Ups and downs to Nargana

Nargana 1- first stop

After we anchored, we got ready to go to the “islands”.

Nargana is actually two islands (Nargana and Corazon de Jesus). They are connected by a bridge and both highly populated.

Nargana you might say is like Acuadup and Cartí Sugdup in the sense that they only have local houses and tiny shops. But in Nargana and Corazon de Jesus, the shops are slightly better. The best place seemed to be Yoni’s shop, where we asked if we could enter through the back so we could check what they had. 

Maybe you thought we came here to stock up, but that is only partially true. We actually are here to sort out transport for my eldest brother Yoren firstly, and then to do some shopping.

I kind of like the paintings on the side of the buildings here. They are very realistic (of Kunas being tortured and mistreated by bad Panamanians!). After doing everything we wanted to do, we left for an island not too far away.

Yoren will be arriving Saturday evening in Panama City, and coming through to Nargana with Kuna transport (4×4 and watertaxi) on Sunday morning, so we don’t want to be far away.

We went to a small island. I have written about our experience at the small island in another post.

Nargana 2- Waiting for Yoren

After our ordeal at the small island we made our way back to Nargana the next Saturday, well in time to pick up Yoren. 

On Saturday we didn’t do much except buy some stuff, pick up and install our new solar panel and charger.

On Sunday we ate ice cream and got frustrated. Yoren’s first plane got delayed, after which he missed his connecting flight, and obviously couldn’t make the transport we organised. So everything had to be moved on by one day. On top of that, internet went off and we couldn’t communicate with him!

Monday morning we finally picked up Yoren and went to some random island that had shallow spots around on which you can anchor.

Short stay at Sugardup

The spot where we were anchored was 4 metres deep, with corals here and there (it came with a shark too). Me and Yoren swam a lot.

Then we all went to the island to walk around and laze around in the water.

On Tuesday, once we finished schoolwork, dad, Yoren and I went snorkelling. I saw 3 angelfish and a cloud of sardines. One was a Queen angelfish and the other were 2 French angelfish.

After that we went to the island again to collect firewood for a future beach braai. Then we went back to the boat and we all relaxed a bit. 

Yoren and I were on the front deck chatting and watching big weather brewing on the land.

Then mom asked us to set the table. As we stood up, we were buffeted with icey wind and freshly rained on earth smell and we all started packing away stuff and preparing to leave if we had to.

In the middle of dinner, the looming weather system got closer and we started dragging, so we got the anchor up and fled back to Nargana again. No pictures were made of the squall and chasing back to Nargana as we all had our hands full and nerves were tense after our ordeal on the other island!

Nargana 3- Mending and waiting for spares

The Starlink was supposed to arrive on Thursday or Friday, so we were going to wait for it in the Nargana anchorage. Meanwhile we did some chores and exploring.

On Wednesday Yoren went up the mast to fix some stuff (twisted ropes, replace flag lines, test the broken lights, trying out a new light bulb). It all went well.

We did our schoolwork the next day, then played some games and read. Then around 4:00 or 5:00(pm) we did the dishes and were going to go kayaking. But then it started to rumble. So, throw that idea in the trash, I guess we’ll just do some more reading.

Friday we decided that we would kayak but at around 10:00(am) a big squall hit. Everyone was super alert, listening to the deafening wind, counting between lightening and thunder. We’re all quite nervous.

But after an hour, the worst had passed and luckily we managed to go kayaking later that day. We went to the sunken boat close to the old jettie, and from there across to the mangroves. We saw a peculiar thing. We heard this weird “crrunch crrunch”. On further inspection, it was a parrotfish eating the clam shells that grew on the roots of the mangroves!

We also swam around the boat and discovered that we have giant sucker fish (remoras) swimming around the boat. Fun, you’d say, but also concerning considering their size: where are their friends – the big fish or shark- their symbiotic partners??

On Friday night we had pizza night! 🍕 🍕 🍕. Still no Starlink, as first they sent it to the wrong place, and then the two drivers missed each other or forgot about the parcel…

On Friday we went up the river. At first we had a hard time finding the river mouth as it was hidden behind a lot of washed up tree trunks. But once we found the correct entrance, it was beautiful. We saw a lot of kunas coming and going on fresh water runs, with lanchas and cayucas loaded to the gunnels with fresh water drums.

There were loads of birds. We went up the river as far as we could and then stopped at a river bank to bathe and wash clothes and eat lunch. The river was cold but after a few minutes you get over the shock of it and it feels pleasantly cool. Where we were it seemed so far away from humanity it was beautiful and peaceful there. You seemed to see nature better. 

On Sunday our new starlink arrived (finally, after 3 failed attempts!). Mom and dad went to pick it up and when they returned we immediately lifted anchor and went off back to the random island again. We found a much better spot to anchor and dad made a double snubber which makes us spin around less during squalls.

Sugardup again

After setting up the new starlink we went off to snorkel around the boat because there were some corals. There are a lot of jellyfish and it becomes very deep very quickly.

On Monday there was a squall in the morning… So we couldn’t put the Starlink up. I did some blog writing and worked in some of my school books. In the afternoon we watched a weird movie (I will not go into details seeing that it might be inappropriate for some of our fellow readers). On Tuesday it also rained a bit in the morning but in the afternoon Yoren, Dad and I went snorkelling.

Luckily it was very sunny on Wednesday and Thursday morning, and in the afternoon the weather would get overcast.

My Birthday❣️🥳

Friday the 9th of August was My Bday! I wished I could have invited you all!

It started with presents, then we had breakfast (pancakes!). While dad prepped everything for going to the beach, I tortured Yoren by putting nail polish on him and spoke to my friend Rosalie.

Dad had picked a small island that from now is called ’12th birthday island’. I got to ride on the bodyboard behind the tender. At the beach Yoren and I were snorkeling and I saw a nurse shark.

We had lunch and then we went back to the boat for cake and ice cream.

For a while we were all too full to do anything. Later dad started cooking dinner (pasta Siciliana) and Yoren did the wash up alone.

Normally we would have had the left over cake for dessert but we couldn’t. It became breakfast the next morning.

That was the end of a perfect day.

Not just for me, but also for my feline friend!

The next day we left for Nubesibup.

Chocolate cake kisses from Gitane &

Fish breath kisses from Capo