Pirate Life in San Blas

To get from Colombia to Panama by road is basically impossible. There's an immense swampy jungle full of drug smugglers, mosquitos and wild animals waiting to kill you (apparently). So the better options are flying or taking a boat. Flights in this part of the world aren't cheap so when the option is USD$400 for a flight or USD$500 for 5 days on a boat and a chance to see the San Blas islands of Panama, I opted for the later (even though I have a history of sea sickness!). Well I mean, they look like this. 

So I chose to go on a boat called the Wildcard because it was the biggest and I was hoping the chances for sea sickness would be less. I met up with my group the night before to go through the details. I turned up to be greeted by 8 Australian boys and a yank. Thankfully later on a British couple and a Dutch couple also appeared. 

The next night we met up early in the evening and were all aboard the boat by about 7pm. After cruising out of Cartagena we hit the open sea around 9pm and were asked to go below deck. Apparently finding a man overboard during the day is hard but at night it's basically impossible. So here's my bed for the next five nights...top bunk. And that was one of the better beds since it was stinking hot further down where the other beds were.

As soon as we started moving I realised I was going to be in trouble so I took some sea sickness tablets. They basically knock you out so I was in a coma shortly thereafter. I managed to wake up for breakfast but couldn't handle being out on deck so I went back to my room to lay down and promptly resumed my coma. 

I got up for lunch and then basically repeated my morning routine. At 5pm I went out for some fresh air and to advise people I was alive. I soon started feeling ill again so I took some more tablets. Five minutes later I had my head over the side of the boat but managed to talk myself into not vomiting. I knew if I spewed up those tablets I'd never get any down. Soon all was well again and I was back in a coma. 

After a lot of rain and storms overnight I woke up to the feeling of stillness and this view outside.

Now I'm not going to tell you there's much to do in San Blas, because there's not. We spent the next three days snorkelling, drinking, swimming and exploring tiny islands and marvelling at how picturesque it was. 

Oh and we bought some coconuts from the locals which we of course added rum to.

In the evenings we'd hang on the boat and have dinner and try and feel clean (sin shower). I even washed my hair in the ocean. Surprisingly effective. 

There's apparently 365 islands in San Blas but the sea level is rising and they're disappearing. Only 49 of them are inhabited and the inhabitants are an independent group of Indians known as the Kuna People. I couldn't really photograph them but they are tiny humans. The women dress in brightly coloured clothes and wear gold nose rings. Here is a photo courtesy of Google. And yes, they legitimately look like this.

They make the 'molas' that they wear around their midriffs and for years have traded those, coconuts and lobsters with passing traders and pirates (true story). The men are skilled fishermen and one night on the boat we had a dinner with a lobster each! We also had crab and some fish we caught off the boat. Here's the captain and first mate killing the fish...with rum. A technique I was not aware of!

And here's a crab we got from the locals. He was a beast!

After the three days in the islands we headed overnight for mainland Panama. Back on the sea sickness pills and back into a coma. We finally arrived in Portobello in the morning but had to wait ages for our passports to be processed. By the time we got two buses to Panama City it was after dark (but it does get dark at 5.30 here!). The daylight savings lovers would be livid. 

Anyway I spent the next two days walking around Panama City feeling even more sea sick than on the boat! 

Old Providencia

We decided to fly to Providencia even though the 25 minute flight cost us more than a 1.5 hour flight from Cartagena. I read the boat crossing can take between 2.5 and 6 hours depending on the sea and weather conditions. And it only goes every second day. So we boarded this tiny plane. The captain gave the safety briefing and I literally sat behind him.

We arrived at our accommodation to be greeted by several large lizards in the garden. In case you didn't guess, Providencia is also a paradise for mosquitos. 

This was a shop in our street that I found fairly interesting. Haha.

First stop was Almond Bay about a kilometre up the road. 

We got down to the beach and it looked like this. Two other humans on the beach, four dogs and one guy at the restaurant/bar where he actually lived too.

We asked the guy at the beach to cook us lunch. We got one plate with chicken and one with some fish he'd caught which was delicious. After lunch we tried the local 'coco loco' cocktail of which I could not tell you what the ingredients were. 

I said before that there were two and a bit islands belonging to Colombia. Well the 'bit' is Santa Catalina which is a tiny island linked to Providencia by a foot bridge only. There's no vehicles over there. 

Santa Catalina is also home to a rock called 'Morgan's Head' since it obviously looks like Captain Morgan's head. It's on the far left by the way. No I don't have a close up photo but don't worry it looks nothing like anyone's head.

Next agenda item was to eat a deep fried arepa with an egg in it. We'd already heard about these but hadn't found them yet. Mainly because all deep fried Colombian items (and there's a lot!) look the same. So here it is...

We had stopped in town and were on route to crab cay for some snorkelling. After ten minutes we arrived at this tiny little island. 

We walked up to the centre of the island to get a view of the supposed 'seven coloured sea'. Not sure if I saw seven but it was pretty.

Next we went down to snorkel. There wasn't too much in the way of corals but the water was unbelievably clear and we saw plenty of fish. We swam around the island and when we got back we realised most Colombians can't swim! They were all hanging around the jetty where there were no fish! Haha

After snorkelling we stopped at the southwest beach for lunch at this restaurant. Our plates of seafood including lobster, conch, fish, prawns cost $12.50. 

Later that night we went to the theatre in town as we heard there was a concert of local music which was some kind of tropical music I guess. The guy in red was really rocking the tapping sticks. 

The next day we went back to the southwest beach to watch the beach horse racing that the island is known for. We arrived at 1.15pm and it was supposed to start at 1pm so I asked the girl at the restaurant and she said it's supposed to be on but no one is here. Ok. Good one! So no horsies even for a photo.

The following day we had an 11am flight out. This is the airport in Providencia. 

And this is the view over the islands as we left. 

We got back to San Andres to catch a flight back to Cartagena. We had four hours to kill so we went into town for lunch. When we came back we checked in only to be told 'the airport is closed'. Umm ok.

Apparently they were 'fixing a hole'. Ok. So our 5pm flight is reschedule until 9pm. We were told not to return until 7.30pm. So we went off for a terrible dinner and some more cake. Well banana pie and coconut pie.

On returning to the airport we discovered the flight was cancelled. Basically we stood around like this for 3 hours waiting for the airport to find us a hotel. Meanwhile planes are taking off so the story starts to become suspicious. Now it's something about the pilots having worked too many hours. 

Eventually we're shoved into a taxi where I was expecting more chaos. We arrive first at the hotel so I think this is good. Next minute taxi loads of Colombians arrive and are all allocated rooms first. We end up sleeping 6 girls in a room with 3 double beds. Thankfully the hotel has a pool so we think great, we'll have a swim and a beer....no beer. Wow. By the time I get to bed there's no water in the taps so I can't shower. And we don't have a sheet. But we survived and flew out the next day at midday. Here's me enjoying our emergency hotel. 

The Colombian Caribbean

There's two (and a bit) islands that belong to Colombia but are actually located just off the coast of Nicuragua. The largest is called San Andrés and although it's politically part of Colombia it originally has ties to England. The official languages are Spanish, English and some kind of Creole. Very confusing!

The first day we arrived and walked past what I thought was an abandoned school...well until I saw the children running around the basketball court in the blistering heat.

We walked into the centre to discover a fairly sizeable commercial area. San Andrés is actually suffering from an overpopulation problem. The natives to the island are descendants of the original Europeans and Africans that turned up there. In recent years there has been a huge influx of mainland Colombians. In the early seventies there were only 20,000 people reported as living there. Currently there's around 75,000. 

There's not too many cars on the island. The main forms of transport are motorcycle (sin helmet) or these little petrol powered golf buggy things.

We spent one day just wandering around and sat on a bus for about an hour taking in all the scenery and run down houses. 

We decided to visit a beach further up the island called Rocky Cay in the San Luis area. We walked past some of the many 'bread fruit' on the island. These aren't so much like a fruit since they deep fry them like a potato and the texture is said to be like bread when cooked. I kinda agree and I thought it was delicious actually. Wikipedia also told me it's one of the highest yielding fruit trees and was introduced into a lot of Caribbean islands as a source of food.

Next we stumbled across what is a normal sight on the island. A local lady selling cakes and food from a table. This one was in her front yard but there were also several women down at the main beach too. 

We decided on a piece of banana cake and a piece of pumpkin pie. Delicious! And such change from Colombian food.

Next we headed down to the beach from where you could actually see three shipwrecks. Someone here missed the memo on lighthouses because I also saw some others on our bus ride around the island. Quite ridiculous if you ask me!

Oh and the other thing about these islands is the crabs. Twice a year the islands are inundated with thousands of crabs much like Christmas Island. The crabs are actually land dwelling. They all mate at the same time and then the females head down to the beach to release their fertilised eggs into the sea. This causes complete chaos and on Providencia they actually call in the military to block the roads and monitor the crabs. A few weeks later once the eggs hatch then the same thing happens again kinda in reverse with all the baby crabs heading onto land to find their new home on land. Here's one now...