1. PANAMA - MELTING HEAT


San Blas - Portopello - Buena Vista - Panama City - La Chorrera -  Rio Hato - Aquadulce - Santiago - Tole - San Felix - Chiriqui -  El Letrero -  Rambala -  Almirante - Bocas del Toro -  Guabito

SAILING TO SAN BLAS (5 DAY'S)

After 6 amazing months in Colombia, we have to say goodbye to this lovely country with it's amazing people, but for sure not forever!

As there's no officially street between Colombia and Panama and only jungle and a lot of paramilitary groups are in between. We could choose between an extreme or more comfortable crossing. Boat or airplane. We decided us for the way with the Sailing boat in 5 days from Cartagena to Panama - Portobello.

Tomorrow we start to the 5 days sailing trip on the SR Quest to Panama. The days in Cartagena run quick, we enjoy some parties and hanging out with some wonderful other people from the hostel and at the same time we prepared our bikes for the boat trip, as every cyclist know well - sea water is not the bike's best friend ;) 

 

The SRQuest is one of the rare luxury sailing boats (with sweet water showers on board and drinking water)  for this crossing and we had luck to get the last 2 spaces even we booked it 2.5 weeks in advance. I would have enjoyed more flying but as Marcel was so into the San Blas islands we took the "lazy" version.

The boat is for max 10 guests and the captain with his cooking lady. As we all have little private rooms and the boat is quiet big we kind have enough space to sit and hang around. Because this is what you most will do! Before we left Cartagena the captain ordered us to take a seasickness pill (as again right after the dinner) as 3 of 5 days gonna be difficult crossings. And guess what, he was right even we had still *calm" weather conditions the waves went up to 3 meters and we rolled around in our beds even harder when at night a thunderstorm gave us company. In the next morning i felt like a smashed potato and  as the boat was moving from side to side so much i could also not read so just stared at the horizon for hours. Luckily we didn't get seasick but i'm sure we would have been if we didn't took every 6 hours on of the wonder pills. The blue of the ocean was beautiful and some dolphins jumped out the water playing with the nose of the boat and let us forget the tough ride for a moment.

The second night was not much better then the first but in the next morning we had blue sky with the first islands passing by. The colors of the different coral reefs are just so extraordinary beautiful that there are no words for it. After we breakfast we jumped into the water and enjoyed snorkeling and the nice swim. Next to us there was another boat (with 2 motorbikes on it) with about 23 people on it, the only clue was, it was only a little bit bigger then ours so i called them chicken boats. I wouldn't had felt very comfortable on a boat like that specially if you buy so much money for the trip! The islands and the corals i found beautiful but not that amazing like some people told me. I was kind of disappointed how broken the corals are and everywhere was garbage! I always feel sad for the locals living there and a lot of tourists coming and leaving the beer cans and other stuff there and gave a shit about what happens to that next. As a lot of party people like to do that trips its getting more ad more damaged. The Kuni people are kind of overwhelmed on the on hand tourists bring a lot of money but at the other also the negative aspect. Garbage and noise from the Parties.

San Blas is also famous for lobsters, those amazing creatures which have to grow over 15 years to get bigger then 30 cm, as all the tourists want to eat them naturally  they are well hunted from the locals. Even small Babies are catched murderd and sold. :(

A nice sunset with a big full moon at the sky we gazed and slept wonderful with a calm sea under our boat. The next day we drove to another island with some dolphins around us and went to another snorkeling tour, still no nice corals also i miss marine life but the swim felt pleasant.  After a nice dinner we are hanging and bubbling with the other guests again with a beautiful moon over our heads. The last day we sailed to the border control and after that to the last island. The weather turned and the blue sky changed dark and it started raining, time to say "Goodbye" to San Blas and

 

"Hello" to Panama! (I know we are in Panama but still it fells not like Panama) The last night on boat was again very hard to handle, thanks to the pills we could get some sleep and with a good wind we could make to Portobello much faster then expected! The next morning we arrive in Portobello and are very happy to have back our feet on earth! (I still felt the boat movement after for 4 days!)

Conclusion: i would not make this trip again, because i expected more from what it was. What makes the islands special is that they are only like 20 cm out of the water and flat therefore sometimes it appears like the palm trees are growing out of the water. But as a person who was already in a lot of places in the world it was not so special as people told me. I expected way more nature, corals and sea life as there was almost nothing swimming around.

I also think the trip is not worth 550 dollars (they even want to charge more in future!) as you are 80% just on the boat reading or hanging around (fighting against seasickness) or feeling not the best from the pills. You are also not going to isolated islands! You are going where all the sail boats are and when you ask why we are not going to other islands it appears that there`s a fix line all sailing boats can go. So if you want to go the remote islands - this is not the way to do it! For me the 3.5 days rough sea against the 1.5 days spending at the islands was very tiring and took me way  more strength than relaxing hours. Even the crew and group was nice the trip showed me that i'm not a sailer - still more a pedaler :)


PORTOBELLO TO BOCCA DEL TORRE

 

With arriving in Portobello on a rainy day we couldn't leave immediately so we waited at a supermarket until the worst rain was over and strengthen us with a very nice sandwich in a coffee shop. Luckily it stopped and the sun said "Bienvenidos en Panama". So we could swing our butts on the bicycles and start our adventure in Panama. Our first impression is kind of a little culture shock after Colombia. People are very different and everything is much more influenced from the US. The supermarkets are controlled from Chinese and full of products from China or US and there's not really much space for something local. Chinese are very rude to the local workers and i don't really like the way they treat everybody. But they generated an dependency, as there's no alternative.

 


A small video from the "Brisa" in the mountains in Panama. Heavy winds nearly stopped us:

 

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