From Panama to Colambia: The San Blas Islands

After waiting for a week in Panama City it finally seemed that the weather was getting better and would permit us to take a boat to Colombia. We had already booked a sailboat leaving from Portobello a remote town north of Panama City, but since heavy rain destroyed roads and telephone lines we weren't able to contact our captain. As a consequence we finally opted for a motorboat called the Darien Gapster to do the trip.  Porvenier was our first stop on the San Blas Islands. As caribbean as it gets...

It looks so beautiful on the pictures, but notice the palmtrees! The wind was blowing hard! Since the islands are protected by reef there aren't any waves to see here. Outside of the protected area the situation was still a little different. The recent storm in the caribbean, that had caused so much rain and landslides in Panama, left behind a noticeably rough sea.

This is the Darien Gapster, our  'cruisship', ready to takes us past the San Blas Islands down to Colombia. The reason why we all took the boat is the following: Between Panama and Colombia lies the Darien Gap, a region of about 160km undeveloped swampland in the Darien Jungle, were the Panamerican highway ceases to exist and only unsafe dirtroads, druglords and FARC-guerillas are to be found. Chances of dissapearing for good are quite real in this spot of the world.
The alternatives are flying or taking a boat. The pricerange is about the same, but honestly, the plane doesn't sound a lot like adventure!

We spent the first night camping on the beach of Isla Nalunega, a small island inhabited by the Kuna. A few hundred people live on this island,  i guess it has about 300 meters in diameter and therefor it is completely covered with houses. The national sport is volleyball, which is played on a concrete cort. the gringos obviously lost the game...
 since there is no sewage system on the islands, the restrooms are based on a different system that we are used to.

The weather went bad and so we involuntarely stayed on the island for another couple of nights. 

We moved from camping on the beach to sleeping in the livingroom of a Kuna family (18 people!!!) and finally checking into Hotel San Blas. Hotel doesn't completely nail it. 18 people sleeping on a concrete floor is a bit more precise.

In total we were stranded on Nalunega for four days. The good thing was that we had lot's of time, books and beer!

Even though I am stranded on a caribbean island, I don't forget about my true passion! Giving it a shot at Greys Anatomy!

Finally we get going again! The sea is still pretty rough and forces us to stop over on the island of Aridup or Isla Iguana in Spanish. The island is even smaller than Nalunega and completely deserted. The Kuna built a hut, becauese they sometimes come here for fishing and collecting coconuts. Coconuts are real money for the Kuna, you can actually go to the store (if you find one) and buy some shampoo for five coconuts. The coconut equals 30cents US and Adirup therefor is kind of the national bank.

Here we are unloading the Darien Gapster and getting prepared for another night on the beach.

Robinson Escobar in his underpants. After five days of deliberate rain and getting splashed on the boat not a single piece of clothing is left dry.

Dinner! Some Kuna actually stopped by and sold us lobster! The sum we payed was rediculous, something between 10US and 15US for two of these adorable creatures.

After almsot capsizing in the open ocean the next day and later on hitting the reef close to the islands we made another stopover at the island of  Geodup. We had run out of food and water and were glad that the island was inhabited and that we were allowed to stay for the night. I didn't take any fotos on that island. This foto shows the dock of Sapzurro in Colombia the following day. Finally Colombia! But still dwelling in the middle of nowhere. Since the Darien Gapster is a Panamenian boat, it can bring us to the boarder, but cannot sail into the Colombian sea. We spent the night in Capurgená, enjoying pizza, showers and a real bed!

The final day! We took the Lancha from Capurgená to Turbo, a two and a half hour ride. It started to rain after about two minutes and water was splashing into the boat from the waves. But essentially we were getting close to civilization... until we ran out of gas!!! Most of the people on the boat were Colombian, so I couldn´t understand every word they were saying. They were certainly making fun of the captain, who does the trip every other day and was now keeping people from smoking a cigarette in fear of fuel catching fire...

After drifting around in the Columbian sea for about half an hour a boat came by and had some gas to spare! Happy faces and Captain-Ski-Goggels gave full throttle once again! Medellin, here we come!!!