The Panamanians are making a new set of locks at both ends of the canal.

 Here are a few photos of the excavation that you can see on the Colon side. now they were planning on opening this in 2014 but as any of you can see they still have 3 or 4 to go. best laid plan and all that.

 Panama isn't doing any of the construction but are taking the credit for it until the delay came and then it all changed. Most of the financing is coming from China but not a well known fact.

 We are going on a little tour today of another fort, like we haven't seen any of them before. I guess I have seen damn nearly every fort in the eastern and now the western Caribbean.

See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise.  You are getting Karen today instead of Mike.  Wednesday we took a tour of Colon and we saw parts of that city that we had no idea were there.  The picture above is at a battery and it shows how the Panama Canal was built.  It's truly an amazing sight.

The gentleman in the picture with Mike is a friend of ours named Jerry and he gave us the tour.  He has been here for over a year and had a marina at the Rio Dolce.  This shows a picture of Lake Gatun that made the Canal.  It is truly beautiful.

Here is a picture of a hotel swimming pool on the lake.  It is 2 tiered and has a bar in the water.  I could see my granddaughter Rebecca and grandson Josh having the time of their life there.  Panama is full of beautiful birds and lots and lots of monkeys.  I had a picture of me but lost it so I thought I'd write this blog to let Mike Haskins know I am alive and well.  

See Y'all Down the Road

Karen & Mike

Chagres

 Hey Y'all, Karen & I spent a few days on the Chagres River. This is the river that feeds the man made lake Gatun for the canal. The river is part of the rain forest and is full of birds and monkeys.

I've tried to upload all the photos but it has taken 1 hour to put these on the blog. We ran up and down the river to look at the wild life. Plenty of Toucans and parrots. We looked for this trail that was suppose to be at a certain location and we could not find it. I guess I'm not much of a nimrod or pathfinder. Well without the trail we could not get to where the monkeys are located. I kind of thought that they would travel to the edge of the river but they don't. You can here them just inside the jungle but you can't see them. Well not to be out done by a bunch of Karen's relatives I found a few inlets that go inland. One of these are in the guide book so I guess I wasn't the first, anyway up one was suppose to be an old concrete bridge( not there) and no monkeys. We went up and down these inlets and could here the damn things but could not see them. We where so disappointed that we could not get monkeyed. I guess y'all don't know what monkeyed is, so here goes. Being monkeyed is when they either move over the top of you are you move under them.When they see you they get all excited and all bodily functions start to happen. Some of this is thrown at you plus leafs and sticks. Well for 2 days we could not get monkeyed. Now remember I'm not going to be out done. The day before we left late in the evening we jumped in the dingy and went to an inlet that we could here the monkeys. Guess what we were under a troop of howlers. The first thing that happened was they became excited and started to monkey around. After the first splash Karen is howling as loud as the monkeys letting me know that she wanted me to back the dingy up. We hung around fer a little while just to say we were monkeyed. I don't think we need to do that again.
        We are setting in the marina waiting on parts again and can't leave just yet so I can't say when the next update will be so.
See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen

Hey Y'all, I tried to download some photos from our canal trip this morning but the Internet is too slow.
     We are sitting on the boat waiting on our new stack pack and paying out more money to the marina.
      This Shelter Bay marina is the most expensive we have been in.
I'll try to finish the canal trip tomorrow if I can load the photos, so don't think I have forgot about y'all.
See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen

Hey Y'all Karen and I just went through the Panama canal. This is the lady from NZ. and just finished a circle of the Atlantic ocean and are heading home. We were rafted up with this vessel through the chambers 2 by 2.

Here are a few photos of the locks as we were transiting through the first 3. The first 3 locks on the Gatun side are all in one with 3 chambers, each chamber raises your boat 28 feet. The lake is 84 ft. above sea level. The lines from the boats are put on a bollard on top of the wall and all the line handlers do is keep the slack out and the boats in the center of the chamber. Really easy.

Here we are getting locked into the first lock and the rest are just the same so I'll just show more photos.

This is what it looks like from the bottom going from one chamber to the next. You can see the line handlers walking our lines from one to the next.

Now there are a lot more photos of the crossing but this blog will not let me put them where I want them so if it seems a little screwy it's not my fault. We had a good time and spent the night in lake Gatun. I'm going to close out now because the photos are getting totally out of control. Tomorrow we have to go to town so it will be a couple of days before I get back.
See Y'all Down the Road.
Mike & Karen