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Published: July 17th 2010
My trip to Colombia via the San Blas islands started at 5am Saturday morning when the pick up truck ($25) came to collect us from the hostel, Mamallena, in Panama City. The hostel had arranged the whole thing and advised which boats were best. There were eight of us making the trip - Chris and Jade (Ozzie couple from Melbourne), Catherine and Ben (English couple reunited after volunteering in Central America/Caribbean), Chris and Jon (not a couple, met in Melbourne, Chris stressed he's actually a Kiwi), Nina (Swiss - I'm sure there are more Swiss travelling than actually in Switzerland), and me (one of millions of travelling English).
We eyed the truck, our pile of luggage, and ourselves doubtfully - were we really all going to fit in one SUV? Well actually, surprisingly yes, and the bumpy two hour journey wasn't as cramped as expected. We passed through hills and rainforest and it became apparent why there are no buses when we drove down and out of a rapidly flowing stream and up hills so steep that it made the truck squeal like a (insert own simile). We entered Kuna Kala (another $5 or so), passed passport control (a couple
On the way over
Jon, Me, Catherine, Ben, Jade, Chris, Nina
(front to back, left to right)of nonchalant soldiers with machine guns) and pulled up at some small docks from where we took a boat ($5) out to the yacht mooring at Carti, an island at the start of the San Blas archipelago.
The San Blas islands, or more correctly the Kuna Yala (the Kuna find the Spanish name of San Blas offensive), are a chain of around 350 small coral atolls dotting all the way down the Northern Caribbean coast of Panama until the Darien province. It's probably unnecessary to describe the islands to you as it's easy to see from the pictures that they are paradise.
They are autonomously controlled along with a large swathe of the mainland by the Kuna people - one of the more successful indigenous groups. After many years of exploitation by the Spanish, British, and even an attempt by the Scottish - they bloodily drove out the occupiers and now the authorities leave them well alone. They don't even allow the Panamanian coast guard or US anti drug vessels to operate in their waters. It appears that they have some type of understanding with Colombian drug smugglers and benefit from the occasional abandoned load following skirmishes with
the military.
Now they shrewdly allow tourists to stay on some of their islands offering all inclusive packages from between $20 - 70 a night. It appears that they're careful to protect their culture and the tourists mainly stay on certain islands specifically set up for them, and the traditional communities remain separate. I heard from one Panamanian that there is a difference of opinion between the young Kuna educated in Panama City and the traditional elders. The young appear to be money orientated with speed boats, tourist related businesses and modern ideas. The elders want to preserve the traditional culture, travelling by dugout canoe, and trading in Coconuts with the Colombians.
We pulled up alongside a beautiful 50 foot wooden schooner called the Ave Maria - we were certainly going to travel to Colombia in style! The captain, Paul, an Australian who had been working this journey for about a year and a half, welcomed us on board. And Cloe, a French girl helping to crew the boat, fixed us some coffee.
Our bags stowed on deck we passed the shopping bags of provisions through to Cloe in the galley. "Who bought the steaks?" asked Paul.
Chris and John look at each other "Erm the list just had things like cornflakes and snacks..." The hostel had assigned them the prestigious task (!) of purchasing our provisions for the trip and it now appeared that they had only been given half of the list. Looks like we'll be dining on Cornflakes, Pringles, and Coke.... at least we had plenty of rum. "No worries, we'll pick up some on way" replied Paul. Think he was a little pissed cos now he'd have to pay extortionate Kuna prices rather than Panama supermarket price.
We chugged across to immigration: another island with a couple of huts on it. We surrendered our passports to Paul, he interrupted the official from this midday beer session, and had us stamped out of Panama. The easiest and most beautiful, border crossing so far.
Fortunately there was a basic shop here so we managed to pick up a few provisions and a lot more beer. A Kuna canoe pulled up and conveniently sold Paul a load of Lobster - what a shame we'll have to dine on Lobster tonight! Cloe also phoned ahead to the next island to order some more food and
we picked our way through the islands to the place where we were to spend that night.
Not that much more food was forthcoming, except regular supplies of Lobster and fish. Cloe did an excellent job rustling up meals combining the abundant fresh seafood and the emergency store cupboard provisions. We ate very well for the whole of the trip. I can only wonder how good it would have been if she'd actually had the food to cook with....
The next few days blur into one - we moored at several beautiful spots, snorkelled the well preserved reefs, swam in the 360 degree wraparound swimming pool (as Paul put it), read, and fuelled ourselves on Cloe's cooking, beer, and rum and coke.
Aside from those selling fish or that took us out to the boat, we only had a little contact with the Kuna people. Our only real contact was whilst moored at Dog Island when we swam over to the island for a beer. A friendly Kuna came over to us and talked to us for some time about Kuna society and customs. One of the original reasons I wanted to go to San Blas was
to visit some of the Kuna people and learn something about them. I expected more opportunity to interact with them - ie more stops at the inhabited islands so that we could talk to them. I'm not sure how the other boats schedule the days in San Blas but this particular boat was more about the sailing and scenery (which were excellent).
Late morning day 4 we started out to sea to cross to Cartagena. The voyage was expected to take 30 something hours and we had been assigned two hour watches in pairs to steer. Paul would be on hand to supervise as and when necessary. By far the most exhilarating part of the trip, the crossing gave us a sense of teamwork and participation, and I enjoyed my turns to steer (luckily I'd already practised a little) in relatively calm, but still challenging, conditions. It's surprisingly difficult to keep a yacht on course: it took all my concentration.
The true enjoyment of sailing became apparent during the crossing - the feeling of connection with the wind, the rolling ocean, and the boat is wonderful. After a distance of only something like 11 miles we lost sight
Paul at the helm
Nina supervising of the shore and we were simply surrounded by flat, deep blue, rippling water under a nebulous dome of hues of blue and grey. The sunset and sunrise were spectacular.
Just after sunset on Thursday we glided into Cartagena harbour and celebrated by finishing two bottles of rum and coke. We unloaded and Paul passed our passports to an agent to have us stamped into the country. He later charged us $20 a piece for immigration, to our surprise (and anger of some) as we expected that to be included in the hefty $425 for the trip. It's worth checking what is included in the price as we had to pay a total of $480 - a lot of money for five days. A clear case of supply and demand working against us!
The choice of boat and captain is an important one on this trip both out of safety (crossing open sea is not to be taken lightly) and comfort (potential to be crammed into a crappy boat with a crazy drunk captain and too many annoying passengers). We had heard a few horror stories. Our boat was a lovely classic comfortable yacht with a reasonable amount
of people. The captain was responsible, drank but didn't go overboard (pun intended), and kept us entertained (easily offended people... well, might be offended). We were lucky that all us passengers got on very well and had an excellent time together; although I'm sure that if we did have an idiot on board Paul would have been first to put them in their place. Overall it was an excellent trip and a highlight of my journey so far but a lot of money!
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toby
non-member comment
sounds amazing mate, would love to do something like that myself