08. Panama-Colombia trip

So far I wrote only about countries, but given the circumstances of our sailing trip from Panama to Cartagena in Colombia, this just deserves a single post. The option to sail from  Panama to Colombia seemed very interesting to us as it is not possible to take a bus - believe it or not, but there is no street! The Panamericana is not existing there, there is nothing but jungle (and drug dealers). Besides that, a sailing trip gives you the possibility to visit the San Blas islands.


Under normal circumstances such a trip takes 5 days with 2-3 days on various San Blas islands and 2 days on the water to get to Colombia. We had chosen a boat (El Santa) that had not been mentioned on any of the various blogs in the internet pointing out black sheep you should avoid. After arriving at the boat and already paying a commission, we found out that the real name of the boat was El Santa Maria, and it sure had been mentioned on the internet - and not only in a positive context, but not purely negative neither. And as we felt having a good group of travelers together (one Slovakian, one Swiss, one English, one Japanese and the two of us, all long-term backpackers), and the captain seemed nice, we went for it.


In the first days, we had to wait as the hurricane Tomas had just passed by and it would have been just too dangerous to leave. We already slept on the boat, got to know the captain and the cook, and the atmosphere was excellent. Before leaving, we already had to purchase new beer as the one we had bought before had kind of disappeared... later on it became clear that the main reason for this was our captain Raul, a true black hole when it comes to alcohol.

Still smiling...

After 3 nights on the boat without moving we finally went to the San Blas islands, where we spent 2 nights and a beautiful day of snorkeling and exploring of the small islands. While we were exploring the natural beauty of this place, our captain and cook explored the natural beauty of beer and other alcoholic drinks. As we were not moving this day, I can not blame them. The next day though, we were supposed to leave early to stop by at another island to get our passports stamped and to head to Colombia. After sleeping in (well, who wants to get up early after this amount of alcohol!), we finally set sail - well, we did not really set sail, so far we only used the engine, easier if you are hangover... On the way to the other island, our engine broke, so we really had to sail! Getting there, it took another couple of hours (and another couple of beers) until we finally left Panama to head to Colombia. According to the captain, the engine was fine, just some strange noises. So nothing to be worried about...

El Santa or El Santa Maria

As Raul was too lazy (and again too hangover) to steer, it was us or the cook most of the time steering and we only woke him up when a cargo ship was approaching. As the sails were not set correctly, we did not pick up a lot of speed and it became clear very fast that it would take 3 days to get to Colombia. The mood of the captain was getting worse as we were out of alcohol. And as he was the one making the rules and thirsty but not really hungry, the food supply was also getting worse - breakfast was toast and peanut better (which was ok), but the rest of the day we mostly got only one other meal, probably when Raul happened to be hungry as well.

Captain Raul

Things were getting even worse when we were approaching Cartagena. As the captain was constantly in a terrible mood, nobody really dared to ask critical questions, but it looked like he did not know how to enter the harbor in Cartagena. 3 days after leaving Panama, we were finally so close to Cartagena that we could hear the music from the streets (there was a big carnival party on that Sunday, a great party as we heard afterwards), and I wondered whether I could have made it to the shore swimming. Well, it became clear that the engine was not only making strange noises, but was just broken. And this adding to a current that was constantly pushing us away from the harbor, a wind direction that was not really in our favor and an incapable captain as the only person knowing his boat and how to sail it was a really bad mixture...

Cartagena - getting closer...

Things were even getting worse once again... After going to bed early on Sunday with a fair amount of frustration (Franziska`s friends were already waiting for us in Cartagena), we just hoped that the captain would somehow get us into the harbor that night. After a stormy and shaky night, I woke up around 5 a.m. and decided that I should check where we are and why we had not made it to the harbor yet. When leaving the cabin and walking up to the steering stand I looked around me and couldn't see anything but water. The captain mentioned something about a storm and that we had to change direction to try again to get into the harbor. Fact is that we were again about 5-6 hours away from Cartagena, and for the first time I really thought that it might have been a horrible idea to go with captain Raul - it looked like he lost it!


Well, as I'm writing about it, the story had a happy end after all. We (by now we got to know the boat and especially the English and the Japanese backpackers did a brilliant job sailing while the captain was sleeping) sailed back to Cartagena within a couple of hours and finally made it into the harbor after being towed by the Colombian police. The captain had also called a boat for help, but as he did not want to pay a whole lot, it was a small boat pulling a banana that was supposed to rescue us. They even had the banana with them!!

Banana boat... not being able to tow us!

Colombian police towing us!

SURVIVORS!

In the back of my head I had already planned to take over the boat in case captain Raul decided to change directions again, but I'm really happy that the Santa Maria didn't end up being a second Bounty and that we finally made it safely to Colombia!!

07. Panama

When entering Panama in the northwest, we could already tell on the Costa Rican side of the border what it is all about in this region: the Chiquita banana! Lately the tourism helped the economy in this region, especially Bocas del Toro, a group of islands with beautiful beaches and snorkeling grounds. However, the tourism there is just taking off and it doesn’t look like the local people are very interested in sustainable tourism, but prefer the quick dollar (the currency used in Panama, the local Balboa only exists as coins with the same value as the USD). Well, can you blame them after years of work for Chiquita that didn’t make them rich?

Bananas at the Costa Rica - Panama border

Panama City is one of these cities in Central-America with tremendous differences between rich and poor. On the one side, there is the beautiful and steadily growing skyline with modern buildings. On the other side, there are the places that were, according to our hostel, not recommended to be entered by us. The old town of Panama City is in the middle of this “forbidden zone”, but packed with police and gorgeous colonial buildings, most of these buildings are in a terrible condition though. This place will sure be worth another a visit in a couple of years. Another site that was already worth the visit is of course the Panama Canal, the main source of Panama’s wealth. Lovers of large ships can sure spend here hours watching the cargo ships entering and leaving the locks.

Skyline of Panama City from our hostel

Cargo ship entering locks in Panama Canal

With the help of the hostel in Panama City, we organised a sailing trip to Cartagena (in Colombia) via the San Blas islands, another island group of about 360 islands that is inhabited by the Kuna, a group of indigenous living from coconuts, from what they can catch in the ocean (not always in line with international protection laws… but sometimes also really yummy… see pictures) and nowadays of course also from tourism. The islands are a true paradise, but in some places you can already tell that too much tourism is going to harm this region. It can just be hoped that Panama learns a little from its neighbour Costa Rica concerning sustainable tourism. Panama sure has the nature and the beaches to be another Caribbean paradise!

Unreal beauty on San Blas islands

The last trip of a sea turtle...

Franziska preparing yummy yummy lobster

 

06. Costa Rica

Costa Rica - "Pura Vida"! Already at the airport we were confronted with the slogan of Costa Rica. "Pure Life" was also what we experienced in the 2 weeks we spent in Costa Rica. This country is just packed with natural beauty, so we could have easily spent more time there. Just to mention some of the highlights: nesting sea turtles and its babies in Tortuguero, active volcano and hot springs in La Fortuna, cloud forest in Monteverde, wild ocean and beautiful beaches on the Pacific in Manuel Antonio, Caribbean flair and more beautiful beaches in Puerto Viejo and not to forget all the wildlife (especially my beloved monkeys!) all over the place...

Cloud forest in Monteverde

Monkey munching Doritos stolen from tourists

On the flipside, it has to be mentioned that the capital, San Jose, is not a beauty and that October might be the worst month to visit - I have never seen that much rain in my life, well... that's probably why they call it rain forest... d'oh! Overall, one should definitely not miss visiting this breathtaking country. It is also pretty safe and has high standards in terms of hygiene. Costa Rica... you really spoiled us. Won't be easy for the following countries to beat that, but I'm sure looking forward to Panama as well!

Waiting for the bus in the RAIN forest

Caribbean style football stadium