Captain Gato

---

So we arrived in Portobelo, a small port village at the Caribbean side of Panama, from where we hoped to sort out a place on a boat to get to Colombia. Unorganised as we always are, we left everything for the last moment. However, lucky as we always are we still managed to catch a boat the next morning. After contacting Captain John we got picked up from the main wharf and taken to the boat where we got ourselves a pretty sweet deal: helping out on the boat and sleeping on the floor in return for a discount of the usual $500 rate. We thought this was the deal of our life...

... It wasn´t...

Our duties involved sweeping the floor, changing the bins, and helping out in the kitchen chopping the vegetables and washing up the dishes which overall seemed easy. However, considering the circumstances this was probably the hardest job we have ever had. The kitchen felt like a sauna and the strong waves made most of the passengers seasick and our tasks almost unbearable. Besides the 5 men crew (including us) there were 16 other passengers (backpackers) on board. The fact that none of us was allowed to shower due to the water shortage made the situation even worse. We soon started questioning if the deal was worth the pain however when we finally arrived we were happy that we managed to save some money which we will definetely need for later travels.

Looking back at this we can say the trip was amazing. It all started with visiting beautiful islands of San Blas - a paradise one must see when visiting Panama. There are over 350 islands with less than 50 of these being inhabited. They are incredible with white sandy beaches, clear blue water and some of them are as small as to have only one palm tree growing on them. We travelled through a few of them including some inhabited ones where we could meet the indigenous Kuna people who offered us freshly cut coconuts straight from the tree. They welcomed us kindly and were very interested in the visitors. Young girls were very willing to pose for the pictures while the older inhabitants covered their faces from the camera. Others were demanding a $1 for each picture taken of them. We had plenty of opportunities to go snorkeling, swimming and exploring the unihabited islands. This was basically what we did for the first 3 days. The two of us were lucky enough to be taken by the captain to meet the local fishermen to buy what was to become our dinner later. This included a over meter long Jack fish, some other kind of fish, and later on around 30 lobsters and a few crabs. The captain looked after us very well spoiling us with fresh sea food and later spoiling all the experience with his mac´n´cheese 😊. Up until then this was a paradise... However, the trip became hell on the last 2 days when we left the islands and started the 40 hour non-stop sail to Cartagena. No one was able to enjoy themselves as the waves made everyone dizzy and sick and this included us. We still had to take turns to do a 3 hour night watch keeping an eye on the navigation system while the captain was having his nap. This resulted in a sleep deprived night and general not well being, however, the whole pain was forgotten when one of our co-travellers spotted a pod of dolphins swimming alongside our boat. Everyone ran to the front to watch the dolphins leading our way for at least 20 minutes. The pod got bigger and bigger and in the end we counted around 30 of them. This was definetely a highlight of this trip and was worth every minute of our suffering.

(Remark of Tatiana which she couldnt resist in sharing with you: there was a lovely cat - called Gato aka Captain Gato - on the boat which made the trip more pleasant and enjoyable!!!)

We arrived in Cartagena at 2am the following day and were stuck on the boat for another 7 hours while waiting for the emigration office to open. We were relieved to step on the land and take the long awaited shower.

We are now here for the second day and already in love with Colombia, the people, the food, the music, and the vibe of the city! We are happy and glad to finally be here and you will hear soon from us again 😊

---