Well after 6 days on the ocean we´ve finally made it Columbia. Por Fin !!! (at last !!) The sailing trip was definately an experience. It started off really great ! We sailed not far from the coast of Panama to the San Blas islands. The islands are gorgeous and the Kuna people are pretty interesting. They have maintained their own independance of the islands with their main currency and trade unit as the coconut ! They´re rather small people and come out in little canoes to all the boats and try to sell stuff to everyone.... Everything costs $5, except coconuts, they´re 2 for $1.00... Not really sure how they come up with it, but it seems to wrk for them. The water on the way (and in) the San Blas were very calm, so sleeping an sea-sickness were not an issue. It was also kinda nice that we didn´t move during the night, as our room was located right next to the engine compartment, but hey, we were the only one´s on the boat with a room, so being a couple really paid off this time !!
Anyways... after a couple of days of lounging around, swimming, and wandering around the Kuna islands it was time to set sail for Columbia. I wasn´t really aware how slow sailboats move, particularily when there is no wind. Well there actually was wind, but it was going directly against us. We did a lot more ¨motoring¨ than actual sailing. A few more horsepower would have been nice. All in all it made for a pretty interesting trip. The captain and his wife were a very nice couple from Venzuela. They didn´t speak much English, but we still very nice. Also along with us was the crazy Jean-Claude from France (he rode his bike to panama from Quebec in under 2 months... he´s 56), the 2 girl Swiss cousins (who hated every second of the trip, but found solitude by chain smoking) and our American translator Brandon. The engine ran non-stop for 3 days and the waves were quite large in the open waters. Those little pink pills sure came in handy, both for the motion sickness and making you tired enough to sleep through the motor. We finally made it here after an extra day at sea due to an average speed of 2 miles per hour for the last 2 days....
All that being said, it was really a great time. Eileen (the captains wife) was an amazing cook and would make giant breakfasts, lunches and dinners. It seemed like all we did was eat and relax. We are now in Cartegenia, Columbia which is a gorgoeus place. It is much nicer and a thousand times cleaner that Panama City. We went on a city tour today. It was great, 100% in Spanish.... the fastest spanish you´ve ever heard. The only word I understand was ¨Cartegenia¨. Oh well it was pretty cool anyways. We are working on figuring out our next steps from here.
We´ll catch up with y´all soon.
d&d
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