Sailing the San Blas islands.

Above pic: Dolphins chasing the boat.

Above pic: Our first island.

Above pic: Another view.

Above pic: Starfish.

Above pic: The local Kuna tribes canoe.

Above pic: All this for 11 us dollars.

Above pic: Jo taking things easy.

Above pic: Not the best sunset but not bad.

Sailling from Colombia to Panama via San Blas, a.k.a Paradise.

The boat we agreed to board was the Windseeker with an Aussie captain named Mike and his first mate a half Scottish, half Italian with a curly moustache (you had to see it). We left Cartagena on the 2nd May with the two crew, myself, Jo, an Isreali, Boris, his girlfriend Julia, a German girl, Maggy, and a Swiss lad, Danny. The trip was 6 nights and 7 days long, sailing through the San Blas Archipelago for $360 us.

The first 3 days was continuous sailing and not much scenery apart from the other 5 pasengers getting sea sick and leaning over the side of the boat. I tell a lie on our first day at one point we were accompanied by a pod of dolphins. On our thrid night we arrived at the first island and had a celebratory drink involving lots of cheap rum.

The next 3 days we were literally in paradise. We sailed and stayed the night off 3 different islands, all uninhabited, with white sand, palm trees and crytal clear waters. We had snorkelling gear to explore the coral, saw more dolphins, sting rays and many tropical fish. Our captain Mike was great appearing to do the trips for the love of sailing more than financial gain. The boat was also perfectly comfortable, it wasnt the largest but me and Jo had our own room and double bed.

There was a problem between Mike and the first mate Maurizio on the last night, which resulted in Maurizio getting kicked off the boat, for continuously getting caught stoned or pissed when he should have been working. Whilst he was banished to a near by island we were spending our last night drinking rum and eating lobster which we had bought of the local Kuna tribe at $11 us for 8 lobsters and an octopus. The next morning some local Kunas took us by canoe to the main land where we caught a jeep which drove through the jungle to Panama city.

Above pic: Walking up the mud volcano.


Above pic: It was a bit of a sqeeze.


Above pic: Not easy to get off.


Above pic: Streets of the old town.


Above pic: Sunset over the fortified walls.

Cartagena, Colombia.

The reason for putting ourselves through such a grueling journey in such a short space of time had been to reach Cartegena on the caribean coast of Colombia. We had a flight booked for the 14th May from Quito to San Jose (Costa Rica) and decided we would tavel from Solento Valley all the way the Cartegena via Cali and then break up the journey at various stops on the way back down.

The city of Cartegena was the main highlight of Colombia. The buildings were colourful, the sun was shining, and there were fruit stalls everywhere. The main tourist attraction is the old town, which is surounded by fortified walls which were built after an attack in 1586 by Sir Francis Drake and for future protection from Pirate raids.

We had reached Cartegena on the 24th April a day before Jo´s birthday and for her birthday went for a dip in the mud Volcano. This was probably one of those things you would do once, but never again. It was definately an experience but a very weird one. We got some good pictures, and there is a video somewhere on the blog.

Half way through Colombia we had realised just how little fun getting a bus back down to Quito (Equador) for our flight to San Jose (Costa Rica) on the 14th May would be. After the very accurate way of looking at the map and seeing Costa Rica only a thumb print or two away from Cartagena, we had decided to cancel our flight and try sailing to Panama and travelling through to Costa Rica.

We found out that there are no such ferry services doing this route but yacht owners take backpackers for a fee. After searching the web and hearing many horror stories mainly involving over crowding on the boats and pissed/stoned captains we found a few recomendations.

Solento Valley in the Coffee growing region of Colombia.

Above pic: The jeep that took us through the valley to the start of our treck.


Above pic: The group from our hostel, including Rachel to Joannas left from Burnley and Tom and Karen to my right from Leeds.


Above pic: Our view from the above picture.


Above pic: The walk was littered with hundreds of these trees, possibly rubber trees.


Above pic: How many people can you fit in to a jeep, well if you put 2 on the roof, 3 hanging on the back and the rest inside, 11. Sitting on the top was the only way to travel.

Solento Valley in the Coffee growing region of Colombia.

After a much needed day whith out sitting on a bus we got on another bus to visit Solento Valley, 40mins drive from Armenia. Solento had been reccomended by someone we met in Argentina and is in the coffee growing region of Colombia. Here we stayed in an old coffee plantation that had been converted in to a hostel by an English bloke. Although we didn´t get to do a coffee plantation tour here, we did do a nice treck with a group from our hostel.

Lima to Colombia via Equador.

Above pic: The pet turtles from our hostel in Lima.


Above pic: Worst border crossing ever, Peru to Equador at La Balsa. I forgot to mention the bridge had been washed away meaning no vehicles can drive over and we had to cross the river by walking across a broken down tree.


Above pic: 10mins into Equador and there had been a landslide, luckily a JCB was already removing the dirt.


Above pic: We spent Equador on a bus, and so this is Popayan in Colombia.

Above pic: Another picture of Popayan.