Cartegena and the Caribbean coast

From day one Cartegena didn't fail to impress but just kept getting better. We are staying in the old city which has beautiful old colonial style buildings. Walking the streets there are people around all the time. Food stalls which I love. Its been a long while since there has been good street food and this is available at all hours. The people are friendly and its all very safe. People willing to help out and offer directions or just a nice conversation all the time. Plus there is non stop party. We went out for Friday and Saturday night and were in a number of bars but the main fun was just drinking on the streets. The crew from the boat also joined us for Saturday night which was another all nighter. Its been tough to get to bed before 5 for about a week now!

We were all surprised how modern, rich and built up Cartegena is. I guess you have some sort of false expectations due to media for a country and am usually wrong about that. It also feels so safe. A lot of other cities you wouldn't walk around random areas at night or sit in the park but tonight from 7 in the evening we were walking and talking and hanging out in different areas until 3 in the morning. We decided to have a night off the drink so went to this square where there was jazz been played and a load of amazing street vendors where we could go and pick our food out. Sat around there talking for about 5 hours watching fire throwers and listening to the music and then decided to head home to bed. But then on the street bumped into two nice German girls who decided they wanted to walk around for a while. Another thing how I love about travelling is how you can bump into random people and just get on with them so well so quickly. Decided to go for some more food, then sat in the park and wandering around different parts of the city. And there are people everywhere and always friendly and up for a chat. Not many other cities you'd feel safe enough sitting in the park at night.

We spent a good five nights or so in Cartegena and then all decided to move onto Taganga on the Caribbean coast. A few of the others decided to get the tourist bus, some were driving or cycling and of course I decided on the local bus. And what a long and random journey it was. Because of the language barrier I didn't have a clue what was going on half the time. Thought I was been really ripped off by the guy selling tickets but in the end not sure think he might have actually helped me out. We had multiple stops, stopped by a crash in the middle of the road, broken wheel and even the ticket collector guy ended up in a random fight with some very annoying customer that ended up spilling out onto the street. That was quite interesting cause he pushed him off the bus when he was trying to jump on, ripped his own shirt off and just started fighting in the middle of the street. Everyone was shocked so wasn't like this was the norm. I also thought it was over me cause the guy causing the trouble had tried to sell me tickets originally and think he'd tried to get me to pay for him and the ticket guy was sticking up for me. Very hard to tell though. I eventually arrived though and the others had gotten us this really cool apartment for six of us. Kitchen balcony hammocks, BBQ, Internet etc. Ocean views. There was no real plan on how long to stay here but for some reason we got stuck for 8 nights.

We didnt even really do much. Just a lot of going out. Taganga is a beach resort where a lot of rich Colombians come to. Santa Marta is the big city near by. But because its wet season the beach is not great at all so we only made it there one of the days. As a group we all met up at our apartment every night, cooked some meals including this massive BBQ and then partied the night away. One of the nights we got split into three different groups of two people all went to separate places and had totally random nights out and still didn't get home till after sunrise. A few of the people were doing the Lost City or Ciudad Perdida trek which is a five day trek through the jungle. I wasn't too interested in this due to the amount of rain and mud I would have had to endure along the way.

Instead me and two others decided to head to Park Tayrona for a night. One of the guys I'm hanging out with, Victor is driving his motorbike from Canada to Argentina and has loads of gadgets and camping gear. At one stage he survived out in the jungle of Belize for two months. So we brought some camping gear to the park, hiked through two sweaty hours of mud and heat and arrived at this beach. Place turned out to be a total rip off. Charging us crazy amounts to enter the park, to camp etc. So we just grabbed some hammocks and slept out on them. The scenery around was absolutely amazing. Palm trees, mountains, huge rocks and cliffs. Only problem the water again wasn't at its best cause of wet season and the rain flow into the ocean. At the end of our second day one of the girls said shed bring the stuff back on the boat for us and myself and Victor did the two hour hike back to grab a bus. We took a different scenic route this time and was just beautiful walking along these deserted beaches and then on through the jungle. So much mud in there so was easiest just to go barefoot and as we were getting to the end the sounds of the jungle were starting to liven up and it was beginning to get dark. Then had to wait for ages for this bus that never came. Was such a mission in the end but well worth it. Eventually we found out there were no more buses and a really friendly taxi driver drove us back for half nothing. When we got to Taganga we were starving and found this local guy selling these massive homemade pizzas at his house. They were so good. Got chatting to him for ages and as he worked and talked he had a constant smile on his face. Kids running around with our cameras taking loads of pictures. He had a really good chat with Victor cause he himself and driven from Columbia to Argentina 20 years ago.

We kinda figured after all this time hanging out doing nothing most of the time it was time to move on so a very very freezing night bus south to Bucaramanga was in order. So cold in fact that I had three layers of clothes on and a sleeping bag. But was still one of the best buses Ive been on. Proper chairs that nearly fold into a bed. Way better than first class in a plane.

Colombia impresses me more and more every single day and we all keep saying it. Also it seems a lot more exotic than where we've been before. Before we took it for granted but lately all of us as a group just keep saying we cant believe we are here. Stereotypes of Colombia from movies and media are totally different. Its a very modern rich and built up place from what we can see. That's not to say there isn't poverty also but just comparing it to other places. Its the first country we've been through where we are no longer the rich gringo with a bulging wallet but just a normal poor backpacker amongst a lot of very wealthy people. The tourist board of Colombias slogan is el riesgo es que te quieras quedar. This pretty much means the only risk is wanting to stay and its so true. This is an interesting video of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ31bPPiN2c&sns=fb Also with regards to drugs here its very different to other countries. Obviously they exist like in all places but they are not in your face been offered like everywhere else. Other places you can walk down the street and be offered drugs by a number of people. Here its rare. Chatting to a guy in the hostel he said its very much a taboo, that if people take drugs they hide the fact that they do it unlike in a lot of western countries I know. People are more into drinking, partying, eating and dancing. Now of course that's just my opinion and the people Ive met.

Photos up at Cartegena Photos

Sailing the San Blas to Cartegena Columbia

Tuesday morning woke up still feeling like shit at 5am. Id spent most of Monday been weak and sick and it took a few days to recover. We ended up sitting around the streets of Panama waiting for this jeep to come pick us up to drive us to Carti. Driving through Panama city at this hour of the morning, watching the sunrise behind the skyscrapers, the traffic start and the city come to life but we were heading into the middle of nowhere. The San Blas islands where the indiginous people, the Kuna live. So after a few hours of driving around random mountains and windy roads a number of jeeps stop and we get on a small little plancha or boat down this random muddy brown river which was to bring us onto our ship the Stahlratte.

I wasnt too sure what to expect from this ship. It was meant to be 22 customers so I was kinda expecting it to be similar to what the Whitsundays trip would be. But no, its a 120ft massive yacht with loads of space. The crew were there to meet us and what an amazing crew they were. Two german, one Swiss and an Austrian. Over the next few hours we got to meet the rest of the people doing the journey as well. Funnily enough most people are heading to Argentina and have started up north as well like me. And most people have the same sort of time frame as well, want to be there before Christmas which is cool. There are an English couple that are cycling from Canada to Antarctica, a Swedish couple driving a motobike from Canada to Argentina, another Canadian driving his bike down and also another couple that had shipped their car on ahead but also going the whole way. Everyone else is pretty much busing it like myself. But it was a good mixed crowd, three or four Irish, Swiss, English, Canadian, American, Australian etc. We immediately all got on and started sailing. Ludwig our captain is hilarious. Told us a bit about our boat and the plan and was very easy going.

Within three hours we had reached the San Blas islands where we were to stay for a few days. There are thousands of these islands in the Archipelago some of which the Kuna people live on. And they are well interested in coming to visit us on the boat. A lot of them wear these really colourful clothes and they are small, an average height of about 5ft. There are hundreds and hundreds of deserted white sand islands with Cocunut trees surrounded by pristine blue water. It is literally the picture you think of when getting stranded on an island. And they are small as well. We snorkelled a bit for the first day before the floating bar came out and people started drinking. We saw across on this other island the Kuna people making some sounds and they had caught this massive massive fish. A red snapper. Our captain said in Europe for the size of it, it would be worth about 1000 Eur. He bought it off them for $30 plus 12 cans of beer. We spent the first night BBQing on the island and drinking in the light of the full moon. Was crazy how cool the island looked when the full moon was shining down.

not my photo. shared off one of the others on the boat. cheers.

The second day was spent pretty much doing the same thing. Five of us went to a traditional Kuna village to see it. I was surprsied to see phone boxes in this town. Children running around with smiley faces and wearing modern clothes. Apparantly they all learn Spanish in school as well but we tried to learn a few Kuna words off the locals. After a few weeks of not trying any Spanish Ive lost it all but luckily there was a girl with us on the boat from Costa Rica so she helped translate. After this trip we went back to the boat and snorkelled out to another deserted sand island. To give an idea how small these are we had a race around it. You had to race just on the water line. I got 26 seconds. The record was 24. And half an hour later one of the guys from the boat comes over on the dingy again with the floating bar to start it all off again!

Another amazing dinner that night again. Lobster and the red snapper with loads of salad rice and more. The food on the boat was amazing. Non stop huge meals and I ate enough but didnt have my normal appetite at all cause of the sickness. We were even told that we could help ourselves to food outside of meals. This was the first time in three months as well that wed had proper cheese and butter. Diary products are hard to come by. And thank god for the Germans we had amazing bread as well!! So another night staying up till about 5am chatting with the others and having fun.

The third day on the boat was a bit of a hungover and mainly seasick day for a lot of people. We just chilled out on hammocks and sunbeds and sailed for 24 hours to Columbia. Waking up at 630 the next morning the excitement was amazing. We had just arrived in Cartegena and were in the bay, posh apartments and skyscrapers all along, boats everywhere and looked like a really amazing modern city. I know I shouldnt judge a book by a cover but I always go on first impressions and within a day in Columbia its in my top five countries!! And saying that Im actually going to make it a top 7 list!!! Panama is also on it. Just cant get over how amazing both Panama and Columbia are. For the record the other favourites are Thailand, Vietnam, Russia, Hong Kong and New Zealand in no particular order. We hung around on the boat in the bay for another few hours eating more food, actually two more meals while someone went on shore with our passports to sort them out. Easiest border crossing ever.

By now we were all good friends on the boat so decided to bunk up together in hostels. Good sized group so split up a bit but 8 of us joined each other in my hostel with a pool. We all have pretty much the same plan as well so should stick with each other for a while.

Photos up at San Blas Photos

Panama - Shockingly Amazing

So arriving in Panama I got a bit ripped off at the border. My own fault though. Sometimes to enter a country you need proof of an on-going flight so we´d made up fake tickets out of Costa Rica just in case. Literally a print out of an airline ticket with our names on them. This usually works. So entering Panama the border guard asks us where were leaving from. The others all said they didn´t have airline tickets and got away with it. I said I´m coming back to Costa Rica to fly out so he made me buy a bus ticket back to Costa Rica even though I wasn´t going to use it. So annoying! But otherwise all the borders have been pretty cool. Unlike in other countries where people are in proper uniforms and have guns and are very strict most of central border have been cool chilled out guys with smiley faces and plain clothes!! We were heading onto Bocas in Panama from here and within minutes Panama looked amazing. Here are some pics of Bocas It is a number of islands dotted around the Archipelago and it is paradise.

Again we found a really cool hostel and a lot of people from the previous hostel had come here as well. So it ended up been about 30 people we knew. Plus beers were 50 cents. Most of the people were from Toronto or Montreal so was mixing up French & Spanish all the time none of which I´m in anyway good at and over the space of the few days managed to eventually forget anything I'd learnt!! First impressions of this place were great and it didn´t fail to impress one bit. We did a snorkeling tour around a number of islands and again a lot more partying. To get around the islands here are water taxis which you just hail down. Most of the buildings are built just over the water and a lot of the bars over the water have a small area in the middle of them for swimming with a platform around it. We decided we needed a few days detox so heading off to another quieter island called Bastimentos. Lobster dinners, amazing views and amazing beaches and only ten minutes away from the other island! To get to the beach here we had to walk 40 minutes through the jungle in the sweat, heat and mud and then came out to this amazing blue water deserted beach. Literally the jungle hanging out over it. The odd local coming out to surf in the evening and maybe one or two other tourists but essentially the whole place to ourselves. Id say if we got stranded here it would be perfect place!! We spent the day chilling out, drinking and eating coconuts and pineapple that were all over the place. I´m sure if we´d been stranded we would have found some lobster to cook! There is definitely loads of crabs crawling around all the time. Apparently you can buy lobster off local fishermen for $1.50!! Then just like kids, 6 of us in our mid 20s and early 30s playing around in the waves for hours!! Loved it!

After one more night with the Canadians back on the party island we started making our way to Panama city. Its so interesting what a culture shock or rather a reverse culture shock this country is. Its so modern. On the bus to Panama everyone had phones out and was on facebook and blackberry messenger. Got chatting to a really friendly person on the bus on the journey there both of us doing our best to mix our broken bits of English and Spanish. Arrived in Panama and WOW is all I can say. Havnt seen a city like this since San Diego. A lot of it reminded me of southern California just the way the roads houses etc were. Its meant to be very like Miami with night life just like South Beach on one of the streets. For me the skyline reminds me of Hong Kong. Massive skyscrapers across the bay or canal from where we are staying. Its also the last stop on route for a lot of people but the rest of them are heading onto Columbia on the boat. But even besides the city and the buildings its culture shock just to be able to see real big supermarkets again, big AC buses, even to drink tap water. The normal things you take for granted and don't really miss when you don't have them but weird to see once you get back to them!!

Panama city is unbelievable. It has an old part which is a bit more run down and then the huge business district and skyscrapers everywhere. I've never seen so much construction going on in the one place even when Ireland was at its boom. Half the skyscrapers are under construction and they seem to be starting a new one everyday. The Irish out of work should come join in!! A lot of the people who helped build the canal here were Irish, Chinese, Jamaican and French. And something like 10% of the population is now Chinese so very much a culture mix going on. The night life is well known as well. We heard of a few different areas of where to go and were all undecisve cause some night clubs could have been up to $30 but thought we'd splash out for once. So about 12 of us from the hostel got some taxis to this area but ended up getting split up. Because I didn't bring ID our taxi driver got us in the back door of a place. Well we'd lost everyone and I decided to go to the bathroom but in fact what I thought the bathroom was opened up to a huge street full of night clubs. Like a place specifically built for about 30 or 40 clubs. And not in anyway tacky. We managed to find everyone and enjoyed the scene till the early hours!

So after a day spent doing nothing on the computer recovering two Irish guys that had come out with us asked me to come for a surf. They had driven down from California and had spent since Jan surfing the coast. Its funny any Irish we meet are purely here to surf. So many good Irish surfers around as well. And also in Panama we are meeting a lot of people who have driven down from Canada or America and are now trying to sell their cars. One guy had to sell his for $60 since there was no one who wanted it and at the moment it looks like the same for these Irish guys. Plus they are good cars worth a few grand. But was great having the freedom of the car, to go where we wanted, check out a few beaches plus it was a lovely day. Really reminded me of going surfing in Ireland checking out the waves at different spots. Spent a good few hours driving around and ended up driving the whole of downtown Panama at one stage as well at night which was amazing. Top class hotels, casinos, restaurants and shopping malls. Places we'd missed on our walk around the city the first day.

So sitting here on my last day in Panama City now quite sick and trying to recover before our boat tomorrow. Were getting a four day boat trip to Columbia via the San Blas islands in the morning. Have also convinced quite a few people to join us and a lot of other people are heading on different boats. There is no road to cross the Darien Gap and meant to be very dangerous. Although I met some crazy English guy who'd walked across it in five days from Columbia. Either way the boat were getting is meant to be great, 22 people lots of food and travelling through some amazing islands!

Photos are up at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=199163&id=509199014&l=9b0f704d7b