The fact that I've broken the promise once to cross the Pacific ocean doesn't mean that now I'm allowed to fly during this travel. This journey is an overland journey, and still it is. For this reason, to reach Colombia and avoiding to walk through the infamous Darien gap (which guidebooks defines it like a potencial suicide trip) I've sailed with a catamaran through the San Blas archipelago for 5 days to reach the coast of Caribbean Colombia. It has been a nice adventure to live and, even if some things have gone wrong because of the bad organization of the journey and the unpleasant neglect of the "captain" I have great memories about that, about the beauty of the islands crossed, about the fun had and all the rest. The group was right so it was fine to share time with them even if sea sickness made my time sometimes quite hard. Almost all the world was heading to Colombia on that boat: 5 australians, 4 dutchmen, 3 french, 1 danish, 1 english, 1 greek, 1 gringo and, last but not least, 1 italian lonelytraveller. Central America is gone now, welcome South America!
Here is a short chronology of the 5 days spent on the catamaran "Levante":
Day 1 - As soon as we arrived to Puerto Lindo where the catamaran was anchored we met the "captain" of the boat - an aged French pirate - who told us that the "vice-captain" who came the day before at our hostel to explain the details of the trip and collecting 60 dollars each, had nothing to deal with him, so was a scam... He also told us that the boat had 15 beds only, no matters if we were 17, two people had just to sleep on the floor, it's easy. We also knew that the departure time was supposed to be at 8am, but it was late and the "captain" decided to leave the harbour only the next day. All day long drinking rhum, beer and vodka on the boat. One day wasted, but good party at least.
Day 2 - Recovering from day 1 drinking session. We sailed at 6,30 and the sea was extremely rough. It was hangover first, then hell for many hours to me. I discovered to be not a good sea wolf: sea sickness stroke me, I puked twice. For dinner the "captain" fished one small shark and one barracuda, so we ate shark ceviche and fried barracuda. Strange story this one, I was pretty sure that catching sharks was illegal almost everywhere in the world... Maybe Panama is part of that "almost"? No, I don't think so.
Day 3 - The perfect day. The sunshine was high in the sky, and the San Blas islands with their palms and reef barrier were rising like lonely mushrooms all over the sea. Waters were calm and warm, colors unbelievable. The "captain" stopped the boat near an incredible island, like a dream one, those kind of places you think exist only on postcards or Hollywood movies. No other boats, no tourists, no buildings at all: just a small spot of white sand surrounded by a deep green/blue sea with coconut trees, that's it. Well, maybe few people knows that I don't know at all how to swim, I just tried few times when I was kid and then no more for all these years. Facing that sort of paradise on Earth I thought within myself - now or never - then I jumped off the boat and, you know what?, I swam! Yeah, maybe more than swimming it's better say I was floating like shit, but, hey!, I did it! And few minutes later the Australian teacher took me off the safety jacket and I started swimming and swimming and swimming like I never thought it was possible for me to do before. An unbelievable day to toast at evening with the guys on the boat and few shots of cheap booze. Cool!
Day 4 - Sailing all day long. Sea a little rough mixed with a little hangover made me sleep almost all the morning, trying to avoid sea sickness: this time no problems. We passed near an island with a village of Kuna indios, was astonishing to me to see their huts, their colorful clothes, sometimes their painted faces... Unfortunately, the "captain" decided not to stop down there, even just for few hours: big shame on him. In the afternoon, he fished another big barracuda that we ate fried for dinner. We officially went out of drinkable water. By the way, one of the aussie guys woke up in the middle of the night and found enough water in his body to start pissing on the matress of the main hall instead out of the boat...
Day 5 - Cloudy and almost rainy day. The last leg of the trip. Few hours' sail then we approached the Colombian coast at Sapzurro around at 2 pm. Then we took a small boat to the nearby village of Capurgana' where is settled the immigration center.
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