From Panama to Colombia, sailing the San Blas Islands

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Teresa

Once we got Vida tucked away safe and sound in a shipping container on Thursday, it was time to get ourselves from Panama City to Cartagena, Colombia. Of course we opted for a sailboat with George being the sailor he is and me being a wannabe sailor who is determined to nip her chronic seasickness in the bud. Our shipping partner Eric (www.trans-americas.com) worked some magic and managed to get us on the 85 foot (18 meters) Independence sailboat on Friday morning (originally the Independence was set to leave on Thursday). We would sail through the San Blas islands populated by the native Kuna people. Incidentally, the Kuna won independence from Panama in 1925 to govern themselves. They are ranked as some of the happiest people in the world and have managed to find a balance between maintaining their traditional ways and supporting their people through entrepreneurial efforts.

A jeep picked us up at 5:30 am on Friday morning from a hostel in Panama City. We would drive to Carti, a very small port on the Caribbean Sea and from there take a water taxi out to the Independence. We had heard the road out to Carti was terrible, but it turned out to be a much shorter ride than we were anticipating. They didn’t spare us from some carsickness on the windy steep road though. Soon enough we were off weaving through the river and then out into the open water to hop aboard. After the anxiety of shipping the car, we were all ready to kick up our feet and relax.

Being a large boat, the Independence had ample room to whittle your hours. The captain was a character, which seems like a job requirement to be a sailboat captain. He was originally from Slovenia, and had been sailing for the last 30 years. He took to the G very quickly as they swapped sailing stories and dirty jokes. After months in the car with me, G finally had an audience that appreciated his material. I tried to ignore the captain’s conspiracy theory rants, but was entertained by his sailing stories. There was talk of a mutiny once on his ship that he forcibly crushed and some funny stories about an all female Swedish crew. You can use your imaginations. The food included a lot of fresh seafood and the small crew did their best to prepare vegetarian meals for me. George and I had our own cabin, but really limited our time there. It was dirty and run down, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see any cockroaches. I quickly dubbed it the roach motel. We ended up sleeping on deck every night, which worked out well with the fresh sea breeze.

The next few days we swam, snorkeled, and visited a small number of the Kuna islands. Many of the tiny islands are occupied by a single Kuna family. We had the pleasure of enjoying a bonfire on one such island. Two young sisters played around the edges of our circle, the best of friends and not a care in the world. It’s not difficult to understand why the Kuna people are so content with life.

On Monday evening, we anchored in front of Cartagena. In the morning, we would depart on the next leg of our journey. All things considered, our little shipping party had an amazing time touring the San Blas islands and getting introduced to the Kuna people.

: San Blas islands, Panama

A tour of Panama City

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Teresa

As we drove over the Panama Canal, I could sense G’s excitement and anticipation rising. He’s been talking about the canal for ages. Before retiring, G’s dad was a chief engineer on several huge tanker ships and consequently crossed through the canal a number of times.

Panama city rolls out the red carpet for you almost immediately. You catch your first glimpses of the city crossing the canal from the north. It truly looks metropolitan with a skyline to match. It was a bit of a shock after traveling south through Central America.

We soon found the way to our chosen camp spot, an area around Bolboa Yacht Club. It’s famous for overlanders because of the guard, police patrol, safe streets, laundry and showers. We were the only overlanders on the first night, but didn’t expect that to last very long. After getting our bearings, we headed out to end of Avenue Amador, enjoying the views and walkway along the water. Later that night, George made friendly with the local cops. We had secured bribes in the form of cans of coke, but the bike cops didn’t want any. They would keep an eye on the truck because they are nice fellas and it’s their job. Sweet.

The following days involved a lot of driving around Panama City, getting ourselves and the truck ready for the journey to Columbia. George was at the helm considering my no city driving policy. Driving around Panama City is like being in traffic purgatory. You spend a lot of time and get nowhere. Using your blinker is like a beacon for fellow drivers to speedup and block you in. The entire city is one big construction project due to a subway line that is set to be complete sometime in the next year or two. This is the first subway in Central America. It’s actually pretty remarkable for a country with under 4 million people.

Although there was a lot to prep, we still managed to squeeze in some sight seeing. On Monday after doing all we could that day for shipping, we went to check out Casco Viejo (old town) which turned out to be a work in progress. Half the buildings are boarded up and the other half have been turned into hip flats and restaurants. Surprisingly, there were so many things to indulge in that it was easy to pass over the boarded up buildings.

That evening we spotted 3 Mercedes vans parked near the yacht club (our camp spot): five adventurous friends traveling together, all northwest US and western Canada natives. I fell in love with their rigs. G and I immediately started to scheme about buying and outfitting a similar one once we were back in the land of jobs and weekend trips.

We finally met our shipping partners Tuesday evening. They came over to the camp spot for an introductory drink which of course turned into many introductory drinks. George and I had the good fortune to pair up with Karen and Eric (www.trans-americas.com), traveling journalists who have been on the road for 6+ years. It has taken them that long to work their way through North America to Columbia and South America.

On Wednesday, George and I went to the canal locks for our last bit of sightseeing. There is a theater which shows a brief history of the canal (the conveniently gloss over the less savory parts), a 3-story museum and viewing areas. The largest boats coming through the locks have literally a foot to spare on the sides. They are maneuvered by tugs in the water and trains that run along the sides of the locks. I was impressed by the size of the container ships and tankers. George quickly informed me that these were small (and unimpressive) compared to the ships his dad worked on. Too late George. I was impressed.

Thursday would be spent getting the trucks into a container, and we were set to leave for a sailboat headed for Columbia early Friday morning.

Bocas – island cruising

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Teresa

We mentioned to one of the guys in Boquete that we were planning to visit Santa Catalina. He strongly encouraged us to visit Bocas instead. We thought, why not? It’s the Caribbean. The drive to Bocas was along a windy mountain road. At one point, we had to pass through some check point. It was unclear to us the purpose of this checkpoint other than to deliver instructions for George to put a shirt on (he often drives shirtless because of the heat). Now, if you know George, you know he doesn’t like to be told what to do. Immediately after the checkpoint, he disrobed and ranted for the next 30 minutes about the encounter. I tuned out.

We had decided to leave Vida on the mainland and take a water taxi from Almirante. Driving into town, my hopes for Bocas were squashed. Almirante is run down and dirty. We were almost immediately tailed by a fella on a bike. He finally caught up to us at a stop sign. He of course had the solution to all of our problems, if we would just follow him. Normally these situations end poorly, but he led us to a very secure parking area complete with 6 dogs, 2 of which were rottweilers. I believe that rottweilers have one purpose in life, and that is to eat me, so I cowered in the car while George took care of the details. We made it safely to the water taxi, and for $4, we arrived in Bocas after 30 minutes. We hoofed it to the hostel where a lovely Italian showed us around.

The following day, we decided to rent some cruisers and bike out to Bluff Beach to do some wave frolicking. The beach was stunning with clear blue and turquoise water. On the way back we stopped at a beachside bar, since we had earned some cold beverages with all the biking and then the unimaginable happened. George located the only other Bulgarian in Central American. Oh the Bulgarian pride was oozing off of him.

After a fresh fish lunch, we headed back to the hostel. We planned to take it easy that evening, because we needed to be on the 6am water taxi to make the pacific coast that afternoon.

Boquete – the Napa Valley of coffee

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Teresa

…or so lonely planet says. G and I being coffee junkies were obviously in whole hog. As an aside, I have no idea when I picked up the phrase ‘whole hog’. I’m just going to roll with it. It turns out much of the Panamanian produce and coffee is grown in the Boquete area. There is plenty of hiking, and the town itself is picturesquely back dropped by Volcán Barú.

We had heard from some lovely ladies that we met in Osa that Refugio del Rio was the hostel to be at and included a river and hot tub. Since we now have a full-blown bed bug anxiety disorder, we schemed on ways to sleep in our truck but use the hostel facilities. This turned out to be a piece of cake. The hostel sees lots of campers and overlanders. We snagged a spot in front of the hostel by the river. The wonderful little river drowns out all the sound at night.

Every Thursday, the hostel has a bbq open to the public at a steel of $5. G was able to top off the meat reserves, and I had piles of veggies and rice. Since I was first in line, I got my pick of the bounty.

Most of the subsequent days were spent abusing the internet (we had some trip planning to take care of). We did manage a few walks around town, a visit to the local panadería, as well as a few visits to the grocery store. At the grocery store we went balls to the wall and bought bags upon bags of coffee as well as several bottles of rum. Feeling a little lazy after a day of interneting, we ventured out to an underdeveloped hot springs. On that front though, I advise travellers to steer clear. I like my hot springs in two varieties: resort setting with all the amenities or pristine pool in a remote location. What Boquete offered were two mosquito baths complete with farm animals for your viewing pleasure (we heard there was a more developed pool in the area but didn’t get a chance to check it out).

All and all, I think the town is worth a visit if you happen to be in the neighborhood and the cooler climate is a nice break from the heat in the low-lying areas.