This is the wall of the pool lounge at Shelter Bay Marina in Colon, Panama. Gotta love their thinking!
Woven bird nests hanging on palms near the marina.
These hanging nests were always attached to the very end of the palm fronds, making them look like Christmas ornaments of straw in the tropics.
The wall of the Sail Loft, soon to be reopened. The boats passing through here have been encouraged to leave their mark with their boat names on the outside walls of the building. The colorful flags spell out 'SERENITY'.
If you can't get the local propane dealer to fill your tank, you can resort to decanting the LPG from one tank to another. A slow process, but with patience it can work to fill tanks in a foreign country where the connections don't match.
The Sail Loft building near the marina.
Artwork on the corner of the Sail Loft.
More boat names on the walls of the building.
Some of the artwork is 3-D.
All four sides of the building were covered with boat names and artwork.
An unusual plant with bright orange berries.
Jason at the bottom of stairs of one of the military ruins that are near the marina. It used to be a US military base years ago.
Tiny leaf cutter ants carry green, yellow, brown and pink pieces of plants they've cut up and are taking into the nest in some hole in the ground to feed the colony. They followed the foundations of the buildings as though they were roads built for ants.
A rusted old ring of iron poking out of the ground. Gotta keep an eye out for where you step, as these and some open holes could be dangerous.
An unusual shaped foundation. We surmised it must've been where the turret of a gun would've swiveled when it was in use.
Karen selfie wandering the old military ruins.
You can see the edge of the shallows where the Sargasso weed has gathered. The blue sea is the Caribbean.
We found a troop of monkeys in the treetops near some of the ruins.
A nice shot of a tall palm.
One of the gun battery buildings, with some cartoon artwork.
Even the inside rooms had some decent artwork.
This cartoon man is looking up at the old ceiling, probably wondering if it would hold us if we went up the old stairs.
Another swivel foundation. Perhaps you could date the last use by the growth of the plants now filling the space.
The spiderwebs give the imprinted letters a feathery look.
Forever Young safely in her berth in the Shelter Bay Marina. Notice how calm the water is in here.
View eastward from a hilltop ruin of the old military buildings.
Climb these to get up to the vantage points.
One of the old buildings from the military base days.
A nest on the side of a tree. Termites, perhaps?
The view as we came upon the first abandoned military battery building.
A couple of the monkeys up in the treetops. They were lazing around or just playing. They were dropping the nuts off of this tree down onto the ground around us. Little anteaters scuffled through the leaf litter nearby.
A view from the hillside of the mat of Sargasso weed that has been washed in and is now trapped against the shoreline below our vantage point.
The pools at Shelter Bay Marina. A nice dip on a hot day.
We spotted a really nice 12' dinghy trapped in the Sargasso and mangroves along the eastern shore, but the hillside was too steep for us to get down to it. Getting around the breakwater and along the shore to this place would take a calm day and a strong dinghy to retrieve this treasure. It was probably stolen for the motor and set adrift and ended up here, but it would be tough to recover. We passed on the word in case someone else wanted to try. That's a $4000 dinghy just sitting there!
A zoomed in view
from a hillside above the shallow, reefy shore, and if you look at the top, you can see a cargo ship motoring by.
The treasures I had to leave behind on the boat. The huge sand dollar (the size of my hand) and sea biscuit were too fragile; the red jasper and piece of Panama rock were just heavy bits that didn't make the weight cut for our luggage.
Someone has too much money. A personal helicopter topped the stern of this megayacht that backed into the marina one day.
The French catamaran, Oviri, that Jason and I agreed to help through the canal as line handlers.
Karen saying goodbye to Steve at the marina.
Jean-Luc and Jason talking about catamarans on the boat before we left for the Canal transit. All is ready to go.
Jason pointing out something to Nathalie on Oviri while we waited for the hired line handler to show up so we could leave to go anchor out for the night.
Jason relaxing in a bean bag chair on Oviri.
The hired line handler, Juan, as we motored out to the anchorage.
Jean-Luc on Oviri taking us out to The Flats to anchor for the night before our 5:30 AM start for the Canal transit.
A new bridge is being built over the bay of Colon. The area has grown and now both sides of the bay need infrastructure improvements.
These cargo ships are the normal vessels plying these waters and are on the move 24x7, so we must always be watching for their movements.
All the cranes in the background in Colon represent ship loading facilities that are always busy.
Karen and Jason, off of Forever Young and on Oviri, heading to Panama City via the Panama Canal, then back to the US.
The view as we came upon the first abandoned military battery building.
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