All at sea...for all the right reasons...

Now then, you probably won't find it too hard to imagine that if, a couple of months ago, someone had offered us the chance to spend 4 whole 24hr days with 15 complete strangers in a very confined space, sleeping in the kitchen with the toilet and cat for company in a bunk several inches shorter than one's height, no showers for the duration, dodgy white loaf bread and tang (water with an orange twist) for sustenance with no hope of escape unless we don't mind drowning - all for a price that completely blows the budget, well we would have politely (maybe) refused and moved on.


But that is in fact exactly what we signed up for last week to travel from Panama to Colombia and we can very happily report that we had an absolutely amazing time.


Our new home was the 60ft 'Wild Card', captained by Tom (AKA Captain Tom/Belgium) ably assisted by Che (South Africa), Sandrine (France) and Michael (South Africa).

Our co-adventurers (in no particular order) were Tom (AKA Aussie Tom) Tom (AKA Scottish Tom from the Isle of Skye) Shaz (Finsbury Park posse) Megan (sister of AT, rhymes with vegan from Byron Bay), Anna and Andy (honeymoon!!! from Red Deer a couple of hours from Calgary (somewhere way up north in the frozen wilderness)) Adam (Vancouver) Kat and Keith (Devon/Northern Ireland and more recently Brixton with ST) Kyle + BMW motorbike (San Francisco) and Martin (AKA Rachel the Welsh - Cardiff more recently Shoreditch) = the fabulous Wild Card crew...

We left Portobelo (of Columbus, Drake and Morgan fame) after a great night at Captain Jacks (a bar with beds) on the north coast of Panama and sailed east (and a bit south) along the coast to the San Blas islands, which totally lived up to their exalted name...

The San Blas Islands are part of Kuna Yala which belongs to the the Kuna People and they epitomise the description island paradise. The Kuna ladies are famous for Molas which are multilayered fabric panels incorporated into their blouses. The top half of the blouse is made from sheer flowery material. They also wear wrapped skirts, bead bracelets on their wrists and legs (wound so tightly that their calf muscles are somewhat atrophied) and a gold nose ring. The men wear shorts/t-shirts, harvest coconuts and impress the gringo visitors with their machete skills.

 

And so the next few days unwound, wake up at dawn-ish to the snap and crackle of cornflakes/purr of the cat/dropping of the anchor, dive into water, climb out and lather up with shower gel, dive back in to rinse off, swim and snorkel around a bit, chill/snooze on deck, chat, laugh, drink tang, eat breakfast, read, chill/snooze/wake violently as the anchor was dropped again, snorkel/chat/laugh/drink tang/lunch/chill/chat/laugh/snorkel in/around sunken wreck/visit Kuna village on tiny remote island/snorkel/chill/chat/laugh/start drinking rum/eat excellent food particularly the octopus pasta and lobster/lie on deck watching the stars/build camp fire on a different tiny tropical deserted island/drink lots more rum/dance a ceilidh (Scottish line dance adapted for beach environment - Pam has the bruises to prove it) sleep on deck or on our 'double bed' in the kitchen/jump out of our skin when the anchor was dropped...

under water photos courtesy of Adam - thank you!

Wildlife highlights other than the obvious above were the dolphins which swam with the boat for a while, a turtle snacking on our lobster scraps in the water right by the boat and Martin consuming 14 slices of 'bread' in one sitting.


Other activities included a visit to the mainland to take a very leaky dug-out canoe up river - the least stable form of water transport ever seen...

to then trek through the jungle for two hours to where all the girls finally had a 'herbal essence' moment washing their hair under a waterfall and the boys (and Megan!) jumped 5 or 6 metres into the pool below (slightly downriver and much higher than the one in photo!) just missing the rocks and having to out-swim the piranhas.

At dawn on the 5th day we anchored for the last time in a beautiful bay, the last coastal outpost in Panama, passports were lovingly checked in the office on the beach (they don't see people that often) and then a launch took us around the headland to Sapzurro, the first town on the western Caribbean coast of Colombia...

where our amazing journey ended.


P.S. Only kidding, there were no piranhas, only crocodiles...