The San Blas Islands, Panama with Angus

Well I never. Out waltzes Dad from Panama airport arrivals with suitcases bulging with fishing gear; its always a miracle to rendezvous when your sailing, but even more astonishing that family or friends would travel so very far to spend time on board.

The three of us spent the rest of the day having a look around Panama City. We taxied across the bridge of Americas; did some shopping at Allbrook mall as the tropical rain roared down and toured the crumbling historic part of town, now a dangerous ghetto with leaning balconies and hairballs of electrical wiring sagging into boarded up plaster shacks. Men in bottle green uniforms holding automatic machine guns stationed throughout the narrow streets stood at arms to secure the arrival of President, Martin Torrejos to his palace, a white stucco three story building overlooking tidal brown waters and wooden fishing boats. The silvery city skyscrapers prickled the skyline behind.