South America...via San Blas

Now doesn´t that look nice?! Yup, it was pretty amazing...That´s me relaxing in the beautiful water in the "Swimming Pool" in the San Blas Islands. Behind me in the photo you can see a handful of boats docked, and this is where we spent three days of our sailing trip from Panama to Colombia. It was a beautiful spot to swim, snorkle, and hang out on deserted islands.

We had heard many horror stories of these boat rides from Panama to Colombia: people getting lost for 10 days, people running out of food and water, or having a horrible captain...I am glad to report almost exactly the opposite of what we feared. We set sail on the Melody with Captain Marc and his wife Paola. We had a crew of 8 backpackers, 6 Americans and 2 Austrian guys. It was such a fantastic trip!! Everyone was cool and chill (a necessary characteristic for sharing the confined space of the boat!), and the captain really knew what he was doing. Not to mention we were well fed!! Marc´s wife, Paola, was a great cook- we were treated to meals us backpackers don´t normally get: lasagna, fish tacos, and even a turkey dinner! On the first day of the sail we made it to the San Blas Islands in about nine hours, and the seas were really calm. We even had a small crew of dolpins swimming alongside us for awhile. When we got to the paradise of San Blas- we knew we made the right choice instead of flying to Colombia! We were enjoying it so much we actually asked to stay another day at San Blas, which we did! It was hard to get sick of the beautiful surroundings we had...

The rest of the sail from San Blas to Cartagena was supposed to take 36 hours...That sounded pretty daunting to me...And the first day in the open waters was pretty rough, I must admit. The waves were pretty big and I did feel a bit seasick. So much for dramamine! I spent most of the first day trying to sleep and lay down in one spot. As soon as you got up to use the bathroom or move around you would feel sick almost immediately. The second day of sailing was much calmer and therefore a much better sail...We even caught some wind and a current and made it to Cartagena a few hours ahead of schedule. Even with a little seasickness-this was definitely the way to go!

We are now in Cartagena and enjoying the city. The city is surrounded by a huge wall built 500 yeas ago to defend against pirates. The walled part of the old city has these great old buildings and so much character...It is an interesting mix of old and new-you have one area of the city surrounded by an old wall, and then a few miles away you can see the skyscrapers that have been built to modernize the city. At night, the old city is so romantic, and just such a great spot to sit outside and soak up the atmosphere. What a great city!!!

Here´s one last shot of us amid the palm trees in San Blas...