5 days in Paradise

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On Friday, May 18th, Ingrid, Patrick and I were picked up at our hostel at 3PM by a shuttle that took us to the port. It was about 2 hours to get there and we briefly stopped after 1 hour at a supermarket to buy last supplies. The others convinced me that it would be better to have some travel sickness medication and, since this is pretty cheap in Panama, I bought 10 pills, just in case.



Our driver was really nice and allowed us to have a beer in the shuttle, so we had pretty good time getting to the port.



The captain of our boat, Fabian, was already waiting for us and arranged for us to get to the boat, the Sailing Koala. After a short briefing where he told us everything important about the trip, we had our first dinner on the boat : pasta with a mushroom cream sauce. We would only leave the port at 10 or 11PM, so we all went to a bar close to the boat. We were 6 people in total : Ingrid and Patrick from my hostel, Marieke from Germany, Chloe from Australia and her boyfriend Richard from New Zealand. In addition to us and the captain, there were 3 others on the boat : Robin, the chef, Alejandro, the second captain, and Gustavo, responsable for the maintenance of the boat. All crew members were from Colombia and super nice people!



Most of us had been out partying the night before and so we all were pretty tired and went to sleep around 10PM, before the boat even left the port. We left around 12AM and the first part of the trip, to San Blas islands, took us about 9 hours. I was a bit seasick that night and so I used the first of my travel sickness pills and it helped a lot.



The next morning, we woke up to a stunning view : clear blue water, small islands with palm trees and white sand everywhere. For breakfast, we had musli with yoghurt and fresh fruit, because it was too difficult to eat anything else while we were still moving.

When we finally arrived, the first thing we did was jump into the beautiful water. It’s temperature was perfect ; we couldn’t get enough of it! After a short time there, we moved to another island, Koala island.

There, Fabian encouraged us to go to go kayaking. The kayaks were at our free disposal and on the island, there was nobody except for us. Marieke and I shared a kayak and we all kayaked for an hour or so. Then we went back to the boat for lunch : Rice and potatoes with lots of veggies, teriyaki beef and an egg.

In the afternoon, we were free to do what we wanted and so I took my camera to Koala island to take some pictures while the others chilled on the boat. We spent the afternoon relaxing, swimming and, at around 5PM, we started playing drinking games. For dinner, there was pasta again, this time with a bolognese sauce, just as delicious as the other meals Robin had cooked for us!

We continued drinking during the evening until 12AM when Ingrid’s birthday started. We sang for her and had a few more drinks in her honour before going to bed around 2AM.



The next morning, we had pancakes for breakfast, because Ingrid always had pancakes on her birthday. :-) After chilling in the sun for an hour, we took the kayaks and, with Gustavo, we went to 2 different islands. They were quite far away and we all got pretty burned. It was worth it though, we had a great time and the landscape was absolutely beautiful. In one island, we stopped for snorkelling and saw many beautiful fish swimming around a wrecked ship. There are many wrecked ships in San Blas, because before, until a few years ago, anybody could sail there and many unexperienced captains wrecked their ship in the countless shallow spots between the islands.



For lunch, we went to Koala island and had a delicious meat barbecue with potatoes and fresh salad. For dessert, there was a very creamy birthday cake. We sang a again for Ingrid and we gave her a birthday card we all had signed before.

We stayed on the island for a few more hours, taking pictures and relaxing in the shade (it was very hot all the time!).

Back on the boat, we had some more time for swimming until, at 5PM, we continued our travel to Robinson island.



We arrived there at around 7PM and, so, it was too late to explore the place and to go swimming (in the evening sharks come out). So, we just had dinner (delicious tacos) and had a few more cocktails and beer. We all went to bed quite early that night, the party the night before, the kayaking and the heat had taken its toll on us.



The next morning, after eating delicious eggs for breakfast, we took the snorkels and started discovering the riff around us. We saw countless beautiful and very colourful fish and corrals, even a big ray and a huge barracuda.

For lunch, we went to Robinson island and had delicious fresh fish grilled on the barbecue with coconut rice, potatoes and more salad. After lunch, we walked around the island, took some more pictures and melted in the heat. We wanted to go back to the boat, but we couldn’t find anybody to drive us and, since the small boat was there, we just took it and started going back by ourselves. Suddenly Gustavo came running to the beach and asked us to come back. He had been on the other side of the island and was shocked when he heard the engine running without him. ^_^



I went snorkelling again, but a storm started coming and there was a lot of sea grass, so that I went back to the boat soon.

We had a few more cocktails, finishing our alcohol reserves before leaving for Colombia (we were forbidden to drink alcohol on open sea) and at 5PM we left for Colombia. It started raining heavily and so we went inside, but it was just too hot there, so we went back outside, the cold rain being better than the crazy heat inside the boat. Shortly before dinner, it stopped raining and so we had dinner outside : lentil soup (good against seasickness).

Marieke, Patrick and I watched a movie, but everybody else went to bed early (and I fell asleep watching the movie). We all had taken seasickness pills and they make you very tired.



The next day, we sailed all day and so there was nothing much to do except for chilling in the sun, watching movies and sleeping. For lunch, we had burgers and for dinner ???. We arrived to Cartagena at 9PM and spent our last night on the Sailing Koala on the port of Cartagena.

Fortunately, during the 30 hour ride to Colombia on open sea, nobody got seasick! :-)



This 5-days sailing trip had been the end and the absolute highlight of my 3 months in Central America. It was a bit expensive (+/- 600$US), but it was worth every penny. The crew was very friendly and nice, the landscape, kayaking, swimming and snorkelling was amazing, the food the best I have eaten in a very long time and our group really cool! :-D



I can definitely recommend you to take this sailing trip with the Sailing Koala!

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