A Tale of Two Panama Fishing Lodges - (Mostly a tale of one)

About eight months ago, I receive an email from a Jim Kimball, introducing himself as the owner/operator of Tranquilo Bay in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. He congratulated us on opening a new fishing lodge on the Pacific side, and invited us to visit and share the trials, tribulations, and follies of construction on a remote island. We drove from David to the port of Almirante on the Atlantic side last week to take the water taxi to Bocas del Toro. The following pictures reflect the flavor of this community , which is slowly returning to the earth in the form of rust.

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The water taxi to Bocas takes about 15 minutes, and is a welcome ride out of Almirante, past the port and across the bay. Bocas del Toro reminds me of early Key West. Very early Key West.    

Jim met us at Starfish Coffee with two of his guides (both botanists) and we were off for the 10 mile trip to Isla Bastimentos on which his lodge is located.

 

Jim and Jay, his partner have lived on the island for 10 years constructing, and now operating for the last 5, this most impressive facility. Their story is best explained on the Tranquilo Bay web site.

Frankly we had a great time trading stories (they have a lot more than we do) and listening to how they managed to put this very well thought out, and extremely well appointed lodge together.  Here are a few pictures…..

I know you probably were not interested in their generator house, how they store potable water, but we were, and after all this is my blog.

Both Jim and Jay are excellent anglers, and apparently the tarpon fishing in this location is equal to or better than Costa Rica.  There will be more on this subject as we are working on a unique Panama fishing adventure that will utilize the unique features and locations of both our lodges.

An Allbum with no fishing pictures!

We had a very nice couple from Corvallis, Oregon stay with us for four days in late March.  They were working their way home after a voyage to Tahiti.  John and Gretchen took many pictures as they hiked, and canoed around the island.  As you can see, all of these are better than the ones I post, so no need to reply to this post with that comment.

An Album by John & Gretchen
 

Dad caught the big one in Chiriquí!

I can't even begin to best this article, so just follow this link:
http://www.focuspublicationsint.com/New_Site/Visitor16-16/sixth.html#Top

Sometimes there is a lot to be said for not saying a lot......

"we traded these delicacies for an exquisite homemade meal, drinks and good company"

I had forgotten this nice event until Nancy reminded me of it over the weekend.  I think this occurred on February 6th and the 7th.

Late in the day on the 6th we were at the table on the front deck, and watched as a sailboat came from the south and anchored off Isla Gamez.  We watched their inflatable depart their vessel and went back to our cocktails.  About an hour later, four young nice looking people come walking up the path from the beach.

After introducing themselves (Brad, Chad, Tyler, and Nikki) related that they were on a trip around the world, and could they buy some rum.  Its hard to beat a trip around the world story, so we gave them what little was left from the prior weeks fishing charter, and off they went promising to return the next evening for dinner.

Return they did!  They brought oysters, two wonderful fish, coconuts, and a couple of lobsters.  We had a great meal and even better conversation listening to their adventure to date and plans for the months to follow.

Their Panama Island blog is:  http://sailbrokencompass.blogspot.com/2010/02/pamama-islands.html

Their website is:  http://www.sailbrokencompass.com/

We wish them well and will continue to follow their progress.  Great kids on a great adventure!

Picking up the T.O.P. Cat in Costa Rica

I have been going back through some older photos that I have taken as we continued to equip our lodge on Isla Parida.

We drove from David on November 24 to Golfito, Costa Rica as the T.O.P. Cat was to arrive the following day from Ft. Lauderdale.  I had never been to Golfito, and as you can see from the pictures, it is somewhat less glamorous than I had anticipated.


Paperwork was completed the following day and we were transported out to pick up our World Cat.  Back to the Banana Bay Marina late in the day, we remained overnight, and left the following morning for Isla Parida.

A beautiful 90 or so mile trip on Thanksgiving Day.