Saturday 31 December – we made it to midnight!

We woke up to a glorious clear days, the mountains were cloud free. We went and had a lovely snorkel on a coral reef nearby, it was different to what we have seen before, very colourful delicate small coral. Rowan says it is because the water is warmer and calmer here in the channel. The only creepy thing was all the coral covered in spider crabs, they looked like millipedes wound around the coral.

First clear view of the mountains

Off snorkelling with Phoebs

We left our spot in the mangrove islands late morning, we gingerly made our way around the reefs to get back into the main channel. We then headed around Bastimentos island and wiggled our way through a long narrow channel that the guide book had plotted well. Rowan was using the boat’s chart, the guide book and Google satellite maps. I sat up front to double check, thankfully it all went smoothly. Rowan had read about an anchorage that is not in the guide book, which has a lovely long beach and a couple of resorts. There was one boat anchored at the one resort so we went to the other end.

Wiggling our way along the channel through the reefs

Little places along the way

We anchored quite far out as there was a reef in front of the beach. It was a good hold in sand in 7m of water much less than our previous anchorage in 12m. We hopped into JeldiJeldi and headed to shore to see if we could book into dinner somewhere. The jetty closest to us had a small hotel and some holiday homes. The hotel said we could join them for dinner, the menu of turkey and ham was not too appealing. We headed further up the beach to where the other sailing boat was anchored, it was a much jollier crowd and the French owner said we could join them for the evening. $80 each, a seafood and meat buffet including all drinks and fireworks at midnight.

The beach we went to

The resort offering us turkey and ham for dinner!

As we were about to head back to PolePole a couple asked us if we could give them a lift to the other boat, a huge old ketch. Turns out this lady is the roguish looking captains ex wife! They are Panamanians and have been holidaying here for the past 20 years. Captain Juan, turns out to be Venezuelan, he comes in his boat to join the annual festivities.

The ketch and our party place

We returned to PolePole to have an afternoon kip and to get out the heat. At 6:30 we were scrubbed up and ready to go and join the party. We started off with some deliciously limey mojitos. It turned out there was a large American group for a 50th celebration, they were quick to tell us they were in the movie industry in LA. A lot of very self important gay men, when I asked the one guy if he was implying he was famous, he replied ‘not that much’ and the other guy responded ‘speak for yourself bitch!’. It was a weird, eclectic mix of people, a lot of sequins on the American ladies outfits.

Illuminated on our way to the party by a beautiful sunset

The party spot

The party bar

The lights of PolePole in the distance

Turns out that Juan on the other boat has paying guests, an English couple on honeymoon and a Bulgarian couple who got engaged today. They were all very nice. Bizarrely they were all holidaying in Costa Rica when they met in a taxi and the Bulgarians invited the English couple to join them on the boat, something they had organised at the last minute with a friend. Bocas del Toro is just over the border from Costa Rica. It sounds an entertaining trip, Juan is obviously a big character, claiming to be a research boat most of the time.

The eclectic bunch

Bongo drums and fire artists!

We had a very tasty meal when it finally arrived, the chef was a huge character, Belgian and certainly produced some delicious dishes…. scrummy tandoori fish, very garlicky chimichurri, and stuffed mushrooms. There was a big fire going, Phoebs was off chatting to the English couple, while Rowan and I sat watching the eclectic crowd, we hadn’t been up this late in ages. Just after 11pm we dragged poor Phoebs away, I was a little nervous doing such a long dinghy drive back in the pitch dark with so much coral about. We made it back safe and sound. We went and lay on the trampoline and had the best view watching endless fireworks up and down the beach. We made it to midnight!

Happy New Year to all you readers of the blog!