Panama to Colombia

Ah .... I was dreading sitting down and writing this post. Nothing I write can ever come close to describing how increidable this trip was. But I will try....

My time in Panama came to an end Sunday (3/7). I found the 'Perla del Caribe' sail boat through the owner of the hostel I was staying with. The trip was to last 5 days and 5 nights with 3 days of lazing around the San Blas Islands and 2 days straight sailing to Colombia. The boat model is a 'defour 43' and has room for 2 crew and 8 passengers. I was to have the company of an American guy and a Swiss couple on the trip!

DAY 1 (4/7)

Everything was made pretty easy for me, I was picked up from the hostel and driven to the port, on the way picking up the rest of the passengers... Roger and Miriam from Switzerland and Sheehan a lovely guy from America. (Im really glad that there was only four passengers because if there were 8 it would have ment sharing a VERY small space with someone else ha.) The port was a very eventful two hour drive away. The road to get there was CRAZY. It was up and down mountains and the whole time I feared for my life. BUT we all got there alive and were greeted by the Captain of the Perla, Sebastian who took us out to the boat on the motor dingy. There we met the rest of the crew... Tony, the boats owner and Shielda, the boats dog!So we all got setteled in and set sail!

The Islands that we sailed around are called the Kuna Yala Island but are called San Blas for the benefit of the Gringos. In total there are about 378 islands and about 49 of these are inhabited by the local indiginous people, the Kuna Indians. They have there own language - Kuna, but mostly speak Spanish. Also the women are the chiefs and rule the roost in these tribes!

Our first night we ate on one of the islands. It was my first proper taste of traditional SA food. Basically black beans, fish, fried banana, and rice are the name of the game here. Iv been told I will be so sick of beans and rice in a few weeks! Anyway for the moment Im loving it and dinner was delicious. Next came the RUM.... Now Im not talking Captain Morgan here Im talking real delicious Caribbean rum. Its lovely to drink and it blows the head off you! The rum party continued back on the boat untill everyone had too much and had to go to bed!

DAY 2 (5/7)

Over the course of the few days I was on the boat I totally lost track of time, days, dates etc... Time was told by food.... and the first meal of the day was breakfeast at 8am! Sebastian the captain of the ship was also a qualifed chief which was great! He did all the cooking for us and it was always super. Breakfeast was fresh fruit, coffee, breads and cereal if you wanted it.

The local Kuna People are famous for their crafts and amazing bead work, they paddle their canoes to the sides of the Gringo boats to try and sell their its and bobs. That morning as we were eating they approached us and. I decided to get myself an ankle bracelet. It was really cool to sit on the side of the boat and watch them weave the bracelet onto your foot. Well worth the $4!!!

After we had eaten, we sailed on to another island. We spent the morning diving off the boat, snorkling, and wandering around the islands. Soon it was lunch time and Sebastian had a treat in store for us! While we were off having fun he had gone and bought fresh fish from the locals. He gutted it, beheaded it and scaled it on deck and then cooked it. The fish here is served with all the bones intact so eating and deboning it is an art and one that I am happy to say I have mastered!

After lunch it was time to move on again to another part of the islands. Now these boat trips are big business here and most of the companies have big boats that fit loads of people. I choose not to get one of these and go with Sebastian and Tony as they are both well know in the Islands and I thought a smaller boat would allow for a more authentic trip rather than than the usual Gringo type. My gamble paid off when on the way to our next destinnation we stopped at on the the local townships where the lads were well know. We got to walk around and chat to the locals while Sebas stocked up on supplies (beer, bananas and pineapples!) and the boat water tank was filled.

We moved on from here just after sunset, which was beautiful, and put down anchor in our sleeping spot for that night. Sunset is also beautiful because it means its nearly dinner time!! Today it was fesh lobster with pasta. Yum yum yum yum so good!! Again a messy meal involving getting stuck in with your hands and just going for it! Love it.

Another great thing about the boat is the soundsystem that it has. Sitting in the Caribbean sea, sipping rum, listening to Bob Marley, having a smoke, looking up at the sky and seeing millions of stars, apart from being a serious cliche, is just one of coolest nights I have ever had.

Day 3 (6/7)

Again after food it was off to another part of the Islands and this was by far my favourite place that we visited. I can only describe the place as paradise. White sand, cocounuts, clear warm blue water and reefs full of sea life. The snorlking was unreal and we even got to try our hands a bit of spear fishing which I was useless at!

Now I havnt yet mentioned the weather. OH MY GOD IT WAS HOT. My sun worshiping friends (you know who you are you brown bitches!) would have loved it. I had my factor 45 and my factor 80 for when I was really desperate so I was ok but there were times I just had to go under deck because it got too much.

So we swam, drank beer and practised Spanish in paradise for the day. Dinner was something different again - a local bean, patatoe and chrizo stew, very filling and very nice.

Today would be our last full day in San Blas. The plan was to batton down the hatches and set sail to Colombia at midday tomorrow.
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Day 4 (7/7)

The morning was spent getting in as much island action before we had to leave. I was told today an interesting fact about all the coconuts on the islands - It is in fact illegal to touch or take any coconuts as they are the main source of trade for the locals and each and every tree and coconut is owned by someone!

After lunch it was unfortunatly time to leave paradise behind. The next leg of the trip was two days of open water sailing and this was going to sort out the men from the boys! Sea sickness had been a hot topic of conversation among myself and my fellow passengers over the past couple of days. I did a little bit of research on it before I went and the results were not good. Anyone can get it even seasoned sailors and in the worst cases people said that while they were experiencing it they just wanted to DIE!! Soooo nothing to be scared of then!

Tony and Sebas tied down everything that could possibly be moved, the motor dingy was taken out of the water and also tied down (shit was getting serious!), the sail was hoisted and of we went, Colombia bound.

Now there is one very special person I havnt mentioned so far and that is Shielda the boat dog. She is the nivest dog I have ever come across and one of the craziest too! She lives on the boat with the two lads and is actually a Kuna dog. Every time the boat stops she would know it ment land so she would run to the back of the boat, hop in the dingy and wait for Tony or Sebas to take her to land! However she always go so excited on the way over to land that she would get half way there and then jump in and swim the rest of the way. So so cute, I wanted to take her with me.

At one stage of the day when we were well out in open water Shielda started to cry and wine and ran to the front of the boat. Tony shouted at us all to get up to the front of the boat quick..... there were DOLPHINS!! And sure enough there were. Dogs can hear the dolphins talking to each other and thats what set her crazy. The dolphins were amazing. They joined us on two other seperate occasion that day, swimming with the boat and jumping in and out of the water.

Dinner time and poor Miriam is the first victim of the dreaded seasickness.

1 down 3 to go.

DAY 5 (8/7)

I have to say I didnt mind the sailing at all, I actually found the motion quite soothing. But the one thing no one tells you about sailing in the open water is the TIREDNESS... Seriously all anyone could do was snooze. It was so weird!

We had our dolphin friends back again today and this time they stayed for at least a half hour. Possibly the coolest animals on the planet.

Lunch time and another one bites the dust - Sheehan cant eat or drink without spewing. I feel a little queesy but I just go to sleep again and Im fine!!

When Im woken up we are arriving at Cartagena, Colombia and the next chapter in my travels :)



Tony, Me,Miriam, Roger, Sheehan, Sebas & Shielda