Hello to all of our friends and family. Last update was January 2010, for which I am truly sorry. It is now October 2010 and we are anchored in Callao, Peru the seacoast of Lima.
In March, we crossed the Panama Canal from the east to the Pacific side-the first time AlphaWave has had her hull in Pacific waters. We had no tidal changes on the east side and now have to deal with 10' tides.

Visiting Las Perlas, Islands on the Pacific side of Panama- March/April

We finally left all semblance of marina life and headed to Tobago, Island of Flowers, 7 miles off-shore from the Panama Canal. It was the first port in Panama, rampaged and burned by Henry Morgan (as were many places in Caribbean and So. America). It is said that JFK was here, as PT Boats were stationed around the canal. I have since learned that my father was here as well during his Navy years on a PT boat. We hiked to the top of the town with beautiful vistas of the harbor below. Had a delightful dinner off the square of Corvina (sea bass) and garlic shrimp.

Isla Gibraleon and Isla Casaya, the isles where pearls are harvested. Went ashore to try to purchase pearls, but most pearls are sent to Panama City; what remains is very small or non-existent. Found beautiful shells. Pearls take on the color inside the shell. Deep inside the shell is multi-colored. The pearls draw their color from placement within the shell.white. The largest pearl ever found was harvested here, the 31 carat “Peregrina” pearl worn by English Queen Mary Tudor, now owned by Elizabeth Taylor. The Spaniards killed off all the Indigenous Indians here and had to import slaves from Africa to harvest the shells- hence the African look of present inhabitants.

Isla Pedro Gonzales  A private Greek- owned island that has a village of 450 settlers. The island is currently under development for wealthy homeowners (i.e.: Shakira, etal). (NAMED PEARL ISLAND RESORT, GO FIGURE) With the major digging they have unearthed many artifacts, grave sites, and found some gold. We met a lovely Argentinean archaeologist who represents the Smithsonian and is digging the site. She hiked us to petrogliths and gave us some history of the 6000 year old site which she said was the oldest in the Pacific Basin! I picked up geodes that have since been given to Ben, Peter and Jayda and large pearl shells that have been shared with daughters. Swimming here was not good because it is jellyfish season.(blah
Isla de San Jose
Another privately-owned island with beautiful beaches at low tides. After cruising on the eastern side of Panama for over a year we got used to 1’ tides, now we have to deal with 20’ ranges- makes for new challenges. Shortly after anchoring here we are traipsing around the boat in our birthday suits and lo and behold a mega-cruiser motors up and drops his hook right next to us. Marc is livid. Only once has this happened before-in the Florida Keys- we are the only boat around for miles and a boat anchors right next to us-go figure. We overnight there with his bright lights abeam us, hike and dinghy around exploring caves than decide to move on. Just as we are pulling anchor the “mega-cruiser” is putting his dinghy in the hold and is pulling out too. What gives with this guy? So we are heading out and an alarm goes off-our engine fan belt just gave it up. So, underway to our next anchorage, Marc is in the hole fixing it. We sail (good wind) for 3 hours and pull into our next stop-Isla Del Rey (king island).

Isla Del Rey
We make our way to the Bahia San Telmo (bay) at the most southern tip of the largest of Las Perlas islands and anchor in Punta De Cocos. This is our jumping off point to head to the Darien River. We spend a night here expecting to chill and swim before crossing but the jelly fish are too numerous-so a good night sleep and at sunrise we pull anchor.

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