So, yeah. We've discussed various scenarios about where we sail next. "Plan A" was to cruise the anchorages in the Gulf of Panama, then return to Ecuador for another 6 months or so for more South American tourism, especially in Peru. "Plan A, v.1.0" involved direct travel from Panama to Ecuador. "Plan A, v.2.0" included a short cruise of Pacific Colombia on the way to Ecuador. "Plan B" involved a transit of the Panama Canal; various versions had us visiting Cartagena, Colombia; Panama's San Blas islands; and/or Roatan, Honduras; or a combination of one or more; or perhaps not. And so on.
We were very much inclined toward a "Plan A" return to Ecuador because it's a great country & we wanted to spend about a month just in Peru, touring all the antiquities there. Actually, the trip to Peru was our main reason for sailing back to South America, before returning again to Panama and going through the Canal in 2012. We were fine with that until one very recent day, while we were sailing around Panama's Las Perlas islands. We started discussing the expense of such a venture - both in money, and in time. As we crunched the numbers it grew clear that a month's trip to Peru, with the boat moored in Ecuador and us flying to Peru from there, plus the 6 months' worth of Ecuadorean tourist visas and moorage costs, would be far more expensive than, say, us having transited the Canal and flying directly to Peru out of Miami. Plus, during that 6 months after a Canal transit we'd hopefully be able to see some other cool places we'd had to bypass the first time through Central America and Mexico.
Thus, we have arrived at our all-new flabby plan for the year 2011: we're going through the Panama Canal to the Caribbean, baby. We're anchored off of Balboa/Panama City for what might be one last time. We visit the Admeasurer's Office tomorrow morning, 2/11, to complete the preliminary paperwork and get a transit date. Meanwhile we've been getting as many of the usual provisioning/repairs/cleaning chores done as possible, in anticipation of having to spend a lot of time during the final days scrambling madly to get all our transit ducks in a row. (Spare tires for fenders! 125-foot mooring lines! Line handlers!) We may even have a special guest aboard.
And I'm drivin'. Yikes!
m
I look forward to your arrival and log entries when you arrive in (UK English pronunciation!) the Carry-bee-ann!
Lord knows what all the Planter's/Fruit Punches will do to your collective livers.
Have fun!
Posted by: Terry Sims | February 10, 2011 at 10:53 AM
Terry, some cruisers call it a "circumnavigation." For us, it's a 24,000-mile pub crawl.
Posted by: sailnmuffin | February 10, 2011 at 07:25 PM