Dec 26 th, San Blas Islands, Panama to Cartegena, Colombia – about 400km by sea

I have been at sea many times, close to 20,000 miles on boats as a Chef. This felt like it took forever. I couldn’t sleep, I just tossed and turned. We could have rotated bunks but I couldn’t sleep below. It was so disgusting. I would have barfed.

It took me awhile to get hungry enough to cook in the pestilence ridden galley. It was ridiculous. Even the soap and sponges were dirty. At first I was pissed, and then I got over it. Leonardo is not allowed in most of the hostels in either Panama or Colombia for a reason. They won’t let him try to convince traveler to take his boat across to Panama or Colombia. We, however, needed a ride to Colombia and he was there. It was cheaper than flying and made for a much better adventure.

We all chipped in with meals and clean-up. If one or two of us cooked then someone else would do the dishes. A couple of the guys were too sick to help with much. They would eat and then go back to sleep in the hot, repulsive cave of a cabin.

James and I claimed the aft deck as the downstairs smelled like rotten lobsters

Dec 28 th, Cartegena, Colombia

We made it safely to Colombia in record time

Wepulled into Cartegena a starving un-washed bunch of swarthy sea dogs. We were not to be messed with in any way when we got off that boat. We needed some food, water and some personal space.

We all got along really well. Even though we couldn’t get away from each other for days, we would always have a laugh. I’m glad I went for the ride. Would I do it again? Probably not. Mostly because the boat was shit.

Our first real meal after our fateful trip

Our boat yard in Cartegena, Colombia

None of us could leave the boatyard that night!

We had to use an agent to sort out our messy paperwork. Our agent finally let us know, at 5pm that he couldn’t get our passports sorted. So we all rented rooms at the marina, which weren’t half bad, and were able to at least spend the night off of the boat. We also snuck out to the grocery store to buy all kinds of foodstuffs that we had been fantasizing about since we left Panama.

Dec 29 th, Cartegena, Colombia

All of us got our passports sorted out first thing in the morning. Isaac and I made plans to meet up with the English dudes at a hostel later. We still need to get our bike paperwork sorted out with the agent before we look for accommodations.

We get everything done, it took quite some time, and headed into the hostel part of town.

As we are driving into the Old Town I start to notice how, well, old everything is.

Cartegena is a beautiful town with a lot of really cool history. There is a gigantic fort, the largest fort the Spanish ever built outside of Spain, right downtown. The entire town is ringed by canon studded walls. This town has a very tumultuous violent past that makes for some interesting site seeing.

Deciding which hotel door I can fit my bike into

Isaac and I squeezing into the courtyard

People will let us park our bike anywhere they can fit, really

Dec 30 th, Cartegena, Colombia

We all went to go see the Gigantic Castillo De San Philippe.

Isaac painfully regaling us with a story of his incarceration in Thailand and their unorthodox search techniques

Castillo de San Philippe, largest Spanish fort built outside Spain

Our reenactment of a British raid. I am the little girl