June 20, 2014
I meant to leave earlier, but didn’t get out of the hotel
until after 11:00 because I needed to finish my blog post before leaving the
civilized world for a few days. I
shouldered my pack and walked up to the corner of the main road, where I
managed to grab a cab to the bus terminal for the correct price of $3. There was a bus to Colon leaving right
away. The fare was $3.15. I panicked at first because there was no one
at the ticket window, but then I saw the small sign that told me to buy tickets
on the bus. The bus to Colon was air
conditioned and fairly nice. I gave my
bus pass to the woman sitting next to me, since there was still about $8 left
on it. After about an hour and a half,
the bus line ended at the terminal in Colon and I walked straight onto a bus
for Portobelo. That bus was the sorriest
chicken bus I had seen on my whole trip.
The bus itself was in decent shape, but the seats were decrepit. There was nowhere to put my pack, so I chose
a collapsed seat that probably wouldn’t have been occupied, anyway. For two hours, I rode on the outboard part of
the seat that only sloped about 20 degrees towards the aisle. Even so, people perched on the collapsed part
when the bus got full. The route to
Portobelo followed the coast, taking narrow bumpy roads. I wasn’t sure I was actually going the right
way until we arrived.
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| Spanish Fort in Portobelo |
I foolishly got off the bus at the first sign for Captain
Jack’s, which was actually just an advertisement. I had to walk quite a way to the actual
hostel, which was up a hill on a street to the right of the center of
town. Portobelo is the sort of place
that looks attractive from afar, but is actually kind of a pit when you are
there. There is a nice anchorage full of
sailboats and a ruined Spanish fort. The
town straggles along the shore to a church and small plaza at the center. There were three grocery stores, none of
which had anything but crummy American beer at $1.25 a can. Fortunately, I didn’t buy any because I later
learned that there would be no way to chill drinks on the boat. I went to Captain Jack’s, despite knowing it
was overpriced, because our captain was meeting us there. I had made a cursory search for another place
to stay, but hadn’t seen anything between where I got off the bus and Captain
Jack’s. Somewhere in town, there is a
place that rents private rooms more cheaply than Captain Jack’s rents dorm
beds, but I never found it.
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| Portobelo Looks Attractive from Afar |
Captain Jack’s had no private rooms. Dorm beds cost $13 not including breakfast, although there was coffee in the morning. The terrifying reviews on the internet are mostly
the product of a deranged individual who has it out for Jack. Jack and the staff were friendly and
helpful. That said, there were
definitely issues with the place. When I
arrived late in the afternoon, I was given clean sheets, but the other beds were
still covered with dirty sheets and abandoned clothing. There was only one toilet. The smaller rooms had their own showers, but
they were over the basins, so the areas tended to be wet. The upstairs restaurant was pleasant enough,
but the prices were about 50% higher than elsewhere in Panama. At least the food was good and they had Thai
curries, which weren’t common in Panama.
Beers were $2. I shared a dorm
with three people who would be my shipmates, anyway. The space was cramped, but there was a
louvered window and two fans, so the temperature was bearable. The neighbors were celebrating Colombian
Independence Day with a very loud party, so the noise was deafening until
midnight or so.
It hadn’t occurred to me until I was already on the bus to Portobelo
that I needed $500 in cash to pay for my trip.
Portobelo didn’t seem like the sort of place that would have an ATM, so
I wasn’t sure what I would do. I asked
the clerk at one of the grocery stores in town if there was an ATM and she said
that there had been one at the bakery, but that it seldom worked. I walked over there, but couldn’t find an ATM
at the bakery. I thought maybe it had
been removed. Later, I asked again at
Captain Jack’s. They told me that the
ATM was across the street from the bakery, but they also said that it was
usually out of money. I hurried straight
there, which was fortunate because it was locked after 5:00 and I got there
about 4:50. Miraculously, it worked and
I got my cash. I took that as a good
omen for the trip.
Our captain and crew showed up to meet us about 7:00
pm. The Italian captain was named Andrea
and his Italian mate was named Enrico. Andrea's girlfriend, ChiChi, was visiting from Italy. An English girl named Rose rounded out the crew. She had joined the boat in the Canary Islands
and never left. They all seemed nice
enough. Enrico showed me where we would
be going on a chart application on his phone.
Andrea took our passports and money so that he could go to the port captain in the morning, while Enrico and Rose saw to the
provisioning. The entire group chatted
and got to know each other for a couple of hours while we waited for Hannah and
Matt, a brother and sister from New Zealand, who had accidentally taken the wrong
bus and ended up back in Panama City. I
went to bed when our little party broke up and read for a bit until some of my
other roommates came in and wanted to go to sleep.
July 21, 2014
There was no reason to get up early, so I lazed around until
nearly 8:00, when I decided to get up before there was a run on the
shower. I went upstairs for a cup of
coffee and then spent the morning using the internet and talking to Linda, a
cruiser who had a boat in the anchorage and was also using the internet. When the power went out about 1:00, I left my
pack in the common room and went down to the grocery store to buy lunch and drinks
for the trip and pick up a bit more cash, since I was starting to worry that
Columbia might not let me in if I showed up with less than $20. Once again, I lucked out with the ATM. As I came out, a local asked me if it was
working and seemed surprised when I told him that it was. While buying beer at the local grocery stores
turned out to be expensive, I got boxed wine for $3.55 and a fifth of Ron
Abuelo (rum) for under $10. Enrico said
that with two boxes of wine and a fifth of rum he could make 5 liters of
sangria. That sounded like a good
solution, since cold beer could only be purchased at $2.50 a pop.
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| Dock in Portobelo |
We were not due to leave until 4:00 in the afternoon. I spent the remainder of the afternoon at a
picnic table behind the hostel, writing and reading my book while my phone
charged. The guest kitchen facilities at
Captain Jack’s were extremely rudimentary (BBQ and laundry sink), but there was
an electrical outlet rigged under the picnic table and the internet did reach
out there. About 3:15, I shouldered my
pack, picked up my provisions and the day pack with the clothing I would need
for the trip, and walked down the hill to the dock by the fort where we were
due to meet Micamale at 4:00. Everyone
else appeared at 4:00 on the dot, but it was a bit after 4:00 when Rico showed
up. He had been in town looking for
ice. Before he could start transferring
us to the boat, he had to take the dinghy over to the shore near where he had
found ice and then take the ice out to the boat. Finally, about 4:30, he came back with the
dinghy and somehow managed to load five people and all their belongings into
the dinghy and take them out to the boat, which was on the far side of the
harbor, without getting swamped. I went
in the first group. Rico then when back
for the remaining two people.
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| Interior of Micamale and My Bunk on Right |
Our professional crew consisted of the captain, Andrea, and
his girlfriend, ChiChi, Rico and Rose.
Passengers were Ophelia and Antony from France, Bec and Kieran from
Australia, Matt and Hannah, siblings from New Zealand, and me. There was a crew cabin forward, two double cabins forward of the main salon and two double cabins aft. All of the cabins had ensuite heads. Being the odd person out, I slept in the
dinette. This was actually fine with me because it was the coolest spot and,
being amidships, also had the best motion underway. Being an early riser (I would never have said
that before this trip.), I was up before people began moving about the galley
and those who stayed up late hung out above decks where it was cooler. The only issue with my spot would have been
if we were heeled over on a starboard tack, which we never did.
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| Micamale |
When we finally raised anchor, we only went as far as a
house on the shore opposite Portobelo where we stopped to fill out water
tanks. We stayed there while the crew
made a delicious dinner of curried lentils, rice and salad. Unfortunately, there were a lot of no-see-ums
that bit me mercilessly and seemed completely immune to bug repellent. I marveled at how an insect so small could
raise a welt so many times larger than itself and cause me to itch for a week
afterwards. Not wanting to arrive at the
reefs around the San Blas Islands before it was light, we waited there, being
devoured by miniscule torturers, until 9:00 pm before we finally left the
harbor.
There was very little wind, so we motored all night. It was quite warm and humid and lightning
flashed continually over the mainland.
The sea was a bit lumpy and, after we turned to the southeast, the
swells were hitting us broadside.
Micamale had a 110 hp turbocharged Yanmar engine that allowed us to
motor at impressive speed. Even so, the
rest of the passengers, with the exception of Kieran, were all miserable. They spent the first night puking or huddling
in the cockpit. It looked like a
battlefield out there. I slept fine,
once I put my earplugs in, and was surprised to find the cockpit littered with
bodies when I got up at 4:30 am to enjoy the early morning hours. I stayed up, chatting with Rico who was on
watch, until well after dawn and then went back to my bunk and slept until 8:00
when the galley came alive.
July 22, 2014
We arrived at Porvenir and dropped anchor just after
8:00. Porvenir is the capital of Kuna
Yala, the semi-autonomous Panamanian province occupied by the Kuna
Indians. The Kuna do not appreciate their
islands being referred to as the San Blas Islands. They prefer “Kuna Yala,” which means, “the
land of the Kuna.” The tribe was
decimated by the arrival of the Spanish and only moved from the mainland to the
archipelago after their arrival. Today,
their economy is based on coconuts.
Every coconut tree in the region belongs to someone and helping yourself
to a coconut is a severe transgression.
The Kuna are friendly and appreciative of the income that tourists bring
as long as visitors are respectful of their home and their ways. It was inappropriate to swim naked or visit their
villages dressed only in swimwear.
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| Porvenir |
The city, which was only a cluster of shacks, covered three
nearby islands. Andrea went ashore on
one island to visit immigration and check us out of the country. Once he came back, we all went to the main
island to see the village. There wasn’t
much there and we were all hard pressed to amuse ourselves for an hour. There were no streets or cars on the
islands. Houses had sand floors, palm
thatch roofs, and walls made of cane.
Some were constructed on platforms over the water, including a simple,
but pleasant looking hostel that was completely unoccupied. The dwellings on the windward end of the
island had been leveled by a storm sometime previously. It was obvious that almost any sea level rise
would spell the end of habitation on the islands. Some had already been abandoned.
As is traditional in Kuna villages, there was a large
structure where the Kuna gathered in the evenings to listen to the wisdoms of
the chiefs. A two room concrete block
schoolhouse served the children of the surrounding area. The only other sturdy structure spanned the
passageway from the dinghy landing to the town, with a grocery store on one
wide and a bar on the other. Benches
lined the passageway and people gathered there to take advantage of the
shade. It was very hot and there was
very little shade on the island. The
inhabitants mostly stayed indoors. Many
women sold molas (colorful squares of cut and appliqued fabric, sometimes made
into bags or pot holders) and beaded jewelry, but they were not at all pushy. It only took us about five minutes to see the
whole village. It took us longer to find
the cooler full of cold drinks in the grocery store.
Attracted by a small orange kitten lying on a stump outside
his door, I met the local herbalist. He
was reading a medical dictionary (in Spanish) given to him by an American
doctor. He was friendly and, being the
only one in the group who spoke Spanish, I chatted with him a bit. He wanted to know where we were from and was
interested to hear that we were such an international group. As soon as Andrea had a chance to drink a
cold beer, we headed back to the boat.
We chilled for a bit and went for a swim. The crew made tasty pasta for lunch. Then we hauled anchor and motor sailed a
couple of hours further to Cay Holandes where we spent the second night.
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| Kieran at Cay Holandes |
Cay Holandes was the picture of a tropical island, covered
with coconut palms and ringed by white sand beaches, it was surrounded by reefs
and blue water. We swam again and then
went ashore to build a fire from dried palm leaves and coconut husks. Andrea and Rico had befriended Julio, the
headman of the island, on a previous trip by rigging a solar powered electrical
system for him. Julio and his wife and
dog came out to meet us when we arrived.
We invited them to dinner, but only the dog accepted our
invitation. We roasted potatoes and
peppers in the coal, grilled chicken, pork ribs and Italian sausages, and
ate with our fingers. Rico had made two
5 liter bottles of sangria and we drank most of one of them. It was too warm to sit near the fire, but it
was fun to sit around on downed palm trunks.
We all felt like we were in an episode of Survivor. Sated, we went back to the boat and were surprised to
realize that it was only about 8:30. I
managed to stay awake until 10:00 or so, but was the first one to head for my
bunk.
July 23, 2014
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| Boat at Anchor in Cay Holandes |
Our second day at Cay Holandese was devoted to snorkeling
and lazing about on the beach. Rico gave
us a ride over to the reef where we snorkeled along towards the gap between two
islands where waves were breaking. The
snorkeling was okay, but not stellar.
There were lots of small, colorful fish, but nothing large. The water was too rough to be really clear,
so we couldn’t see very far. Some people
saw small rays or turtles, but I did not.
We eventually swam to the shore and then headed back to the boat. Lunch was the leftover meat from the night
before made into tacos. They were tasty,
but definitely the most Italian tacos I had ever eaten.
Later in the afternoon, we put on some clothes and took the
dinghy across to the island to visit the village. Unfortunately, they were entertaining a
boatload of Germans when we got there.
Rico was immediately drafted to make adjustments to the solar system he
had installed the time before, but the rest of us just stood around until it
was time to go back. The village
consisted of eight or ten flimsy huts of cane and palm fronds, some of which were
covered with blue plastic tarps. Only
the chief had a solar panel. He wanted a
television, which was why he put in the solar panel, but didn’t have one
yet. They begged us to charge a cell
phone for them, but their plugs were inconsistent with our outlets. We went back to the boat, drank the remaining
sangria and played cards until Andrea produced a lovely pasta for dinner. We ate late, so I managed to last until 10:00
or so before I headed for my bunk. For once,
I was not the first person to pass out.
July 24, 2014
I got up just before six and immediately went for a swim to
rinse off all the sweat from the night before.
It felt marvelous. By the time I
had washed my hair and dried off, Rico and Rose were up and raising the
anchor. There was 14 knots of breeze, so
we sailed most of the way to Coco Bandero, where we dropped anchor around nine
in the morning. Micamale had clearly
begun life as a charter boat. Her rig
was definitely designed to be simple to sail and unlikely to become
overpowered. The mast was shorter than
normal, which resulted in a proportionately smaller main sail. She had no traveler. What little adjustment could be made to the
position of the boom was accomplished through the use of preventers permanently
rigged on each side of the boat. The
main could easily be dropped into a cradle with the assistance of lazy
jacks. The headsail was no bigger than
100% and there was not sufficient track to fly a larger one. The head foil had two tracks, so a second
headsail could be raised for downwind sailing.
Micamale was not rigged for a spinnaker.
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| Coco Bandero |
Once we anchored, Andrea and Rose served us a large
breakfast of eggs, toast, fruit, cereal and cookies. After breakfast, we all jumped in the water
and snorkeled over to the nearest island to look at the numerous large, orange
sea stars on the sea floor. The water
was very shallow. There were a lot of
sea stars, but only a few small fish. I
swam carefully over the reefs until I could surf onto the sand and climb out
onto the island. We walked completely
around the island. On one end, the water
was undercutting the island and there was a jumble of fallen coconut palms
along the shore. I swam back to the boat
and spent the rest of the afternoon on board because we had run out of fresh
water to rinse off after swimming. We had
carefully conserved our first tank of water but, unfortunately, Andrea’s
girlfriend left the tap on when the tank ran dry, so the second tank just ran
down the drain when we switched over. We
had to switch to 5 gallon bottles, so we were required to ration water after
that. Our lunch dishes were washed in
salt water.
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| Matt & Kieran on a Tiny Island |
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| Hannah Rescuing Appio's Boat |
After a late lunch, we all went our separate ways. Kieran and Matt swam to a tiny island a
quarter mile or so away. Hannah and Bec
swam to the island with the bar and souvenir stand. Ophelia and Antony swam to a different island
and Rico and Rose took the dinghy ashore.
Andrea bought lobsters from Appio, his local contact and stayed aboard
to make pasta sauce from the lobster heads.
Appio was quite a character. He
came aboard and spent a good part of the afternoon lounging in the rear of the
boat. At one point, his boat came untied
and started to drift away. He seemed
quite unconcerned and Hannah jumped in the water and rescued it for him. I stayed on the boat to photograph Kieran and
Matt’s epic swim to the island that reminded them of something out of a Far Side cartoon. The boat was swinging about on its anchor and
it was difficult to focus the camera at the extreme range of my zoom.
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| Bec and Hannah Swimming |
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| Lobsters for $4 Each |
It was dark by the time we all regrouped at the boat and
wonderful smells were issuing from the galley.
For appetizers, we gnawed on the lobster shells and legs. Then came the pasta with a salty sauce made
from lobster heads, garlic, olive oil, chili pepper and rum. We finished with delightful lobster tails
with butter, garlic and herbs. I had a
couple of glasses of red wine while everyone else drank white. After that big meal on top of a day of
swimming, we were all ready to make it an early night.
July 25, 2014
We were due to leave at 6:00 am, so I got up to take a swim
a few minutes before that, knowing that there would not be another opportunity
to bathe for a few days. We were already
out of fresh water, so I had to make due with a salt water bath, but at least
it got the stink off. We didn’t actually
leave until nearly 7:00 and most people were up by then, having risen
uncharacteristically early. We
backtracked for an hour or so until we reached the channel through the reef and
then headed out into the open sea. It
became rough almost immediately.
Micamale had a very flat bottom and only weighed 22,000 pounds. She wasn’t a tippy boat, but she frequently
launched off the top of a wave and slapped back into the water, sounding very
much like the big, plastic shell that she was.
There wasn’t much to do on board. The auto pilot was driving and the crew kept
a lookout. The cockpit was spacious, but
lacked proper cushions, so I found it difficult to sit there for long
periods. Having decided against coffee on
an empty stomach under those conditions, I was sleepy and spent most of the day
lying in my bunk, dozing and dreaming. I
got up for lunch and again for a beer about 5:00, but that put me out and I
slept through dinner. All the pasta,
rice, beans and bread were getting to me, anyway. I was happy to swear off eating for a bit.
July 26, 2014
I woke to the sound of Rico tacking the boat and got up to
see what was going on. The waves were
huge and what little wind there was came straight on the nose. Rico tacked a few times and then gave up and
doused the sails. I stayed up for a
couple of hours and then went back to sleep.
No one really wanted breakfast.
Once again, I spent most of the day in my bunk, popping out once in a
while to get some air. I got up around
lunchtime because I was thirsty. Andrea
really wanted to feed me something, but I declined lunch. He insisted that I try some of the rice from
the night before. I ate a bit, but was
unable to finish the large portion he had served me.
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| Cartagena |
About 2:00, I popped by head out and could see Cartagena in
the distance. The first sight of the
city was the skyline of tall buildings built on a peninsula that forms one side
of the bay. There is an island in the
middle of the mouth of the bay with entrances on either side referred to as
Boca Grande (big mouth) and Boca Chica (little mouth) respectively. The Spanish built a wall across the larger
opening to better protect the harbor. At
one point, the French rammed a hole in the wall. We entered through that gap which today is
well marked with red and green channel buoys.
Once we rounded the peninsula, we could see the bay spread before us
with the marina and old town ahead, modern city to the left and container and cruise
ship ports to the left. Many boats were
anchored in the bay, but we headed for the marina.
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| Cartagena Anchorage |
The marina in Cartagena is very European in that there are
no finger piers. Most boats put an
anchor (or two) forward and then back into the pier. We milled about for some time, trying to
contact the marina to determine where we should go. Eventually, they squeezed us between two
boats where we didn’t really fit. This
involved three men jumping into the water to move lines. We banged into the boat beside us and there
was lots of yelling, but we eventually managed to secure the boat to the dock
and stretch a very narrow and flimsy looking plank across to the dock.
Andrea offered us the opportunity to stay aboard overnight and eat
dinner for an additional $50. It seemed
like a lot, but I elected to do so because I would have had to return the
following day to retrieve my passport and I figured hotel, dinner, breakfast
and two taxi rides would come to nearly that, anyway. As soon as possible, I scampered ashore and
took a shower in the newly renovated bathrooms.
The shower felt heavenly.
Everyone else had left by the time I got back from my shower. Andrea, ChiChi, Rico, Rose and I went up the
street to use the free internet at the grocery store and to buy food for
dinner. I stopped at an ATM in the grocery
store and got some Colombian cash. There
are about 1800 Colombian pesos to the dollar, which makes for some large
numbers. The ATMs dispense 50,000 peso
bills.
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| Cartagena is All About Contrasts |
We were all in the mood for steak and salad. Andrea cooked delectable rare fillets that melted in our mouths and we had
a big green salad and fresh bread to go with them. Colombia definitely got the award for best
lettuce on my trip. The grocery store
was very modern and upscale. Cartagena,
at least, was very first world with prices to match. Rico and Rose excused themselves to go enjoy
some private time and Andrea, ChiChi and I sat in the cockpit, drinking wine,
enjoying the balmy evening and talking about the state of the world in a
combination of Spanish, English, and Italian.
It was a thoroughly satisfactory evening, a good way to end our adventure, and well worth my $50.
