Sometimes you have to remember where you are!!!

I am sitting here in my cockpit having a wonderful dinner of Steak, roasted potatoes, and salad with fresh blue cheese dressing I made myself. It is 85 degrees and I dressed up for dinner. I am eating Filet Mignon because in Central America as well as Mexico the locals don't eats it and you can buy it for $4.20 a pound. They average 3.5 lbs for the whole filet and I bought 3 the before I left. I have a nice yellow shirt and green Columbia Sportswear shorts. I have been accused of being a Columbia Sportswear billboard. Oh I wish!!Most of my clothes are thanks to Bob at Columbia in Lake Oswego. I hope that is his name I know he reads my blog. I am 3100 miles away from Oregon as the crow flies and 4000 miles from Skagway when we turned around and headed south. I am in Panama, sometimes I forget just where in the world I am. Solstice I know you can relate you are much further than I. But I am here in the land of jungles, pirates, and incredible scenery. My current location is on the Rio Chagres it is 8 miles from Colon, but a world away from mankind. At the mouth of this river is a fort called San Lorenzo it was over taken by Captain Morgan, of the famed spiced rum Morgan. He knocked the crap out of this place. I'am not exactly sure why, I haven't look it up on the internet yet, it is on a bluff all by itself but he blasted away with bigger cannons and scored this piece of Panama. If I go up steam about 4 mile I run into the dam that forms the Lake Gatun which is part of the Panama Canal. Where I am anchored I am surrounded by jungle. There are parrots, Toucans, crocs, fish the size of my kayak(Tarpon), snakes, incredible amount of foliage plants that I had only seen in the DC zoo prior to this. Tuesday I am going to Portabelle. Columbus landed there. It was his first step on mainland America. They celebrate the Black Christ. They are the only people in the Americas who believe in a Black Christ. I choose not to go to the celebration last week because of the rumors of bad people taking advantage of good people. When Helen arrives here in two weeks we are headed to San Blas Islands. These islands are so incredible they are their nation within Panama, the land of the Kuna Indians. They have not changed there lifestyle in hundreds of years. They have their own laws which as cruiser we all obey. Their islands are nothing like we have experienced before. In the next year we will go Isla San Andres(Columbian Islands), Nicaragua offshore islands, Roatan, Cancun, Cozumel, Bocas Del Toro and back here to store the boat till next season.
I just wanted to sit back and reflect on who we are and where we are. What an incredible life we live. Sometimes we take it for granted, another beautiful beach or incredible island. Sometimes we need to just step back and look at what we have experienced. We are in Panama on our own boat. How cool is that. WOW

Life is so good

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