Poor kid had to work the very next daya first stroll around Lintonheading to Portobelo by busthe church at Portobelo, Iglesia de San Felipewas it still in use?posing at the ruins of Portobelothe bay of Portobelothe two at the fortificationthe other twothe perfect posing🙈ruins of “Fuerte San Jerónimo”El Capitano enjoying the view – I guessthe view ashorestrolling along the seasidea small parcour position, roughly there where the leaves of the small palm tree weresome kind of street artI liked the colour of the housemore ruins called “Santiago Battery”that was the Ovni from our friends Daniela and Mike, they anchored at the bay in Portobelo when we visited the townbig cannonsI was wondering what they sella typical busbench drainage of the villagea ride to get to Panamarina: the marina is just west of Linton bay and it is possible to reach with a dinghi through a canal of mangrovesit was a beautiful meandering trip through the mangroves
Horse riding
As we had to stay in Linton longer than planned, we took the advantage of having more time and went on an amazing horse riding trip. We went along a river inside the beautiful shore land of the national park Chagres
the young owner of the horses , here we had a stopsweet doggy joined us all the way, he belonged to the ladythe handsome horse from the ladyJana’s horse happily grazing after we returned
Breeding Jacobo and jumping dolphins in the anchorage at Linton
We happen to run into the owner of “Del Istmo Conservation Center” Jacobo Lacs. While we were gathering together with some friends at the marina bar at Linton two guys joined us for half an hour and chatted with us. It turned out to be that one of the guys was the owner of what the sailors always just called “the zoo”. Nobody seemed to know much about it only that it seemed not to be open for public. Well, they left and after a few minutes the second guy came back and asked all of us weather we’d be interested to see Jacobos zoo. He’ d invited us to come over for a drink. Curious as we were, we all jumped in our dinghies and rode over to his (of course private) pantoon. He had a crazy big estate. He showed us some of his property and explained a little what he was doing. We learned that he was the founder of this breeding facility and that he was an expert in breeding parrots and other birds. His facility provides a home for 450 birds and subspecies (what ever that means) and 50 species of mammals including Panther. That was all very interesting but for us sailors the best part was his generous providing of delicious vine. I don’t know but he seemed to like our company because he brought bottle after bottle and later even made some nice cheese and sausage platter with the help of Jana. It was for sure a very interesting and unexpected evening.
here he was showing us were he lived and hjs orchids; he also breeds orchids…; me , Jan, Herwig, Jacobo, El Capitano, Wolfgang, Heike and ? all of us including another Heike on the left, Jacobos friend in blue and a visitor, a french professor next to Jana who was interested in the special Panthers Jacobo was giving a home to he also hosted Mermaids we kept changing our seatings😉a palm tree in his gardena mask made from locals to prevent something… I can’t rememberthe orchids breeding room
late at night somebody brought a dehydrated bird, Jacobo took care of it and some of us assisted him; that was for sure an unexpected experience!
that was just crazy!!!!, the dolphins jumping around in the anchorage; that was a lucky day!!!
Our trip to the airport to get the anchor winch out of customs
that pic was taken out of the metro, in the back one can see the impressive skyline of Panama CityLuis was and is always in a good moodthat was one of the important papers Luis got to find the agent somewhere at the old airportthis one was to eventually get out the suitcaseit did not look that spectacular , did it? sorry pics are a bit blurry🙈and here we were happy with the winchsome pics Luis took on our way back; taken somewhere between Sabanitas and Portobelojust before sunset we arrived at Altimatepassing some sleepy pelicansthe long awaited winch
Linton with the 4 of us
Luis arrived late Tuesday the 14th of December. After the hassle with the winch I showed Luis the area while El Capitano was mounting the winch. Jana still had to work until Friday so I took Luis to the “love channel”, the mangrove pass to Panamarina.
happy family🙃having lunch at the little restaurant hut at Linton the view of part of the anchorage and the boat yardit was indeed a special vibe drifting slowly through the mangroveshere we were hiding from some rain underneath a bigger tree finally reaching Panamarina
Off to San Blas.
As soon as Jana has finished working we set off. Our first destination was Chiquita bay. An unspectacular anchorage 20 miles further east of Linton. Quite rolly but it shortened our way to the San Blas. Early next morning we headed to Waisaladup West Holandes Cays.
leaving Lintonsometimes the sky can look scaryChiquita anchoragecatch of the day – our dinner was save!early next morning we sailed to Waisaladupwhen we arrived and went ashore this guy was sitting on the trunk and watching usyes! Mummy was very happy having the kids aboardwe took many strolls around the island and took many pics…a bottle belongs to the harmless garbage we see at the beachesthis cute little piglet liked to be pettedwe found a young Guna girl who was so kind and took a foto of us
Photo session Altimate crew
More pics of Waisaladup
oops, some adult beveragesthe cut between Acuakargana and Waisaladup, (the pic was taken from Waisaladup)an Ulu
Central Holandes, Hot Tub and Banedup
here we were anchored right in the middle of a big reef, we were hoping to have a good snorkeling spot; unfortunately that was wrong and apart from that the current was much too strongLuisito enjoying the sunset at the bowpassing some islands on our way to the so called “Hot Tub”focused sailingthe hot tub
Banedup
We stayed a couple of days at the hot tub and then moved over to Banedup. Here we had met Ruffian again and many more boats. We did a lot of snorkelling and had a X-mas bbq at the beach with many sailors.
pic taken from Bandedup, one can see Tiadup on the left and Quinquiridup in the middle where we had the bbqa stroll around Banedup…..cheeeeeeeeesewe asked Ibin if we could have some Bananas – thats what we got 😂the conch way from one side to the otherat the end Iban’s restaurantx-mas bbq at the beach, in front Deb and Reg from “Runner”Luis was busy with taking care of our knivesJana was taking care of her Vitamine D storage
X_MAS
We did not take much fotos🤷♀️.
Trip up the river with Mola Lisa
Mola Lisa is known for making the best Molas in Guna Yala but she also provides guided tours through the jungle up to a waterfall. The 25th of December we moved Altimate to another anchorage, to Isla Pandorra close to shore. Here we were picked up by Lisa and her friend to get to the entrance of Rio Sidra. It was 20 min ride by canoe to reach the river and another 15 min to finally start our walk through the jungle. A beautiful walk and a complete different world compared to island life. So many different plants, trees and sounds. Lisa guided us to her family grave yard and showed us plants and some wildlife. At the waterfall we had a little lunch and we could jump into the water. That was great! (El Capitano was the only one who chickened out😉.) The way back was mostly swimming, sliding or walking through the water. So much fun, especially being in fresh water for a change.
anchorage Isla PandorraLuis had taken a dinghy ride in the anchorage and taken some picswe just got picked up; Altimate was waiting for us to come backslowly making our way up the riverMola Lisa in the backfrom here we started to walkfind the geckoLisa gave us a blossom of a plant I can’t recall the name; it certainly made our lips very representativethe family grave yardher mothers grave covered with presentsour stop for lunch and jumpback on Altimate
The jumps
Some drone pics
Banedup anchorage in the back Tiadupsome locals in their ulu
SY Altimate 