Ships Ahoy

My time ran out in South America and her lovely sister to the north was calling, but what does one do when a land crossing between Colombia and Panama is virtually impossible and catching a flight is so 20th century? Well, the answer is to reach back a few centuries and use the transport medium that Columbus had used to cross the Atlantic…wind and sail.

It turns out that there are actually quite a few sailboats ferrying backpackers between the two countries and the trip has become a highlight for many a vagabond. The catch is that it costs US$400 and one has to research the boats carefully because some are un-seaworthy and others are captained by drunks or coke addicts or just plain mean people.

So, I made my way to Cartagena and started researching boats. After meeting a few captains and seeing the boats I came across Bob and his catamaran, Viva. Bob is an American who’s been cruising the azul waters of the Caribbean for ten years. After putting in for repairs in Cartagena and running up some debt he decided to run the backpacker gauntlet for a stint to make some money. We were his fist customers.

We (being a group of six lads whom I knew from my trek to the Cuidad Perdida) decided to go with Bob because he seemed like a decent sort…actually he’s a fun loving guy with a great sense of humor, and his boat is a spacious and beautiful one. Plus the price was right and it came with our own chef, Arnold, a wiry Colombian who never stops smiling.

We stocked up on supplies (read beer and rum) and set sail. After a thirty-five hour crossing of the open sea, during which a massive pod of dolphins swam with the boat for an hour and showed us all kinds of acrobatics, we reached the San Blas, set anchor and jumped in the crystal clear water. The thing that makes the trip a memorable one is, basically, the three days that one spends in the idyllic San Blas archipelago. Think Robinson Crusoe meets Pirates of the Caribbean. More or less, the San Blas is a series of 350 small islands mostly covered in sand and palm trees and surrounded by reefs. It even comes with its own indigenous people, the Kunas, who are one of the most organized and autonomous native groups in Central America.

We're not alcoholics......I swear


So we sucked it up and spent three days swimming, snorkeling, fishing, having bonfires on deserted beaches, pickling our livers and playing cards. Overall it was a great trip with a great captain, a great boat, wonderful food (even the lobsters that we bought from the Kuna’s which turned out to be glorified shrimp – never trust a guy whose named Celery) and splendid weather.

Now Panama….who knows what will happen next…

Finding What Was Lost...Kinda

Sweating in your sleep, waking up at dawn, walking all day in tropical heat, loosing a pint of blood per hour to the mosquitoes and sand flies, fighting through foot deep mud, avoiding the torrential downpours every afternoon, fighting strong currents as you ford a chest-deep river, passing heavily armed dudes there to ‘protect’ you from dangerous guerillas and narco-traffickers…why would anyone do these things? The answer is of course to put a bit of Indiana Jones style adventure in your mundane life. Ok, my life isn’t so mundane at the moment, but I am a big fan of types of adventure that form some sort of resemblance to self-flagellation.

I am, in the above paragraph, of course referring to the five day trek to the Cuidad Perdida (Lost City). The most famous archaeological ruins of the Tayrona people is located deep in the Sierra Nevadas de Santa Marta, a rugged tropical mountain range that falls into the Caribbean sea and hosts the two largest peaks in Colombia (5775 meters). Overall, the trek isn’t all that difficult, but one does have to conduct a fierce battle with the heat and mosquitoes and one is forced to confront the fact that not so long ago this region of the Sierra Nevadas was home to FARC as well as resembling a huge garden of either coca plants or marijuana, depending on the decade in question.


Of course the city isn’t ‘lost’ anymore…our group rediscovered it. Actually, it was found by grave robbers (there were many gold artifacts in burials) in the 70’s and is now controlled by the government but still hard as hell to get to unless you have a helicopter.

After getting my adventure and archaeological fix I’ve realized that it is time to high tail it out of Colombia…reckon I’ve overstayed my welcome. Also, I find myself traveling alone once again, comfort in solitude. So, since the border region between Panama and Colombia is one of the most dangerous places on Earth (Darien Gap: dense tropical mountains, no roads, very dangerous snakes/frogs, lots of Malaria, Guerillas with a bad attitude…etc) and a land crossing is virtually impossible I will instead go back to Cartagena and catch a sail boat to Panama via the idyllic San Blas Islands.

Now the question is only to find the right boat…i.e. find a captain that is not gonna blow the food budget on coke or booze and a boat that is hopefully seaworthy.