Peru Bound

We left the San Blas Islands and started a light air sail toward Isla Linton, where we planned to spend the night and then move around the corner to Panamarina to put Jeorgia on a mooring while we spent a few weeks in Peru doing land travel. On our way out we sailed past Chicme – more about this island later. It was an OK day sail up. We had a few hours of sailing, then a few hours with the spinnaker up, then a few hours of motoring and then a little sailing on the anchorage approach. After we got settled I checked the Digicel 3G connection - it was way fast as compared to the San Blas. So we slowly downloaded the 48 Hours Mystery Dark Side of Paradise. This is about a set of murders that took place last year in the San Blas among cruisers. Pretty well done. A little spooky as we had just passed Chicme in the morning, where the murders most likely took place and we were now anchored in Linton where a number of the onboard interviews in the show are done. Spoiler alert, they caught the bad guy.
48 Hours, Dark Side of Paradise
We got Jeorgia settled in the morning on a Panamarina dual mooring. The entrance was pretty narrow and there were enough reefs and swell to make for stay a focused entry. The guy that was supposed to help us navigate on the way in couldn’t get his dinghy engine started. We grabbed a cab for the 2 hour ride into Panama City. We had to stay at a hotel to catch our morning flight to Lima. That night we went to a grown up restaurant and had a nice meal. I convinced Chris that this was a date.
Next morning we were off to the airport. At the start of the twisting security line is a guy sitting on stool checking passports. He got to mine and found my original Panama entry stamp. This caused him some grief as it was past the 6 month limit. For awhile it looked like I would be in that line for a long time. Then I showed him the page of passport that had a Tripulante visa. This is a Panamanian mariners crew visa. Once he saw that he was a happy camper and we off to the take your shoes off and empty your pockets greetings to modern flight.
It was a decent flight into Lima. When we went through customs in Lima I pressed the magic button and the random green light showed up. This means no further inspections and we were off to our Lima boutique hotel. Pretty nice place. We got a room on the 3rd floor and I was way proud of myself that at sea-level plus 3 stories I didn’t get altitude sick.
We grabbed a cab and headed to the Museo Larco: “Features the finest gold and silver collection from Ancient Peru and the famous erotic archaeological collection”. I went to see the pottery and pre-Columbian gold and silver. Chris wanted to see the famous collection.

Angry feline gold breast plate

This place had an unbelievable number of pre-Columbian pots. The picture above is not really part of the museum display. It is a small part of the racks and racks of pots stored in a side building.

Since this is a family blog I didn’t think it was too appropriate to display my new photo collection of Peruvian pre-Columbian erotic pottery. But I couldn’t resist showing the smile on this couple’s 2,000 year old faces. The museum was very educational. I learnt that the dead spend a lot of time masturbating underground, hence the good fertile valleys of Peru. It kind of gives me a something to look forward to in the afterlife.

This Peruvian Hairless is the shy museum mascot and guard. These dogs were getting close to endangered before an effort was made to breed them. They were hanging around in Inca culture with the Jefes and date back to Pre-Inca tribes. The hairless gene also ends up creating a dog with less teeth. They look like they’d be really cold up in the Andes, but their body temperature is 104*F.
Next stop, Cuzco and Macchu Pichu,
Paul

Italian Cruise Ship Humor

"Late in his life, Sir Winston took a cruise on an Italian ship. A journalist from a New York newspaper approached the former prime minister to ask him why he chose to travel on an Italian line when the Queen Elizabeth, under the British flag, was available.
"Churchill gave the question his consideration and then gravely replied. 'There are three things I like about Italian ships. First, their cuisine, which is unsurpassed. Second, their service, which is quite superb. And then — in time of emergency — there is none of this nonsense about women and children first.'"
(Reportedly a quote by Sir Winston Churchill, or more likely a joke by Noel Coward, depending on what part of the Web you want to believe quoteinvestigator.com nonsense-first)

More Kuna Yala Pics

Ahhh, life in 80 degree crystal clear waters tooling around the reefs, which we try not to hit with the boat. This somewhat irate eel who really wasn’t pleased about getting her picture taken. She came out of her hole to scare off the shiny camera.

A big Anglefish strutting her colors. They’re very curious, will swim right up to check you out.

Portuguese Man-of-War. Must have gotten blown in with the heavy trade-winds we’ve been having.

You really don’t want to get tangled up with the under side of a Man-of-War. Seeing these reminded me of my surfing days in Florida. The welts from these things look like pink whip lashes.








Ok, just to set the record straight, these howler monkeys aren’t really Canadians, they’re Panamanian. These are located on Linton Island just before you get into Kuna Yala territory. The story we heard was that if you go ashore with some food they will come up and be all nice cuddly with you. One photographer went in and stood on the pier. The monkeys climbed up on him and acted all nice. When he ran out of food and tried to leave they started scratching and biting him. He ended up jumping in the water with his camera gear to get away. He had to head to Panama City to get patched up and start a rabies shot series. Bad monkeys!
Paul