Panama City, San Blas and the SY Maluco!

Hola!
This entry finds me tired, sweaty and a few hundred clicks closer to the equator. After posting a long awaited entry about the Cuba leg I figured it's time to catch up while the Internet is fast and free.

A week after flying from Cuban shores I find myself in Columbia. I took the least direct route possible to get here. A very early morning flight took me from Cuba's Havana to Panama City. The change was instantaneous and left me a little 'reversed-culture' shocked. Vending machines littering the airport spoke of the things to come. Wow there is food here, lots of it! Oh look a car made in the last 10 years! Wow look at the billboards, they aren't pushing government messages, this time it's Nike oh look that one is for hair dye, what a strange and seemingly unimportant thing to put on such a large billboard! These thoughts came out in little outbursts of noise, generally high pitch gasps or low humming and hawing. These sights, which i grew up with, seemed so alien and so pointless.

Panama City is cool, it's growing like a little Dubai, thriving after they took control of the famous canal which splits their country in two. There is money there and lots of it, but saddled up nice and tight next to these amazing over-the-top construction sites are slum cities, areas in which even the police are afraid to go. I can't comment too much on the city itself nor the country because as it turned out we had to make a run for the coast to make the SY Maluco sail boat to Columbia. From what I saw and heard, I would love to go back and explore Panama, so much to see.

So en-route to Puerto Lindo we passed the canal, Jurassic park-like rain forest (minus the velocoraptors) and managed to find our way to the sleepy little bay where rested our Venezuelan Captain John and his wife Eleene. We boarded the SY Maluco and set sail to the San Blas archipelago, a serious of 100's of picture-perfect tropical paradise islands inhabitant by the local Indians, the Kuna people.

The first day was hell, an 8 hour journey to the islands was spent in total motion sickness, avoiding actually being physically sick through a combination of meditation and sleep. The next days proved to be the best relaxing, swimming, snorkeling and relaxing (did I say that twice?) I've done in a long time.

The islands were perfect, the water was warm and clean and the sun shone bright from morning to night. The stars were unhindered by any light pollution and the rain during the early hours of the morning cooled things down.

Unfortunatly all good things end, as did the island stay and thus starting the 36hour sail to Cartagena in Columbia. It wasn't easy but I managed, no real sea sickness but the endless water and the sun's heat was, at some points, unbearable. It was nice to set foot on land again but my sea legs made the first few hours difficult. I have come to the definite conclusion that I am no sailor nor will I ever have a desire to be so, but I did love the cruisy island life and in some ways envy the life of John and Eleene.

From Columbia,

Mikey Fitz