As I originally intended to spend the majority of my time in South America I spent the days prior to my departure
for Central America searching for cheap flights to Ecuador. But for reasons I
cannot fathom I could not find a flight from Panama to Ecuador for less than
$750 US – more than three times the cost of getting to Costa Rica from my
hometown of Toronto, Canada. Seeing my frustration, my father suggested I try
to take a boat. And so, as I started researching alternative means of getting
to South America I discovered a blog that offered a solution to my dilemma:
befriend captains at the harbour in Panama City and try to hitch a ride to
Ecuador in exchange for working in the crew. Despite my mother’s fears that the
boat may capsize, they would steal my belongings and throw me overboard, they
may be trafficking drugs, etc., I decided that I would give it a try. It would surely
be an adventure.
Upon arriving to Costa Rica, however, my plans changed.
Everybody I met who was working their way north from South America insisted I
must go to Colombia, a country which I had originally planned to avoid due to
its recent history of drug cartels, guerilla warfare and political instability.
Supposedly Colombia was not as dangerous as everyone made it out to be, the
people were among the friendliest in South America, and it’s rich culture (and
beautiful women) made it a major destination for travelers. Accordingly,
Colombia was added to my itinerary.
As with the flights to Ecuador, the flights to Colombia from
Central America were prohibitively expensive. And while Colombia neighbours
Panama, there are no buses that dare to travel the road through Darien’s Gap
whether it be due to the dense jungle or rebel factions that are rumoured to
hide in the area. Furthermore, I was set on the idea of sailing to South
America. Luckily someone told me about BlueSailing, a company that arranges
chartered yachts to Colombia for backpackers such as myself. The price was
comparable to that of the one-and-a-half hour flight to Colombia and included
five days of sailing with three square meals a day. The decision was easy. And
just days before I planned to depart Panama for Colombia I suffered a
middle-ear barotrauma scuba diving in Santa Catalina, which, while precluding
me from flying anywhere for several weeks, would not be an issue sailing.
Perhaps this was another omen in my journey?
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| The route from Panama City to Cartagena |
On January 17th I woke at 4:30 in the morning and crawled into a jeep that would take me from Panama City, down a road that does not yet exist on Google Maps, to the Caribbean Coast where the yacht awaited my arrival. After several hours in the jeep and a rough, hour-long ride in a speed boat I finally arrived to the ‘Big Fish’, my home for the next five days.
The Big Fish was a wide, 43-foot single-hull Dufour sailboat. It had four double cabins, two single beds and two bathrooms – i.e. it was very spacious for the ten guests and three crew members. Furthermore, it was equipped with beanie bags on both the roof of the cabin and front of the boat making it seem quite empty despite the thirteen people on board.
The first three days were spent sailing around the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama. The countless palm trees sprouting from the white, sun-bleached sand of the islands, coupled with the clear, blue waters, hardly looked real; the San Blas islands were postcard-perfect. The islands were inhabited by the Kuna Yala, who are semi-autonomous indigenous people of Panama with their own laws, police and army. We spent our days snorkeling the reefs and numerous shipwrecks and kayaking around the islands. And when we returned to the boat, we’d always be surprised by Luana’s cooking, whether it be fresh, home-made brownies or a lobster dinner.
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Fresh langosta!
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The last two days of the trip comprised of sailing the stretch from San Blas to Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Tilson Castro, the captain of the Big Fish, sailed the boat for nearly 48 hours straight. For a good portion of that we were in swells several metres tall without land in sight. During this time we were confined to the small cabin, where most of us were attempting to deal with our sea-sickness. It was definitely the quietest the boat had been throughout the five days. But we made it safe-and-sound and were definitely happy to set foot on South American soil!
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| Captain Tilson |
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Sea-sickness management
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Cartagena was much larger than I expected. Being the major gateway to the North of South America, I was pretty naïve to expect a small harbour-town. Similar to Panama City, it had both a new and old portion. I stayed at Hostel The Roof, which was situated in the old-town. I spent my time there wandering the streets and getting lost in the alleyways among the colourful, colonial-style buildings of the walled-in city. Cartagena definitely had a lot more character than Panama City and I’m glad I decided to work Colombia into my itinerary. Can’t wait to see what Colombia has in store for me next!
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