Panama City is full of pelicans. They are everywhere. Apparently half of the world’s population of brown pelicans live along the Pacific coastline of Panama, a fact easy to believe when you see them swarm in the air and flock on the rocks. They bob gently up and down in the water next to the boat at the anchorage, seemingly asleep, only to get overtaken by a sudden burst of energy, flapping their powerful wings a couple of times and soaring high up into the air. When just cruising they glide only inches above the water surface admiring their mirror image hovering below. When fishing they fly higher, darting first one way then the next, taking a sharp downward turn when spotting prey pointing the long beak and plummeting into the water with a huge inelegant splash, extending their neck back up to gulp down their catch.
There are other birds here too – cormorants, seagulls, ducks, frigate birds and lots of others we can’t easily identify. Under the water’s surface rays chase up the little bait fish and boil-ups erupt here there and everywhere around the boat, attracting the diving birds.
There are downsides to the pelicans – one lands in the child netting just next to us as we’re sitting chatting after dinner one night, a huge longbeaked beady-eyed monster staring at us up threateningly before falling backwards in the water. Another couple successfully manage to cover the boat in their liquid, brown, fishy smelling poop as they fly overhead, the children ducking for cover, shouting ‘Pelican poo, run!’.
We have a fair amount of provisioning to do, and take the bus to a huge mall where you can anything the materialistic heart desires, including the vast quantities of food that we need to sail across the Pacific. A fraction of a typical shopping list: 25 kg of pasta, 29 kg of rice, 50 litres of milk, 200 cans of beer, 140 litres of water, 100 oranges.
After all the fretting about the starboard engine, it seems to have healed itself in that curious way that these things sometimes do. We test it thoroughly, and find no fault with it. Reluctant to tamper in case that makes it worse, we decide to leave it be, and hope for the best.
On our last day we visit Casco Viejo, the old city, which dates back to the early 1700s where the city was rebuilt in a new location after the pirate Henry Morgan sacked the previous one. Large parts of the city has been renovated, and the old buildings are shiny and stunning, the jewel amongst them being the Cathedral, Iglesia de San Jose, which is simply wonderful.
Panama is an incredible country. Treating it like just a necessary evil on the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific we weren’t expecting much other than mosquitoes, heat and dirty big city hassle. But it has proven to be a wonderful place – the beautiful San Blas islands on the Atlantic side, the dense jungle adventures in Shelter Bay, and the beautiful old town in Panama City.
We would like to stay longer – there is much we didn’t see. Laden with supplies and low in the water, however, Bob the Cat is ready to move on. Tomorrow we are leaving for the Las Perlas islands 30 nm off Panama City, where we’ll spend a night or two before our onward journey to the Galapagos Islands.
Looking from the old town to the new
SV Bob The Cat 