Tag Archives: puerto escoses

Puerto Escoses Huts

Puerto Escoses, Panama

We woke up in Puerto Escoses to an incredibly beautiful sunrise over the tree top covered hills, in calm waters with birds chirping and some other mysterious animal noises. (We later discovered they were howler monkeys) It is so serene here, this could easily become our new favorite bay.

In 1698, England sent 1300 Scots to Puerto Escoses to build Fort Andrew, but they had a terrible time faced with starvation and disease. Within 2 years, those that were alive returned to Scotland. However, just after they left a fleet of reinforcements arrived who made a second attempt to survive here. They suffered the same problems and Fort Andrew was given up for good in 1702. Today only ruins remain and they are hardly recognizable. Of the nearly 3,000 people involved, over 2,000 died. Gunas from the villages of Mulatupu and Caledonia own plots of land along Punta Escoses and often come over to tend crops.

From our view point, the huts look abandoned except the very vocal animals hidden in the depths of the forest. We took “Sweetie” out to explore the bay and get a closer look at the huts and were surprised to see the depth change rather rapidly. Just a few meters away from where we anchored it was 2 meters deep and you could clearly see that this bay was flush with amazing coral heads.

Huts over the water, uninhabited.

Huts over the water, uninhabited.

Coral heads under our dinghy.

Coral heads under our dinghy.

We took the time to fix our port dagger board which had been wedged in place. We use small pieces of PVC to wedge the dagger board so they don’t rattle. Unfortunately, one got stuck and prevented our dagger board from moving up or down. Matt and Wayne tied a halyard to the top of the board and raised it slowly to get the small piece out and bingo it’s free!

We lifted the anchor just before 10 to leave Puerto Escoses and head toward our next destination, Bahia de Masargandi. This deep inlet is a maze of mangroves and shoals. People from neighboring island, Ustupu work the mountains. They sail over in their dugout “ulu” canoes. We were told that you can ask them to take you for a trip into the remote farming plots and that they make great guides. However, they do not accept monetary payments. Rather they ask you to carry 60 lbs of bananas on your back, through steaming jungle, along winding, slippery paths. No thanx we pass!

The entire trip to Bahia de Masargandi was about 28.6 miles, with the wind on our nose and an average speed of 4.7 (max 7.6). We tried to fly the jib again, but she mostly suffered in a floppy state. So, just past Isla Iguana which is a deserted island, we turned the boat into the wind to stop her and then hopped in the water to cool off. So, we shut the engines off, put a line out in the water, and jumped in. Matt scrubbed the keel coolers and I cleaned up the water line. Quick shower and back on the path to Bahia de Masargandi.

When entering the bay, we had to be vigilant watching for shallow reefs and coral heads. The charts we have, Eric Bauhaus are the best in existence and so far. However we have found that they are not completely accurate. Of course, this is based on only 3 anchorages. Matt has the electronic Bauhaus charts on his iPad and MacBook Pro and we use our GPS and Navionics and they all have shown us on land when we weren’t. Nerve racking none the less.

With this bay, we had to reverse several times to avoid shallow spots. The depth dropped from 13 to 3 meters within a boat length. We anchored behind what we thought was a deserted hut on a small island but later discovered it was inhabited by locals who work the farms.

Summer home? I love it. Fisherman's hut.

Summer home? I love it. Fisherman’s hut.

Matt and Wayne took the dinghy out to test the depth around the boat in case the winds shift and move us into shallower water. We decided it would be best to drop a second anchor to ensure we don’t move over the 1-2-meter area to port.

Matt and Wayne checking depth.

Matt and Wayne checking depth.

We captured a few other pretty shots of this beautiful bay.

Sugar Shack enjoying the solitude.

Sugar Shack enjoying the solitude.

Boys out exploring.

Boys out exploring.

Wayne happy to be out with us.

Wayne happy to be out with us.

Beautiful shoreline with trees and mangroves.

Beautiful shoreline with trees and mangroves.

Different angle of the huts over water.

Different angle of the huts over water.

Deserted Island benefits:

  • Abandoned huts, place to stay?
  • Wildlife abound
  • Private bay and watering hole
Sugar Shack Puerto Obeldia

Adventures Clearing into Panama

We woke up in the peaceful, serene bay of Puerto Carreto to the sounds of nature. It was delightful, but we had to clear into Panama, so we left and motored the 8 miles to Puerto Obaldia. A local named, Victor Luna helps cruisers with the clearance process for $20. We had a WhatsApp number (because all islanders are on WhatsApp) but without wifi that number is useless. Matt the persistent and patient one in our group, kept searching for wifi, and finally was able to get something off of GoogleFi which enabled us to make a call. The woman who answered told us that she expected to see Victor at 12n and would send a message. We arrived at 10am.

Our friend who gave us Victor’s info, said that sometimes it’s easier to flag down another panga driver and ask them to get Victor. So, after waiting over an hour we did just that. A panga driver was heading into town so I jumped up, whistled, and waved him over. To our surprise, when I asked “conoce Victor” (translation “do you know Victor”) he said “me” how ironic – what luck!

We grabbed our paperwork, hopped into his panga, and headed to the Panama shore for the very expensive cruising permit we so desired. First stop, police station at the entrance of town. It was a makeshift “office’ that reminded me of part of a fort with no doors and long rectangle windows to stick weapons out and hide from incoming fire. He was pleasant enough, asked all the normal questions, verified stamps in our passports. The dates in our passports were different than the exit date on our Zarpe which caused a little confusion. They informed us several times, we must stop back by the police before leaving and after all the paper work was complete. UNDERSTOOD.

Next up immigrations. They need two copies of everything: boat paperwork, zarpe, passports (need two more copies of everything for the cruising permit). Victor took us by the copy place and for $3 we got our first set of 10 copies. Victor as a tour guide/agent is awesome, the down side is it’s all in Spanish and a long, slow process. The immigration office and cruising permit take the longest and require a substantial amount of patience.

At port authority you meet Victor Oreto, Victor Luna’s nephew who is the port captain. This guy can stamp paperwork like no tomorrow. 7+ copies of each of the 5 documents that get stamped twice including the police copies. We also had the added pleasure of clearing in on a national holiday – Mother’s Day which added an additional $40 to the total fee. For some reason, Matt had to pick a Zarpe location of either Puerto Lindo or Puerto Portobello even though the Zarpe is supposed to be good for all of Panama. Guessing it will become apparent when we get the Zarpe for clearing out.

During our waiting periods I captured some photos of Puerto Obeldia, Panama:

Church at Puerto Obedalia.

Church at Puerto Obedalia.

School at Puerto Obedalia.

School at Puerto Obedalia

After we were all done, we head back to the police hut to make sure our passports are stamped. They wanted to come and inspect the boat which was fine, but first they wanted us to move the boat. We had anchored out a bit and they wanted the boat directly across from their dock.

Sugar Shack only a few meters away, but police asked us to move closer.

Sugar Shack only a few meters away, but police asked us to move closer.

Victor our guide and driver.

Victor our guide and driver.

So, Victor brought us back to our boat where we moved it a whopping 200 meters. Wayne stayed on the boat and Matt and I jumped back into Victor’s panga, and back to the police hut to get our passports. We waited, patiently. Then back to the boat, the inspection was routine, but it’s been a 3-hour long process and our smiles were starting to fade. All is good. After $198 for the cruising permit, $315 for immigration, $40 for Victor (since we had so many back and forth trips) we had our boat paperwork, stamps, and cruising permit.

Since our clearance process into Panama took a lot longer than we expected, we had to shift our plans. We still wanted to arrive at the next stop during daylight, so we decided to head to Puerto Escoses, 25 miles away.

Puerto Escoses is a pretty bay that is well protected from the sea. We arrived at sunset in time to hear the orchestra come alive from the jungle. There were many sounds we could not make out, a sort of howling or something gave us pause about exploring the shoreline. But with no other man-made lights, we had a perfect view of the stars, planets, and constellations. It was extremely peaceful and gorgeous.

Puerto Escoses

Puerto Escoses

Puerto Obeldia proved to be a great clearance port.