A Nourished Life for Us, Too: THE BOATS

Living on the water again in Panama! Last time we were in a cove which was light on the boat traffic. This time we are in town where we get to witness the parade of varied water craft throughout the day. If we ever lived here permanently a boat would be a mandatory family toy!

This is the transport ferry that brings all of the vehicles to the island. Delivery trucks, gas trucks and tourist cars all ride this ferry that comes 2 or 3 times per day. Individuals can enjoy the 1.5 hour ride for about $1.50. We've never done it.

The Lancha. This is the primary pedestrian ferry to and from the island. They take off from the mainland town of Almirante and make the 30-minute crossing every day from at 6am until 6pm. About 24 riders will fit and an amazing amount of luggage and/or miscellaneous gear(surfboards, bikes, 50 kilo bags of rice, tv's).

The kids love to ride near the front so they can feel the maximum bounce as we manuever the choppy sea.....and boat wakes. One cool experience we had on the lancha was when it picked up a couple passengers in the middle of the open water. Sitting right in the line of the lancha sat a small cayuco with a young local family. They had tied up to one of the buoys. The waved down the lancha who pulled up next to them. The Mother and Baby then climbed aboard and we were off.

These are some Cayucos. They're basically big canoes used by the indigenous people for all types of water transport. The bigger ones have outboard motors and there are plenty of small ones that can be seen crossing the bay by paddle power only.

Local fisherman will take small cayucos a mile or two out to sea, drop anchor and fish for 48-hours....Rain or shine! To keep the elements off they wrap themselves completely so that only their eyes can be seen. Fishing is done by hand-line.....simply dropping the line over the side and then pullin it in with bare hands. One of these fisherman is a friend and he used to show me his hands after the journey.....swollen and scarred. He said they survived on aspirin.

There are local divers who use the cayucos as well. They load up on aspirin to thin their blood and will routinely dive 30-40 meters for minutes at time while holding their breath spearfishing and harvesting lobsters. There are lots of stories of empty cayucos found anchored deep at sea. If not taken by the inherent dangers of the deep dives they may have run into the Tiger Sharks that are attracted by the blood of their catch.