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Published: August 13th 2017
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“Ach wie schön ist Panama” (Uh, Panama is nice!) said once the tiger and the bear in a German children’s story. Due to many wrong directions these two never arrived but after 5 month I found it – and I can agree, they would not have said anything different.
I stopped for two nights in the coffee region - Boquete. After spending many weeks in a hot climate, the refreshing temperatures of the coffee region felt very good. Loooots of rain, no power and I had the perfect excuse to get many hours of deeeep sleep (without waking up covered in sweat). The hills around were lush, the air was fresh and the coffee really tasty – a fantastic place to breath in before staying a week in the concrete jungle of Panama City.
On the bus ride to PC I almost lost my limbs to the cold! These idiots cooled the bus down to 14°C – at 31°C outside. It seems like they want to make up for the missing winter in Panama.
Mitch’s parents Mary and Rich were coming for a visit to Panama. Justin, Mitch and I were invited to stay with them during this
week. Panama Canal, Casco Viejo and lots of delicious Italian food (Rich’s very favorite food) were on the agenda. I was really impressed by the
Millennium Project Panama Canal, which influenced the whole country for a century and more. We had a gorgeous night out and met many Venezuelans who fled from the terrible situation in their country. I even managed to schedule all my Skype interviews for a master program in this week – a very productive week!
The picture of Panama City is dominated by skyscrapers. However, just around the corner live many people who do not belong to this part of the society. This change became very apparent when we wandered through the streets. One street we drove through a ghetto, the next street we found ourselves in Casco Viejo, where old houses are completely renovated and a beer costs five times the price. It was like driving through an imaginary gate. We visited the Metropolitan City Park and were gifted to see about 10 wild toucans and two sloths - what a nice surprise.
It was a pleasure to meet Mitch’s folks! While living with four Americans for a week I probably learned more
about the States than Panama though 😉.
I took the Panama Canal Railway (US 25$) across the county. It is a beautiful 1h scenery-ride along the canal, with views of the San Pedro locks and Lake Gatun. It is one of the most profitable railways - due to its short distance (76km) and enormous transportation capacity connecting Atlantic and Pacific.
Arriving in Colon I had the reverse surprise effect. It wins the prize for the most unfavorable city on the whole trip! Dirty, smelly and sketchy – I was supposed to meet Justin and Mitch at the McDonalds, and did not leave this place until they arrived. The nicest part of this town is the Free Trade Zone (I’ve heard it’s the second largest of its kind in the world) – where we purchased all supplies (well, mainly Gin) for the long boat journey from North to South America.
The Jungle between Panama and Colombia is considered no man’s land – at least as long as you are not under contract of the FARC or some Colombian drug lords. Guess what, we aren’t – so crossing by land is not an option. You can fly, swim or
crystal clear waters
photo by Jonas Hoffmann take a boat like we did.
The boys had to bring their big steel horses to South America as well so there were not many boats to choose. Wildcard was our choice to bring us South!
We spent the last night on the Northern continent in Puerto Lindo, where we met the crew and our travel mates – a serious surplus of testosterone. We set sail on Wednesday, 31
st of May. Highly motivated we poured the first glass of gin. First, we were silently smiling at the first victims of the good old sea sickness but this did not last very long – Justin, me, and finally Mitch lined up at the ship’s rail with head over board, feeding spaghetti to the fish 😞 With this, the last chance for taking the lifesaving Dramamine was gone and the most miserable 8 hours of my life had begun.
The next morning we woke up to crystal clear turquoise water, looking at the white beaches of the San Blas islands! After that terrible night we appreciated this view even more. The accommodation was fairly nice, considering we were on a sailboat. We slept in bunk beds with a little
fan but the tropical temperatures were still hard to control under deck. Every day we got two breakfasts, lunch and dinner from our fabulous chef Sophie, who managed to cook fantastic meals in an impressively small 2,5m
2 for all 21 people on board. Chef Sophie’s masterpiece was a delicious giant (half) lobster on everyone’s plate.
We spent the next days on different islands, snorkeling around islands and picking coconuts from palm trees. It wasn’t easy to realize that these unreal moments could possibly be real.
The reefs looked healthy but the amount of washed ashore plastic from the ocean showed that not even this paradise is safe from human destruction.
After 2 ½ days Colombia called! Learning the lesson from the first trip across the open ocean we took the little magic pills against sea sickness in advance, which put us into comatose for the next 36 hours. Just half the people on the boat got caught by the devil’s sickness– the other half emptied their entire supply of booze in this time. The three of us brought all our supplies to Colombia, no one was tempted to take just one sip!
Just before midnight we
The Wildcard
photo by Justin Lewis arrived in the harbor of Cartagena, Colombia. What a journey! The whole adventure cost us US 570$, not cheap but an unforgettable experience and therefore worth the money.
Wildcard with Captain Charly and Crew come highly recommended!
For more photos, scroll down 😊
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