A few missed stories that we'll catch up - mostly "critter" stories that folks seem to enjoy. Let's start with the "killer bees." As we were headed towards Shelter Bay Marina on the bus, we were stopped for a ship going through the canal for about 15 minutes. We watched as a man dressed in full "bee gear" - the helmet with netting over the face, the head to toe overalls, duct taped cuffs, big shoes etc. He had what looked like cans of spray paint - though we're guessing it was some type of killer bee killer. He went into the woods and managed to find some bees because he came out followed by a swarm of bees. The cars that were on the road started to close their windows - but some not quick enough. We saw many people in the cars and a school bus, madly swatting at these angry bees. Some took off from the line of cars to get away from the swarm. Luckily, our bus was all closed up but the bees were hitting the windows with a vengeance. It was quite a sight.
From ducking fast moving angry bees to watching a slow moving sloth. We finally saw a sloth in a tree and they fit their name perfectly. They move very, very slowly. As we left the dinghy dock in Panama City (Pacific side), we looked into a tree that is known to have sloths regularly, and sure enough - two sloths. We saw one quite well as he/she was feeding on some leaves - slowly putting out its hand to grab a leave and very slowly bringing it back to its mouth. It was like watching a slo-motion movie.
Watching howler monkeys playing in the trees in Linton. From where we are anchored, we see the spider monkeys on Isla Linton - and they come out and often get fed by cruisers and tour boats. But we also saw some wild howler monkeys playing in the trees on the mainland side. There were about four of them jumping from limb to limb and tree to tree. Then we heard them roar at sunset - so we were pretty sure they were howlers - they had that loud, very scary roar.
A boat full of men with guns - camouflage gear, bullet proof vests, helmets - the whole outfit, came near where we were anchored yesterday morning. They yelled at a man on shore, then quickly unloaded, jumping in the water with their weapons and ran on shore. They went through the house, several going into the woods and came back with "the man." We watched the action, thinking it was a drill of some sort. But then we found out what was really going on - and it was a bit frightening.
It seems that there was a drug deal gone bad a few days ago - depending on who's story you listen to - either two or four Colombians were killed, execution style, on an island near-by. One Colombian escaped by swimming to Isla Linton and was found by these police. There have been lots of military helicopters and boats around filled with military people. Then, yesterday afternoon - two boats of military folks came through the anchorage pulling two large launches and it was announced on the radio that these were two of the "drug boats." There also is word that there was a big bust with 40 people arrested in a near-by town.
And we thought this was a nice quiet little area. Because there is so much "gossip" about it - we're hoping that this is truly an unusual event. But it was certainly exciting.
Our friends Honore and Walt from Will O' the Wisp came into Linton yesterday so it was great seeing them again and catching up over a dinner at "Hans'." We'll play a dominos round one of these days with them. The weather forecast makes it look like we'll be here for at least a few days.
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