Valentines Day, Sting Rays and Safety Meetings

Valentines day was lovely here, so we got dressed up and went for supper at a wonderful little restaurant that is a 5 minute walk away.  I couldn't help but take some pictures of my beautiful girls!

 The island behind Karen and Jada is Farallon island

Jada was supposed to be my little girl forever.  Very angry that she is growing up on me. 

What a lucky man I am! 

Yes, Karen dresses up much nicer than I do. 

Nice shot of the kids homework on the table.

Every February in this area of Panama brings the Humbolt current with cold water, jellyfish and sting rays.  We haven't seen too many jellyfish and the water is only slightly colder than the rest of the year.  Being Canadian, it is all really warm to us.  We lived in Cold Lake for a few years and swam in the water not long after the ice was off and didn't think much of it, so this feels like bath water.

The stingrays have congregated at Farallon island in the hundreds.  Our good friends Ross and Debra have a paddle board and Karen got one for her birthday, so in pairs we paddle out the island to see the schools of rays.  Karen and Debra have gone out a couple times each and saw hundreds of sting rays swimming around the island, but up until a few days ago, I wasn't able to go out and see them.  When I did get a chance Karen took me out there, but we had a bit of a late start and the wind had picked up by the time we got to the island, so it was way to choppy to see any rays.  We headed back toward shore, but the winds were getting stronger causing whitecaps and blowing right at us making the paddle in very tough.  We both hunkered down and kneeled on the boards to reduce our wind resistance.  Paddling hard was getting me about 1 foot per minute and with shore a little less than 1/2 km away, I figured it would take me quite a few hours to get back and Karen wasn't doing much better.  Ross was watching from shore as we struggled and ran to the Decameron resort for them to send a jet ski to rescue us.  As it was coming out a fishing boat came by and picked me and my board up and then went to Karen to get the other board.  The boat and jet ski took us to shore thankfully.  Karen was pretty shook up by the ordeal.  Oh and by the way this was her birthday too!

So after the trouble that morning we had to decompress with coffee to start and then needed a safety meeting in the afternoon.  Bill and Evelyn and some other condo people meet down at the bohios (beach huts) for a afternoon safety discussion and an occasional refreshment.  It sure helped us relax. We hang out with Bill and Evelyn for quite a few safety meetings and really enjoy the camaraderie.  Later that night they made us some awesome beef filet slow roasted on the BBQ which we finished off with birthday cake and some really good port!  Not the perfect birthday Karen was expecting, but memorable none the less.

Our regular Safety Meetings with Bill and Evelyn

One of the visitors we get by the bohio.  He likes tortilla chips!

So I still hadn't seen stingrays yet and headed out with Debra this morning on the paddle boards.  This time I took along my snorkel gear incase the ocean turned rough again.  I figured I could slip on the flippers, mask and snorkel and could pull the paddle board into shore.  The current travels into shore, so if we can get out of the wind then it is not tough to swim in.  The swells were pretty big this morning, but the wind was really quiet, so we got out to the island in about 15 minutes and hunted for stingrays.  The swells made the ocean choppy and clouds made it tough to see anything, even with my mask on.  We hung out for about an hour in the area, but we each saw a couple stingrays.  Not the hundreds that Karen and Debra saw, but I was pretty pumped about it.  The ocean was getting rougher and I was worried about wind, so we headed into shore and when we were almost back to shore another stingray swam right past us.  Pretty cool. 5 People have been stung by stingrays over the past couple days at the resort fairly close to where we are living, so they are still around and I hope I get to see a big school of them too. I don't have any pictures because of the crappy seas, but will try to get some over the next few days.

Stew