Kuna Yala to Capurgana, Colombia

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We slept for so long. It's actually quite comfortable sleeping in a hammock. We were up early, almost with the sun. We've decided to try & catch a cargo boat that goes from here to Puerto Obaldia. We were told they come through in the morning usually & accept passengers for a small fee. So, we packed up & headed to the main dock to wait.

Well we waited & waited & waited. The waiting was actually interesting for most of the time because the dock is situated right next to the public telephones. There are two young girls who manage the phones & collect payment for them. People from the village would show up & then the phone would ring & it would be for them. Or they would place a call. Or the phone would ring & one of the girls would go out in search of whomever was receiving the call. It was a total gossip station too. Whoever was sitting waiting for the phone would listen in on others conversations & whisper to one another about what was going on. Very entertaining.

After a couple hours of waiting & no boat arrival I went to the Fonda in search of food. Fingers crossed, please no snails! Luckily he had eggs & tortillas. Woohoo! Although when I first placed the order he said ok & then a few minutes later came up to me & said, sorry I just ran out of eggs. Shoot! I said ok, just tortillas then. Major bummer. But, while waiting a woman walked up with a stack of eggs. Yippee!! Real food. We had saltines this morning to tide us over. So, we ate at the dock. Waiting & waiting. Only 2 boats showed up in the 4 hours we waited. One heading the other direction & one staying here. ARG!

Finally at around 11am I went in search of a boat captain to get us out of here. I found the guy from last night with some help from a local kid & he said he'd take us. This is where our adventure really begins. This was probably the most craziest & scariest & nutso thing we've experienced up to this point in our trip. The guy tells me he'll meet us at the dock. So, when he pulls up in a dugout canoe we thought, ok, this must be alright, he knows what he's doing, right? He had attached a 15 horsepower engine to the back so at least we're not rowing.... So we get our bags in the boat, he covers them with plastic & sticks two of his young sons in the middle of the canoe. Geoff sits at the front, I sit towards the back, the captain sits in the very back. The seats aren't wide enough for two people to sit. The canoe is probably only 3 feet wide at the middle....Yikes.

While we are getting through the bay that we're situated in it was a pleasant trip. Not fast, but not bad. Then, we go out into the open ocean. Oh goodness. I couldn't stop laughing, I think mainly because if I didn't laugh I was going to panic. The ocean was not calm at all & within minutes I was soaked from head to toe. The waves would just crash off the front & right into the two of us in back. I just laughed & laughed & held onto the canoe for dear life. The waves were sooo big that when we would go in the dip between waves I couldn't see the horizon any longer because the waves were taller than us. Geoff kept looking back at me & had the most concerned looks on his face. I just laughed. If we made any movements the boat would tilt in whatever direction you moved. If we didn't tilt at the appropriate times, like with the wave when we would crest it, the boat would wobble. It was a team effort the entire way. Then I started bailing water out of the bottom of the boat because the bucket floated under the seat & bumped my feet. I was actually glad to have the job because when the captain would bail the water the entire boat would wobble all over the place because he was trying to steer at the same time. I took the job gladly & bailed the entire time because water was splashing over the sides, gushing through wooden planks in the boat, splashing over our heads. It was truly an adventure I will never forget. Open seas in a tiny canoe. I was thoroughly glad I had a lifevest on. Since we couldn't talk with one another we learned on land that we both were strategizing worst case scenario plans the whole way. What to do if the boat tipped & we were dumped in the ocean. We were several miles off shore through most of the ride so I just prayed that it wouldn't come to that. After about 2.5 hours of this luxurious ride we made it to Puerto Obaldia. At this point I was more than happy to give the guy $100. He got us there alive AND he had to make the trip back. Wow. I was glad to never have to do anything like that again. Crazy!

On land we experienced the strangest & simplest border crossing yet. Puerto Obaldia is itty bitty & there is a very large military presence here. Gotta love Narcotraffickers. We walked through the different checkpoints, made copies of our passports, showed our passports, got our stamp out of town & caught a real boat to Capurgana, Colombia. These boat captains just sit by the dock waiting for people like us to show up apparently. Happy to be in a real boat with room for Geoff & I to sit next to one another & a big, fast engine, we were on our way.

We passed the border between Panama & Colombia in the middle of nowhere, but there are two big markers that sit on the top of the mountain indicating the line of the border. The amount of uninhabited jungle out here along the coast is incredible. During the entire ride in the canoe & our 20 minute fast boat trip to Capurgana we passed completely untouched, lush, green jungle. It was beautiful. We happily arrived in Capurgana! Yippee!! It is an amazing little town set in a beautiful bay surrounded by big green jungly mountains. Awesome!!

The funny part about crossing into Colombia was here. We got off the boat & walked down the dock & we were in town. We had to actually ask where we go to find immigration so we could officially arrive. We found the office on one of the little side streets & it was locked so we waited until a guy showed up in flip flops & shorts & stamped our passports. Funny stuff. I guess I would have imagined entering into infamous Colombia would be a little more serious. Nope, not through here anyway.

We found a cute little Hospedaje run by the nicest family & got settled. We went to the only dive shop & set up our plan for diving tomorrow. Then to find food. We were starving. We ate at Patacon, a little kiosk set up on the beach & had an amazing plate of food. A big flat patacon that served as a tortilla with beans, meat & guacamole. Yum.
It was kind of drizzly & overcast, still muggy & hot of course, so we walked around the little town a bit & headed to our room to read & relax. It was already late evening now & we were ready for a good nights sleep on a comfy bed. There are no cars here which is lovely, just horsedrawn carts to truck around supplies, bicycles, & your feet.

As we were laying in bed we noticed some little bugs crawling around. Great. All I could think of was bedbugs (one of the Docs I worked with at VM always gave me a hard time about us getting bedbugs on the trip, thanks alot, paranoia levels are up now! 😉. But, I tried not to be too paranoid. What can we do at this point? There is such an abundance of bugs in the jungle towns you have to let it all go. Wow, it is hot tonight....

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Photos

Watching the sunrise from our room.
I love that the dog is manning the front of the boat.

Waiting for our ride off the island.
The girls behind Geoff were the "operators" of the payphones & are in traditional dress.

I love this guy.
He sat all day long in the waiting area. I asked if he was waiting for a boat. He said no. I think it's what he does. Supervises.

Our boat.
Yes, that is it. Off into the open Ocean. Oh goodness. Not pretty.

Puerto Obaldia.
From afar I thought I saw buildings...but didn't trust myself. I was praying that it was our stop.

Our first meal & beer in Capurgana.
On the beach, of course!