Days 265 to 281 - Sunday 11th to Tuesday 27th June 2006

I flew back to Panama, spent a week with Yami and returned to Cartagena. I then tried to go south to Medellin, but the buses were a little bit of a problem due to the FARC in the region, so I decided to take another route, via boat from Colombia back to Panama. The trips are organised regularly, and sailed whenever there were enough people on-board. I called the Captain of one boat, arranged my ticket, and as luck would have it, we sailed the next day (Thurs 22nd June).

The Darién Gap is a stretch of land joining Panama and Colombia. Covered in dense rain forest, it is a widely unexplored, inhospitable area of land, home to various indigenous Indian groups, as well as some unfriendly characters, namely three Colombian rebel groups, the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) and both left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The Panamerican highway, which stretches about 16,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina, would run continuously if it were not for a 62 mile stretch through the Darién Gap that has never been constructed. Various attempts have been made to link the road through the gap, however due to environmental and political reasons, this has never been accomplished. It is said there are mud roads, which are passable at some times of the year, but for the most they are only accessible by 4×4. The lack of decent road, and the presence of the rebel groups makes all overland passage both extremely difficult and dangerous, and is not recommended, and for that reason there are various sailboats offering passage from Panama to Colombia, thus bypassing the Darién Gap.

The boat I sailed on, the Stahlratte (German for “Steelrat”) is an old fishing vessel, made in Holland and first registered in 1903. In celebration of her 100 year anniversary, the ship’s owners decided it would be fitting to circumnavigate the globe, taking on board random crew members along the way. The financing of the boat is somewhat unplanned, and due to that, the ship was ferrying passengers back and forth from Panama to Colombia and vice versa (with a stop off in Panama’s San Blas islands to break up the journey), in order to pay the passage through the Panama Canal.

The group assembled early in the morning ready to load up and sail out, however it took a while to get everything organised, provisions bought, passports and immigration arranged etc, so we didn’t actually leave the Cartagena marina until late morning. That afternoon and the following day was all at sea, which although it is the Caribbean Sea, was surprisingly choppy, so choppy in fact that one of the girls on the boat started feeling ill about an hour from the port, and for the next 36 hours lay curled up in the fetal position, occasionally letting out a murmur or wail, moving only to drag herself to the side of boat, lean over and throw up!

After the initial euphoria of being on a sail boat wore off, and the gradual - sometimes violent - rocking motion of the ship took became monotonous, I passed time watching the open seas, reading, playing cards or soaking up some sunshine on deck, whilst below deck I took advantage of the classic offerings in the library, a lot of guidebooks, and a host of old (and some newer) movies. Add to this the seemingly constant food preparation or clean up, and the time passed fairly quickly. On board everyone was expected to take on some cooking/cleaning responsibility for at least one meal, so I got mine out the way early on, meaning I could sit back and relax for the remainder of my time on board. At one point on the Friday, out boat attracted a group of curious dolphin, who swam along with us for a good time, jumping out of the water and generally playing around.

We sailed (using a mixture of wind and motor power) from Thursday afternoon through the night, all Friday day and night, arriving and mooring amongst the San Blas islands just as it got light on the Saturday morning.

The San Blas islands are an Archipelago consisting of about 400 tiny islands, or cays, on average the size of a football pitch, covered in palm trees and ringed with white sand. Basically, paradise. On some islands the local indigenous people (the Kuna), have built their villages, whilst others remain untouched and undeveloped. We moored in a position within swimming distance of 3 or 4 uninhabited cays, each covered with palm trees. There was nothing for it but to jump into the warm Caribbean Sea and swim across to explore my own little island in the sun.

I spent the most of two and a bit days we were moored up exploring and looking around the islands, snorkelling and generally basking in the glory of the paradise that is San Blas. I can honestly not say enough good things about those two and a bit days. A complete break from civilisation, and a holiday from a holiday! Over the course of the time we were there I swam, sunbathed, explored, ate, drank, and enjoyed it all.

We left our mooring point on the Monday afternoon and sailed to a traditional Kuna village, where we went ashore and had a quick look around. The Kuna people are about 40,000 strong and are self-governing, separate from the Panamanian government. They gained this autonomy in the 1950’s, making their own laws and running their economy ever since. The three main industries are fishing, trading coconuts and tourism.

One of the most noticeable things about the Kuna is the traditional dress of the women, who are adorned head to toe in brightly coloured hand woven molas, their arms and lower legs are covered in beads, their heads are covered with scarves and some have nose rings and painted faces. The women sell these molas, which are very cheap considering the skill involved and time taken to make.

We arrived in the Kuna village in mid-afternoon, and wandered around the straw huts, taking in the way of life and being offered the various molas on sale, before heading back to the dock and onto the boat for a final night aboard.

The Tuesday was an adventure in itself, being taken to the off loading point, shipped across to the shore in speedboat, before boarding a 4×4 to the city. The 4×4 journey took us through the rain forest, across rivers, through waist deep mud and away from the Caribbean towards the Pacific and finally into the sprawl that is Panama City, where I checked into Zuly’s hostel and had a Cerveza Balboa with some of the folks from the boat, before heading off to Penonome to stay with Yami the following day.

Some more photos from the 5 day trip:

sailing away from South America

last views of S.A

dolphins

looking at the dolphins

first glimpse of San Blas

sunrise over San Blas

sailboat heaven

stahlratte

all seems shipshape

stahlratte

more sailboat heaven

waking up

the day revealed all

island hopping

moi

reef

lunch

me - posing

local sales people came by plying their wares

yee ha

the quintessentail desktop shot

midday on the stahlratte

posing - again

beers

beers pt 2

chess

sale made they shipped out

ashore

paradise!

my island

its mine - I lay claim to it!

stahlratte

stahlratte

moi

moi and my island

kuna school

another village shot

the houses

and the streets

all made from palm

once back on the mainland it was a 4×4 trip

through the jungle, on the washed out roads

and crossing a few rivers

definately 4×4 territory

no asphalt

view over the Panamanian rainforest

and back down to the Caribbean Sea

Rainforest

As far as the eye can see

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