Panama: Day 5

Panama: Day 5

Grouper Day

We started off our morning with a long walk around the island.  

This is the old ferry that ferried from Panama City to Contadora.   A huge storm hit and beached it.  And in true form, they just left it there.

Watching the sailboats.  It was decided we needed to try that next time we come. 

Today me and Shalane stayed on the Island while the boys went to their island to fish.  I had a bad experience the day before when I thought Kevin had gotten hurt (eaten by a shark) when they had not come in on time and the captain couldn't find them in the rough waves.  My mind always goes to the worst.  I was supposed to babysit a big red snapper that Kevin had brought in earlier into one of the rock pools, but I was so worried I had let it get washed out to sea...woops.  I told Kevin that is what he gets for not coming in on time. 

So me and Shalane found the Executive Beach to hang out at.  It had a bathroom and a shower we later found out! And Europeans.  I really don't think too many Americans come to Contadora, we were the only Americans there at that time (but again, theres not many tourists there to begin with).

The night before the boys and Éric were saying how they wish they had caught more grouper on the trip.  The very next day they caught a huge grouper and two smaller ones!

Giant Grouper.  It had to have been 60-70 lbs.

Kevin's biggest catch of the trip.  This big guy made us $40.

Kevin's grouper!! He was so excited about it.  This guy made us $20.

Éric had a minor mishap when the large grouper he had speared had a hook in its mouth.  When he was trying to wrestle and kill it, the hook on the fish lodged into Éric's chin.  He had to rip it out himself.  When they got back to the island, luckily the Survivor doctor was right there and sewed him right up on the balcony of his hotel.  With his shirt off.  Oh island life.  So that is why he looks so serious in this picture.  He probably thought he was pretty bad a$# with that grouper, but it mainly hurt him to smile.

Our captain cutting up the large grouper for the man who had bought it for $60.  We noticed that he left some pretty big filet's on the fish for himself after he gave the cut filets to the man.  That is the kind of guy he was. 

Tom Sawyer carrying our dinner fish home.

The island is so small that everything is centered around the airstrip.  So if we got lucky and were still at the beach around 4-6 pm when all the Survivor crew left, we got buzzed by all the planes.  This doesn't show how close these planes were to us.  It was the coolest feeling watching and hearing them go right over us.

Same place, same people, same food.  Oh I miss those dinners.
And again, poor Éric can't smile. He kept telling us that night to stop making him laugh.

That night we went to the roof of our B&B and watched the most beautiful sunset.  It was the perfect ending to our last day on the island. 

Panama: Day 4

Panama: Day 4

Another fun-filled day

Every morning we would get up (later than dan & shalane...early birds) and go on a quiet morning adventure.  

We believe this was the Survivor ship that carried all the equipment.  They would be unloading and loading while the tide was up.

The local pet deer "Stinky".

This is where they built all the equipment needed for Survivor.

An old hotel that the Survivor crews took over.

It was amazing how many abandoned hotels there were on the island.  Big ones too.  There were probably three this size just rotting.  And of course it looks like they never got finished.  We know that one of the hotels went out of business because the dad died and left it to his sons who had no business experience what so ever. 

It could get pretty hot on the island because of the humidity.  But all you had to do was stick your legs in the water and you were instantly cooled.  It was so refreshing.  Kevin took this picture because he said I finally looked "pregnant."

After a relaxing morning and afternoon, we grabbed our lunch to go and headed to the island.

The boys were taking forever to come out and eat lunch so I had to eat half of mine before.  Those pregnancy hungers are crazy.  Don't mess. 

He caught a red snapper right before lunch.

Hearing about their adventures in the water.  They saw two sharks today.  Made me sick letting Kev go back in the water.  I'm really going to need to work on (not) worrying when baby brower comes along...

So happy.

That captain thought he was the shiz.  We, or I, hated him.  For some reason he believed that for being the captain, he deserved one or two of the best fish.  Every day.  Unbelievable.  And thats on top of his pay of $30 just to take us to the island, drop us off, and pick us up in five hours.  Im telling you...those Panamanians... We weren't willing to give him fish but Eric was "always a gentleman" and gave him one or two of his fish.

And then he felt like he could barter the price of the fish for us.   We were so happy to say Adios to him at the end of the trip.

Another delicious dinner.  We also splurged and got an amazing passion fruit juice that was $10.  So worth it.

After dinner show of Eric's go pro of the sharks.  He thought he got it of him smacking the shark away, but he sadly didn't :(

 On our way back to the B&B we stopped by the market to get treats for the night.  I needed chocolate and sadly the only chocolate they had was a bag of peanut m&ms.  Not a favorite of mine but I still got them.  They tasted like heaven not having American sugar for a week.

Panama: Day Three

Panama: Day Three

First day on Contadora

We got up early to go check out the snorkeling scene.  In March they actually get a cold current (in December it is warm) so the water was pretty chilly.  But with a wet suit I was set.  

The water was horribly unclear.  Me and Kevin just got spoiled in Mexico and have high expectations for snorkeling now.  I maybe saw 3 or so fish, and two small and one large sting ray.  When its not clear like that,  I always get scared of sharks coming out of nowhere so once I realized there was  nothing to see, I was out.  Daniel and Shalane went snorkeling a few mornings later and said it was a bit more clear.  Me and Kevin never went again.  Spoiled brats I tell ya.  

19 weeks with baby here.

After snorkeling we went to breakfast which was so good every morning.  I am usually not a huge breakfast person, but since being pregnant, that has changed.  We would get two fried eggs, ham, muenster cheese, croissants, fresh fruit and juice.  We always ate it all.  The weather was so beautiful and the view so pretty we would always hang out at breakfast for an hour or two.

It was then time to get ready to spear fish.  Me and Shalane decided to go out with them to their little island to read and relax while they were out spearing for 5 hours.  Me and Shalane have a great relationship because we will sit and talk for a while and then both get sick of talking and realize we just need to relax, sleep and read and wont bother one another for a few hours.  We are a great relaxing team.

We went and picked up our lunch to-go at our favorite spot Clarita's before we headed to the special fishing island.

And here is our secluded beach/ island.  There were some islanders on the other side of the island but they didn't come over and bother us which we were so thankful.  The boys were out in front of us for the entire 5 hours, but you rarely see them.  You see an occasional head bobbing or a fin, but for the majority of the time, they are under.

Contadora Island just across the way.

Out of the ocean first came Daniel.  He showed us these big boys and we got so excited that they had caught something!  Little did we know the actual haul they had...

The haul for the day!  There were 15 fish I believe.  The boys were so giddy with excitement and we were too.  We could not believe the size of some of the fish.  As the trip went on, we slowly got used to the big ones and expected bigger ones each time :)

Eric wanted to take this picture. 

Umm now I realize why that fish was so heavy.  Shalane was just barely holding the tail...

Photobombed by Eric. 

The boys loved Eric.  He is a very good spear-fisherman.  The boys idolized  him the entire trip.  You can see it in Kevin's face in this picture.
It was a running joke when we weren't with Eric to say "I wonder what Eric is doing now?"  "Eric would love this."  "Eric is such a manly man."  This went on the whole trip.

Now came the celebrity status.  The locals and Turkish Survivor crews would come and gaw-gaw over all the fish the boys caught.   The boys loved it.  Every day we would sell all of our fish and keep the best one for dinner.  Me and Kev made about $100 from selling the fish this trip.

Thats our secret island out there!

We always looked forward to dinner at Villa Romantica.  Our fresh catch of the day would come with french fries and delicious vegetables.  We stuffed ourselves silly every night.  The conversation was always hilarious.  Me trying to speak english and the little french I remember (he didn't understand a word of my french), Shalane trying to speak french to him, Daniel speaking his dumbed down english with lots of hand gestures, and Kevin speaking Spanish to him.  But by the end of the trip, it didn't feel like we all spoke a different language.  We were still able to communicate pretty well and looking back, it seems like we just had normal dinner conversations.
He was a pretty funny frenchman.  He made fun of the french and fat americans.  He told dirty jokes even though he said he's "always a gentleman."

Drooling just remembering how good this was.

We would stay at dinner every night until it was late and dark.  We would walk back home in the dark, quite neighborhoods and walk the airstrip back to our B&B as a shortcut. 

Panama: Day Two

Panama: Day Two

Off to Contadora Island!

We took the ferry from Panama City to Contadora Island today.  Its about an hour and a half boat ride; the island is about 30 miles off the coast.  

We didn't realize what a treat pulling out of Panama City would be.  We went out the very way all the huge ships come in and out of the Canal.  We were finally able to see just how big these ships were.  It was unreal! 

Panama City.  That hill is Ancon hill, the one we hiked the morning before.  We were all pretty proud of ourselves that we had hiked to the top of it.

A Japanese whaling ship we passed.  A guy we sat next to on the ferry does business on Contadora Island so he was familiar with the ferry ride and told us that this ship had been anchored for a few weeks.

When the ships arrive to go through the canal, they have to call in and reserve a time to go through (large ships and little ships have different times).  Most ships prefer they have to wait a day or so because Panama City is Party City.  They all go in and party the day/night away while they wait.  I guess its all a part of the Canal experience for them.  

Survivor films a lot on the small islands surrounding ours.  We passed this set.  Over time we realized that is was the Turkey Survivor they were filming.  All the set crew comes over to our Island and stays the night or they fly back to Panama City for the night.  We were wondering why they were all foreign and filming the American Survivor.  When we realized they were all from Turkey it all made sense.  

This is the main "dock" of the island.  There is no dock.  They ferry you from the ferry to the island on another small boat.  They do have a small air strip and that is mainly how they get all their resources on Contadora.

Our first meal on the Island.  Kevin asked around and found the local eatery where it only costs $5 a plate.  We ate there every day for lunch.  Once you got used to eating rice and beans (that mug is beans) for every meal, it was delicious and I was craving it long after we got home.  The only sad part was that we couldn't eat that delicious looking salad.  You couldn't drink the water on the island or anything that had been washed in un-boiled water. 

This was when we met Éric, our frenchman.  While we waited for our hotel to come pick us up at the beach with all our luggage, the boys noticed another man with a spear gun.  This got them all sorts of excited and Kevin went up to talk to him.  He then told us that the conversation was very awkward and that he wasn't sure what language the man had spoken to him.  Im sure Éric had thought the exact same thing.  Kevin was speaking spanish to him.  Éric was trying to understand him and speak portuguese back to him (since the two languages can have some similarities).  But really, Éric spoke french.  Oh it was fun getting used to this for the remainder of our trip.

We ended up talking more to him at our B&B and the boys figured out some language they could talk to each other in.  They decided that they would now be spear fishing buddies to save on cost for the boats.  And of course they decided they would go out that afternoon.  So while they went out for a few hours, me and Shalane went out to explore the beaches.

Our very own private beach that we soon found out to be the "nude beach".  Awesome.  Also, some crazy wild wave caught us of guard and put most of our stuff in the ocean.  We luckily didn't lose anything and with my crazy cat-like reflexes I grabbed our camera before anything horrible happened to it.  

Oh yeah and today was our 4 year anniversary!!  What a great way and place to celebrate it.  We tried to get a cute kissy picture and this is what we got:

Ok. Here is a better one.  

Love this adventure man of mine.

Next year we will have a baby (yikes!) but I still hope we are somewhere awesome celebrating. 

When the boys got back we decided to check out the whole island.  You can walk around the whole island in about 45 minutes.  It is tiny.  But we still didn't even get to see all of it.  

This is one of the 3 or 4 small hotels/ B&B's on the island.  We ate here for dinner every night and it was delicious!!

Villa Romantica