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Due to not wanting to further increase my risk of something horrible happening to me while travelling I decided to book myself onto a sailboat and cross the ocean from Colombia to Panamá rather than taking on a border crossing through a jungle (see mum - responsible travel decisions).
Although choosing a boat is usually something that would involve a lot of research and reading of reviews (especially considering the $550 price commitment for such a venture), a Canadian guy that I had met in Tryona National Park called Jeff happened to be heading the same way and I opted for the guarantee of at least one amusing person on my boat and booked my trip over in a matter of minuets. The name of the agency was Bluesailing and they organised getting stamped out of the country and all currency exchange for us. They also sent us a pre departure email that supplied us with a GPS link for loved ones to keep track of us (guaranteed to help mum with the anxiety of not hearing from me for 5 nights).
We headed out to the boat at 7pm on Saturday night. The sailboat
was rather tight - Or tightly packed. There were 10 guests, the captain and the captains assistant sleeping in a four bedroom boat. Jeff and I managed to get the sweetest room at the front of the boat (first in best dressed I guess), however the couple in the boat got the kitchen table (which lets face it was not used as a table once throughout the journey) and the captain and the assistant were left to sleep on the top of the boat. We spent the first night docked in the harbour getting to know each other before we set sail at 3 in the morning. I tried to get everyone to place bets on who was going to vomit first as soon as we hit open waters,
however it was a bit early in the team building for anyone to actually place one.
I woke up early the following morning to the boat rocking violently (Apparently it was actually really calm, but for someone without their sea legs it was ridiculous!) and headed out onto deck to find some very green looking individuals. By the time that lunch was done three of the guests
and the captains assistant had all added their previous meal into the ocean. Although I spent a considerable amount of time staring at e horizon, I failed to take on the title of boat member number 5 and was secretly disappointed that more people on the boat were not ill.
At sunset on our second night a few pods of dolphins came to visit us and swam along the boat for quite a while. It was absolutely amazing to see and one of those rare moments in life that no amount of money could of payed for. It was only topped later on by another (or the same?) pod of dolphins swimming along in the dark through the plankton which was not only glowing itself, but making the dolphins glow. It was truly stunning and I still can't believe that I got to see such a magical sight.
The following morning we left the open ocean and cruised into the San Blas Islands. The islands are a group of 365 islands off the north east coast of Panamá that are inhibited by the Kuna people. These islands are the things that dreams are made
of. The water is crystal clear and even when anchored in water 4-5m deep, still has visibility to the bottom. The islands themselves are all different sizes and covered with white sand and coconut wielding palm trees; Some of them have little huts all over them, and others are uninhibited. We spent an incredible three nights anchored in different spots around the islands eating some of the freshest fish I have ever come across, snorkelling around shipwrecks covered in coral and having the luxury of being able to get up in the morning, walk straight through the cabin, up the stairs, across the deck and dive straight into the beautifully warm Caribbean Ocean.
On our final night on the boat our ships captain Julian (who was an absolute legend with mad cooking skills) went to go have a sleepover at his friends boat and left us to our own accord with the captains assistant. We were all drinking and the guys had the Panamá song on repeat (basically involved them shouting PANAMA! PANAMA-MA! A lot. Our poor neighbours) before some of us headed out in the dingy to do some chap laps around the docked boats in
the pitch black. So basically all in all a very amusing night. The following morning I was woken up early to the sound of someone snoring above my head and someone further away calling out the captains name. I stood up and stuck my head out the port hole to find a local Kuna man standing infront of me in his underwear. He asked me where Julian was and I said he was on his friends boat. He then told me I needed to get our boat off the beach. I was mildly confused for a moment about my ability to understand Spanish as when I had gone to bed the boat was def anchored in between two islands and not on a beach - before looking around and realising that our boat was actually on the beach. The anchor must have dragged during the night and we were beached as bro. Luckily Jonathan got up and Julian returned and together with some of the boys they managed to get us back into deeper waters just before our transfer arrived to take us in to Panamá.
All in all it was an absolutely amazing experience with incredible
people. I am so glad that I opted to spend the money and see everything that was on offerer. If there is anyone who has the option to do this and is tossing up whether to fly or not I would recommend taking the boat 100% the open water crossing while bad, was not as bad as I'd expected it would be and the San Blas Islands practically wipe any bad thoughts away as soon as you see them.
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