Machete Beach

Waving our guests goodbye, Jaime and I excitedly prepare to launch before sunset comes!

Standing knee deep in the warm water of the bay and waving our guests goodbye, Jaime and I turn to each other with a big high five!  Let’s do this!!  After a confusing few days about whether or not we were really going to be granted permission for our adventure, we were still in the dark about it.  We hadn’t seen el heffe around since yesterday, and as we busied ourselves packing our gear and getting the boats set up, a few of the younger rangers would pass us by and say things like
  “En kayuko? Pero....es peligroso [dangerous]!”
  “Wow, I’ve always wanted to do that trip!”
and finally as we set sail into the sunset, “Buen viaje!” 
Looks like we’re free birds, no payment, no permission, no rules, no problema!  All the kerfuffle for nada! Typical.

Isla De Coiba

Isla de Coiba, the largest island in Panama can be found on the south-western coast in the Pacific Ocean

     “Yeah, I wan’t sure if you guys would show up or not, I had my bags packed and ready to go on trip myself” Michael says as we jump in his truck this morning, on our way to the beach to load up the boat.

  Oops. Sorry about that, Michael.  After a frustrating night in Santiago dealing with internet and last minute work stuff, Jaime and I returned to Santa Catalina around midnight, nothing yet packed, and only a few hours of sleep banked before trip. 

Trip Preparations

A run-through of setting up the boats in Santa Catalina before our trip

  We’re nearing departure time for our kayak trip around Isla de Coiba, and our next task is to piece together a dialogue for el heffe of the National Park on the Island.  Though everyone who visits the island must obtain a permit to do so, it turns out we may not be able to simply paddle around the island as easily as we’d assumed.  It seems they aren’t too friendly to people camping just anywhere in this UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it’s a real gamble to get permission from them to do this sort of trip.