Heaven and Hell

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We all made it to Cartagena last night, and it´s safe to say that this is my favorite city I´ve ever been to. But about the journey here...
Linsey and I took a 4 hour taxi ride in a Land Cruiser on one of the roughest mountain roads imaginable across the isthmus of Panama to get to the San Blas islands. It was an interesting drive through thick jungle and huge mud holes. We defenitely were banged around a bit. We stayed for two nights on a Kuna island in a bamboo hut with nothing in it but hammocks. The 10 acre island was completely packed with huts. It was strange to lay around and hear nothing but chickens and babies and drums and chatter. The smoke from nearby cookfires would always drift into our hut. It really was like traveling back in time. During the days they took us in dug out canoes with outboard motors to deserted white-sand islands with nothing on them but palm trees and fallen coconuts. We would be dropped off for hours with some snorkel gear, water and nothing else. I didn´t think that such perfect islands really existed, but they do. There was great snorkeling on most of the islands. After two days we met up with the rest of our group on a 60 ft sailboat owned by a crazy old French couple. We spent a couple more days island hopping and diving off the boat before heading to Colombia.
Everything up to this point was great, but that actual journey to Colombia was not as enjoyable. The winds were wrong so we had to use the engine most of the time, making below deck a very noisy, smokey environment. We had good weather, but the seas were fairly rough, and literally everyone on the boat but me was sick most of the time 😊 Alaska really paid off the last couple days. None of this was unexpected really, but what really made life suck was that these damn French people fed us NOTHING but bread for two meals a day. Then the actual dinner would be very unpleasent pasta. They had never taken on backpackers before, and really didn{t know how to prepare. But we made it and all went out for a massive, massive dinner last night in Cartegena. It was in a giant outdoor plaza with hunderds of tables, all surrounded by huge Spanish Colonial buildings and live music and dancers. It will probably go down as one of the top meals of my life.
We{ve all got two more days here, then we head to Santa Marta, Colombia where myself and an Irish guy are considering a 6-day trek to the Lost City.
I have about 15 tiny shards of coral lodged in my right heel, so that status of that will determine if I can go on the trek. I bought some doxycicline today for Malaria here, so that should hopefully keep my heel safe for a bit.
And Mom I got the message about wells fargo. Thanks! Miss ya!

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Photos

Tropical Cyclone
We were all alone on this island, just kind of hoping that a tornado would not hit it haha

Paradise
One of the many islands we stopped at

Comments

[Nancy]

Wonderful writing!
Steve, Your aunt Wendy (my co-worker and friend) and I are living this trip through you ... keep up the awesome writing ... and be careful!