January 27, Provisioning Day
We had arraigned for a taxi into Colon to do the provisioning for the next two legs, since groceries will be expensive in the Galapagos Islands. Some folks from another yacht joined us and the driver dropped them and Jan off at the Free Trade Zone to look around for an hour or so before meeting us at the mall. The Free Trade Zone is said to be the second largest in the world, second only to Hong Kong (I think), it would take the better part of a day to see all of the nearly 1000 shops located there.
Grocery shopping is a team effort as we filled about 6 carts with everything imaginable, hats off to the cashier and bag boy who kept up the pace as we had an assembly line loading the belt at the checkout. It was a pleasant surprise to find they had whole beef tenderloins for $30-$40 and skirt steak in the butcher case for $2.65 a pound.

Team Skyelark at the checkout

Once back at the marina the process was reversed as everything had to be passed down below and stowed away, I was given the task of vacuum sealing all the fresh meat in package suitable for meals for eight. It is amazing the amount of stuff that can be crammed into such a small space and with some semblance of order so it can be retrieved when needed without tearing everything out.
I had picked up some cheviche at the mall earlier, so after the work was done I skipped lunch and took another walk to the forest. I want to well versed in using my new zoom camera when I get to Galapagos, and hadn’t had much opportunity to do so since I am leery of taking it in the dingy. A family of monkeys was playing in the trees along the road, howling like a pack of wild dogs each time a car passed. They didn’t pay us much attention as they swung from tree to tree. There were some small ones there and one so tiny it rode on it’s mothers back. I kept taking pictures until my battery ran out.





We had our pre-transit dinner aboard tonight; Vigo, who is on the next leg joined us as he is also making the transit with us tomorrow. Dan cooked up one of the tenderloins with some cauliflower, corn on the cob and french fries. Dessert was bananas flambe’ served in the dark of the cockpit. Numerous bottles of wine were consumed and naturally some rum was also in the mix. We all went to bed thinking of what a once in a lifetime experience we will have tomorrow.

And a good time was had by all

Thanks for the great pictures!!! And how sad, even though the pictures aren't crystal clear, I recognize the labels on several of the wine bottles! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" /> Enjoy the transit this evening!