Eating scorpions in Mexico, climbing volcanoes in Guatemala, surfing in Nicaragua, chasing sloths in Costa Rica, island hopping in Panama, dancing Rumba in Colombia, lifeguarding in Ecuador and more...

April 1, 2010

Panama a Colombia via San Blás



On my way to Colombia I decided to takea trip that I had heard about way before I left home. It is nearly impossible and very dangerous to cross the Darien Gap by land so the only options are flying or taking a boat. I decided that I would take the boat and booked a 16 person catamaran with Ayako, some of her friends and other people who would soon be our new friends. I had heard horror stories about these trips of boats bveing lost at sea, the trip taking more days, people running out of water, so I was very nervous when I woke up at 4 am and left Panama City in a SUV heading towards the jungle in a rainy and crazy road that made me stop the driver thinking I was going to puke. After the horrible ride I arrived at a small port, with my snacks and extra waters just in case. There I had to pretend that I was only taking a boat around San Blás becuase for some reason, even though everyone knows it´s happening crossing in these commercial boats isn´t exactly legal. Trust me I was confused too. Everyone else was coming from a different hostel in different transport, so I waited alone until I was told to hop in on a small boat that would take me to my boat where the captain was waiting. Jean Pierre was our french captain that did not enjoy doing these trips, but if he did a few a year he did not have to do anything else and they would pay for his boat maintenance. He also explained to me that he was the only captain with a millionaire sailor who just worked on his boat because he loved it and wanted to learn. I can´t quite believe that, but it does not realllly matter. As I waited for the rest of the crew to arrive I met another captain from Spain who would be sialing his boat with us and we would be making the nightly stops together. 
About an hour later smalled boats with the rest of our crew began to arrive including a boat with a motorcycle that would make the trip with us. We met each other, I collected the money and passports for the captain and helped translate the rules of the boats for those that did not speak Spanish. Beers were opened and we began our wonderful trip sailing through the seas towards San Blás Archipelago.

One of the small islands we anchored to spend the night

 Eating the delicious and fresh lobsters we bought from the Kunas

 
We spent our days swimming, tanning, drinking and getting coconuts from the islands that we drank, ate and later made into drinking cups for our nightly parties.
 


Our first night party where we anchored at an island, and had a huge bonfire and dinner with the other boast and partied  on our own private island in paradise. It felt like we had our own small colony and the island was ours.

The Djs for the night 





You put the rum in the coconut...

Our private Dingy party

Gorup shot of our boat

During the days if we were not sailing with dolphins that would hang around our boat in huge pods for about twenty minutes or more, flipping around playing and loving life, tanning, eating, playing dominos, sleeping, listening to music, we would get off the boat and go explore neighboring islands. On the way there I was lucky to see several starfish, a spotted rays and many different fish. I was really in paradise.

The Kuna people who are indigenous people from Panama selling us some of their handicraft

 After sailing through the islands we had a full day of 11 hours of sailing to get to Sapzurro, our first night in Colombian waters. That night the girls got a ride with the Spanish captain and the millionaire deckhand to go dance the Rumba at a small bar in the island full of welcoming locals while the boys stole the dingy and roped it to shore to walk around and meet us. There we dranka few beers danced the rumba and had to swim back to the boat celebrating our first great night in Colombia.

 
 The group after getting our passports stamped waiting for our final boat to take us to Turbo
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After parting with everyone, making plans to meet some later I got on a bus and headed to Medellin where I stayed at the Pitt Stop and met up with Rosie and Fil one more time during my trip, long time since Christmas in Nicaragua and my second week of the trip in Isla Mujeres.
With Fil and Rosie I explored the beautiful and really developed city of Medellin and even went on a Pablo Escobar tour, the man who made Medellin famous.

Pablo´s grave
Last dinner together before being alone for the first time in a while, flying to Ecuador and getting ready to volunteer.

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