San Blas Islands, Panama

We headed back down to Bocas Del Torro for the holidays. Jasmines brother, Nick, traveled from Las Vegas to spend Christmas in Panama with us. We kayaked in Puerto Viejo before we left. 

We spent the holidays with friends that we met on our first trip to Panama, and drank the night away around a bonfire on a beach under the stars. 

Christmas Eve hike on Red Frog Beach hiking around the island.

Panamanian Christmas Tree

Creepy ... 

And so the second half of our journey begins, onto Colombia. 

We flew from Bocas Del Torro to Panama City, then took a bus to Colon, then another bus to Portobello. The public buses that we took were lively.

We got to Portobello and headed to Captain Jacks hostel, where we spent the night. Portobello has been one of the biggest port towns on the Caribbean side of Panama for the last few centuries. There's a couple of cool ruins to see, but thats it. It's a passer-by town, not a destination.

Still, it has it's beauty

After a much needed 12 hour sleep, we woke up, and went for a hike in the nearby forest with some people we were going sailing with. We then headed to the grocery store to stock up on supplies for the boat. Basically we raided the store of all their beer and rum. 

We're sailing on the Micamale, a 50 foot mono-haul (not a caravan). Our captains were two Italians, Andrea and Rico. Andrea is in his 60’s, speaks OK english. Rico, is a little younger, in his 30’s - interesting character. Our 8 crew mates are from all over the world, 2 Irish, 1 English, 1 German, 1 Colombian, and 4 Americans. 

This is Andreas, our Captian, and his boat, the Micamale. 

This is the Calypsa, another ship who we sailed over to the San Blas Islands with. It's been featured in the movies 50 First Dates and Captain Ron. Absolutely gorgeous interior, which is made of a really pretty wood, which I cant remember the name of. 

The Calypsa actually never came back with us ... it went missing and didn't arrive into Cartagena until 2 days after we did . The sea was very rough coming over to Colombia, and our captain had to call the coast guard due to the radio silence of the other ship.

Supposedly the crossing from Panama to Colombia is a pretty dangerous crossing. I find this out after we reach our destination...

That night we left Portobello and sailed to the San Blas Islands, not so awesome. We all took Dramamine (anti-nausea medicine) before we went to bed. The waves were ROUGH. There were a couple times in the middle of the night that I felt like we were going to tip over. I could hear water splashing on the deck over us. Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was a journey in itself- I smashed into the walls a few times trying to reach the bathroom door. Good times. 

Next day I woke up in San Blas, a chain of at least 300 picture perfect islands with glass-blue water, white sand beaches, and giant palm trees. Absolutely gorgeous. We cruised around and ancorched to go through immigration. 

I found the only air strip on the islands. 

Cocktails on the boat. 

Day 2 we headed over to another island and anchored. We spent the day snorkeling and walked around the island. It was inhabited by a small indigenous group of people called the Kuna, who live a simple life in grass huts and zero electricity. Up until the 90s, they used coconuts as currency. COCONUTS! Today they use US dollars. 

I found a mermaid talking on her shell-phone!

We had lunch in the tiny Kuna village of about 10 huts. Coconut rice, octopus, lobster, and conch. It was delicious. That night we had a BBQ bonfire on the beach, drank rum, listened to our captains crazy-ass life story..  and passed out under the palm trees. 

The next morning I woke up on the beach and went straight in the water for some morning snorkeling, before we headed off to another island for New Years Eve. 

Breakfast duties

On our way over to the nest island we caught a 4 foot fish, which we cooked for dinner that night along with lobster that we caught that day. You can’t get any fresher than that. 

Best sashimi I've ever had. Garlic, olive oil, and sea salt - thats all you need. 

For New Years a bunch of people from the sailboats wandered on to an island where we had a beach party with a couple fireworks. 

Day 5 and 6 we were at sea ALL DAY. I was prepared for the worst, expecting seasickness, but actually had a very relaxed time. Our captain handed us a couple of joints saying that it would help with the nausea .. and it did. When sailing on a boat with nothing to do but get to your destination, you are forced to relax, chill out, and enjoy yourself. I spent the entire day reading books, listening to music, and staring at the sea.

Sailing is definitely a different lifestyle that I am fortunate to have experienced.

We had our last catch of the trip. Ceviche..

As we headded into the port of Cartagenea - we got a little crazy and mooned the first people that we saw, a cruise ship passing by. A tradition by most sailors. 

Yo ho ho ho.. A Pirates life for me ..