Panama City to San Antonio de Tachira, Venezuela - January 31 to February 25, 2013

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After making it to Panama with the Red Baron and confirming that the Darien Gap is, in fact, a real thing, the best option for getting to South America was to hop on a sailboat to Colombia. Me and Max had booked our spots on the Wildcard two months ago in Mexico and, excited for something a bit different, made the short drive from Pacific to Caribbean coasts, where we met up with our ship, crew, and fellow tourists for a five day sailing adventure through the San Blas islands to Cartagena, Colombia.

The San Blas islands are a group of 350 or so small, white sand and palm tree covered islands, inhabited by the Kuna people, making up an autonomous province within Panama on the Carribean coast. I guess some years back they rose up and killed all the non-Kunas in the area and the government figured it was a good idea to let them have their own part of the Country. Anyways, some of these islands have a single tree on them and some are completely covered with Kuna houses.

Our boat was crewed by a Kiwi, an Aussie, and a young American guy. The Wildcard was 60 feet long and was carrying 18 passengers from Holland, the US, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, France, and Zimbabwe. And two motorbikes which had to get hauled out the Wildcard in a smaller boat and then winched onto the deck. We tarped the bikes up after they'd been tied down to try and minimize salt water exposure.

I'd done this same sailing trip a few years back with my brother Steve on a bigger boat, when the ocean was calmer, and had been taking pills for seasickness that time. This time around, forgot the pills, waves were bigger and the boat was smaller. I was the fourth person to start puking off the side of the boat, a couple hours after we got underway. The boat crew had guessed that 6 of us would get sick, and they were about spot on. Fortunately the first open water session lasted only about 10 hours, so I wasn't miserable for too long. We arrived in the islands, sheltered by a reef, around 2 in the morning and would spend the next two days there.

Island life pretty much consisted of snorkling, lazing around the boat and/or islands, visiting a Kuna village, and some beach volleyball. The food was great with special appearances made by a giant Red Snapper and then a lobster feast our last night in the islands. The second night in the islands, after dinner we saw giant bioluminescent jelly fish, the size of me around the ship, glowing green and blue and then disappearing. We also saw sharks, baraccuda, and big eagle rays swimming around the boat. And then I spotted a yellow and black spotted sea snake swimming across the surface of the water towards our boat. Just what I needed to see before some late night, rum inspired, swimming.

The morning after our lobster feast we headed back out into the open water for a very long 36 hours to Colombia. The one highlight of the crossing was a 30 minute interval where a pod of dolphins swam beside the sailboat on both sides, just a couple meters away. Other than that, it was 36 hours of puking and hating everybody who was walking around the deck enjoying life. Also, during a particularly rough stretch during the night, the tarp covering my bike tore open, which was definitely not the best thing for the Red Baron.

Finally we made it Cartagena and after one last night on the boat, got back onto dry land. The offloading of the bikes was the sketchiest part of this trip so far. The boat we lowered the bikes into was about the size of a queen size bed and, between the bike and 3 grown men's weight, had about an inch of freeboard above the water. I swear if a decent sized boat had passed anywhere near us on the way to the beach, my bike would be at the bottom of the harbor. But, that didn't happen so no worries.

Cartagena's probably the nicest looking cities in all of Latin America with the old section of town surrounded by stone walls and either still intact or repaired to look like it is. After a couple days in town a group of six of us from the Wildcard headed up the coast to Baranquilla for the last two days of Carnival. After Rio in Brazil, Baranquilla has the second largest Carnival in all of South America and we were lucky enough to rent an appartment for two nights in that city.

We'd been told that all the criminals and pickpockets in the country flock to Baranquilla for Carnival and that if we had anything in our pockets it would be stolen while in the streets. In fact, I met lots of backpackers coming back to Cartagena from Baranquilla who'd had cameras, cell phones, and wallets stolen at Carnival. So when we went out, we only took about $50 cash each and a couple cheap cameras between the group of us.

Colombians know how to party and Carnival did not disappoint. The parades with crazy costumes lasted for hours each day and afterwards the party carried on into the streets, with foam spray cans being used by every other person to spray random strangers. Both days in Baranquilla we were out till four or five in the morning. All the Colombians we me were super friendly and just happy to have a bunch of gringos coming to see their country. The day after Carnival ended, our little group split up with people going their own ways. Max went back to Cartagena and I headed north for Venezuela, only after resting up for a couple days first in a small beach town on the way.

My first attempt trying to get into Venezuela did not go very well. I knew that you wanted to take US dollars into the country with you because you can exchange them on the black market for about 3 times the value of local currency (Bolivars) as you would get if you take money out of an ATM or change money at a bank in Venezuela. This is technically illegal but everybody does it. I was taking in about $1000 US cash. After canceling my Colombian motorcycle permit and getting stamped out of Colombia, I went to the Venezuelan customs line...

...and waited for over an hour before the only guy working there threw my passport back at me and mumbled something about needing a return plane ticket out of the country (cause I really need one with a motorcycle) and an invitation from a Venezulan living in the country. There was no way he was letting me in so I went back to the Colombian side and got my exit stamp cancelled there. But the office where I had cancelled my motorcycle permit was closed for the day and I would have to come back the next day to try and get those papers back. For the moment, I was driving a bike in Colombia with no valid papers.

Next day, it was back to the border, convinced the guy at the vehicle permit office to give me my bike papers back and then I started driving towards Bucaramanga, about 500 km south, a city of about 1 million and with a Venezuelan Consulate. Also, I had met two sisters at Carnival who lived there and said they could show me around. At the consulate, I was told I could get a document that would guarantee me entrance into Venezuela but it would take about four days. This was fine by me if it would solve the border issue. Marisol and Carolina, my two amigas, showed me around town, had me over for lunch with their mom, and I was happy to drive them around on my bike while waiting on the Consulate.

Finally got my papers on Friday and headed off for the border crossing near Cucuta, getting there Saturday around 10:00 in the morning. Again, getting out of Colombia was easy. So was getting my passport stamped into Venezuela this time. The problem was that Venezuelan office that gives vehicle permits was closed till today, Monday. So I found myself stuck in this nothing border town and could not take my bike out it. After killing the weekend reading and watching tv in spanish, I hit up the office first thing this morning as soon as it opened at 08:00. And, about 8 hours later after going to about 6 different random locations around town to get random photocopies, stamps, insurance, etc., I finally got my motorbike permit.... which I had to go get stamped at another office across town before it became official. By this point it was late afternoon, so I'm staying one more night in this town and hitting the road first thing tomorrow morning. Finally.

Oh, I filled up my bike with gas today. It cost me $ 2.50 for about 15 litres. This was the expensive gas station for foreigners.

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Comments

[colin]

What a ride!!
Hi Andrew. It has been a while since I checked your blog but I 'm glad I did. Your updates are fantasic and the whole experience seems so posistive. A few hiccups to be sure but like the puking the don't last long. Looking forward to your next posts and keeping my fingers crosses that the Red Baron will keep running like a top. Cheers Colin