Bocas Life and The Dinghy Incident

We love the vibe of Bocas, but are under the impression it is not the type of cruising destination we really enjoy. Bocas seems to have two main groups of non Panamanians, the retiree ex pats and the hostel dwelling backpackers. The cruising community fits somewhere in between. Unlike Georgetown, the cruising community here has been a little cold. Except for a few boats, everyone sticks to their own cliques, kinda like high school. This makes it extremely difficult to socialize when you are thirty years younger, and feel a bit put off. I think much of the reason my be because we are mistaken for backpackers. The backpackers start their days late, and party into the night. When we are going to bed, they are just getting started. So Jennie and I fit somewhere in between, therefore feel like outcast half breeds.

Enough complaining, we are not in an office, and spend our days in the sun. One task I had was to find some gasoline. Bocas, though it shows lots of potential, hasn't figured out how to make things simple. I dinghied around town asking, there are no signs, so this makes it a bit tricky. The locals helped in the best way they could to explain, and when I went to Bocas Marina to ask, they gave me a poor answer and more attitude than a 14 year old girl. So if push comes to shove and Jennie and I have to leave the boat here to build up our cruising kitty for the South Pacific, we wont be staying there. Customer service 101, don't judge a book by it's cover. As I was heading back across to where the gas dock should be...again.... I noticed the dinghy had a lot of water in it, then I saw the issue; the tube had come off the hull. I turned around and slowly made it back to the boat. We pulled the dinghy up and I got to work, dinghies are an important life line for a cruiser. I knew this was going to happen, because you should never paint aluminum and then glue something to the paint. Water got under the paint and oxidization caused the paint to peel off. I scrapped all the paint off where the tubes connected, and PL 4200 that bad boy back on. So far no issues, but it will happen again, salt water is very destructive. By the way I found the gas dock and prices similar to the US, sweet.

In an additional note, Jennie and I went out for drinks with some other young cruisers, upon returning we found our loaf of bread was gone. No it wasn't a cockroach (of which we have not seen any sign of for a few days now), but Dexter. I don't know how he can eat an entire loaf of bread, but he did. We were not super pleased about that one, but impressed. I know I would have difficulty eating an entire loaf of bread with only a small bowl of water.

Though we have had some setbacks, Bocas has been entertaining and there is still so much more to explore. Jennie and I are not really patient enough to spend months at anchor, so we will try to start fixing up things on the boat and get moving around to better explore this area, and then the San Blas.