Happy Valentines' Day from Panama

We are back aboard Astarte in Panama after our whirlwind trip to the states. We wish you all lots of love for Valentines' Day. The trip to the states was a busy one - three coasts in less than two weeks, eight legs of air travel and many appointments. Unfortunately, we both got sick during the visit which cut into visiting time. We guess all those new germs got to us - we hadn't been sick all year! It was great seeing our moms, sister, nephews and friends. Everyone looked terrific.

Our trip back was good, though the hotel failed to be there to pick us up as arranged when we arrived so we had to call. That made for a bit longer night. The good news was that our batteries had arrived the same day we did - so we scrambled to figure out a way to pick them up on Friday morning and take them with us to Panamarina. One small problem - it is carnival time and there wasn't a single rental car to be had in Panama City. So we made some calls to cab drivers and Sylvie at Panamarina came through with Jose. He came to Panama City and picked up us and our luggage and six new batteries. It was an interesting drive. We probably should have been an SUV or pickup, we bottomed out several times with all the weight from the new batteries. We did drive some of the way on the "old road". It was cool, because we paralleled the canal and saw some of the locks on the Pacific side, before getting onto the new freeway.

It seemed to be old home week. While waiting for our ride at the Marine Warehouse office we saw two cruising friends. Theo and Marion from Marionete(formerly Double Dutch) and Taffy from The Road. It is always great to see familiar faces.

Michael has the new batteries installed and things are looking good so far. We still have not re-provisioned, but with carnival - town is closed down for several days. That's forced us to eat out a bit - at the good French restaurant at Panamarina and last night for Valentines, we went to another French restaurant, Caballo Loco. They came and picked us up at the marina. It was a great outdoor place in the woods - very pretty and with excellent food. For Panama it was a tad expensive - but by stateside prices, it was inexpensive.

Carnival is kicking into gear and it's quite fun - especially the costumes. People dress up and stop cars in the streets and ask for money. They dance around the car and it's quite festive. Last night as we were heading to the restaurant, there were some wild costumes.

Today, more organizing on the boat and we'll attempt to walk into a little town in search if propane. Though, we're not optimistic with carnival happening.

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