Shipwrecked

One thing has been decided for sure. Brian and I are land lubbers. Our high seas adventure was definitely that… an adventure. But don't worry, the boat didn't actually sink. Not that the ocean didn't give it her best effort, though. Curiosity got the best of us while we were waiting in Portobelo, Panama to load onto the sailboat that was going to take us on a five day journey through the San Blas islands, and then though the open ocean to the second half of our journey down the Americas, landing in Cartagena, Colombia. We checked the maritime weather websites to see how our trip would fare. We saw it then and got to experience it firsthand. Conditions; hazardous. 

The sailboat Luka is famous. She, captain Tom and Wacek(vas-chek) the dog are in the Guinness book of world records for sailing around the world, solo (all alone!), non-stop (not for food or fuel, nothing!) against the winds (the wrong way!). We knew we were in good hands from the beginning. The first three days were near bliss… island hopping in the picturesque San Blas islands, our only concerns were whether we had enough sunscreen on. 

For the last two days on open ocean I cannot really find the words to describe the nightmare of jolting-seasickness haze. Captain Tom had warned us that we would probably all get sick. But one always hopes in these scenarios that they will be the exception. Not fifteen minutes after Tom had us all go below deck for safety reasons (15 feet waves that were breaking over the boat and thirty-five plus winds) I lost my dinner. Brian confessed that was when he started to panic… 15 minutes down, 36 hours to go. 

It was early morning when the seas calmed and we woke to the sight of land. Tom admitted that the conditions were much worse than he was letting on, and the ripped middle sail, from top to bottom, and the broken navigation lights at the bow couldn't lie. Cartagena looked like the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. And I think I might have heard angels singing. Land ho!!

If anyone is wanting to do the Panama-Colombia trip by sea, bring your motion sickness medications and definitely go with Captain Tom and the Luka! Check them out at Skipthedariengap.com. 

Cartagena, Columbia looks like a city out of a fairytale. Monday morning we will  go and pick up our sorely missed Claudette from customs and head to the mountains. A little elevation will do us some good. 

Portobelo life

Land Ho! Wait... but we havent even left yet!

Wacek defended his boat with vigor against... everything. He was a good sea-dog.

When the seas were calm and smiles were easy.

San Blas

Happy kid.

Watch out for the reef sharks!

Procuring lunch. Well trying, anyways.

Reaping the fruits of his labors.

The Luka crew. A fabulous mix of Germans, Irish, Portuguese and Portlandians. That night we slept on the beach on an old sail tarp under the stars. 

The Man himself, Captain Tom, with his wife and first mate Bea and head of security, Wacek. 

One of the best views of the whole trip. Land.

Someone finally got a haircut!

A muse of Cartagena

Yum. Thats all there is to say. 

Just a couple of curvy girls out on the town.

The "after" picture. Brian swears he will only get his haircuts now in Colombia.  And I agree. Rawr! 

Booty!

After all we had read about shipping our car to Columbia, we have been relieved(so far) with how easy its been. We lucked out and found a great couple to share a 40' shipping container with. Zachary and Sachi have been driving south from Los Angeles for about 8 months in a '94 Tacoma loaded down with surfboards(literally, they have 6 or 7 with them). After a car inspection in Panama City, we took to Portobelo and checked into a diveshop/hotel for a week. On the Caribbean side of Panama, Portobelo is an old Spanish port that was frequently raided by pirates (the Spanish stored and counted their stolen gold here so who can blame em?). Henry Morgan sacked the port in the 1600's and Sir Francis Drake's ship was sunk about a kilometer off shore. The dive hotel has been a great spot to hang out and snorkel and read while waiting to load the van at a shipping port in Colon. We went in yesterday to hammer out all the rest of the paperwork drop the car and though it took about 8 hours to make all the stops and get our paperwork completed, it was easier than anticipated. Any readers interested in the specifics of the process, please email- we have a great contact at the booking agency and can explain in detail the process. And so we left the van and Zachary's truck(the "marshmallow") at the port and bussed it back to Portobelo. We'll see her again in Columbia! 

When I got my PADI open water certification for diving a few years ago, it took an online course, several hours of classroom instruction, weekly trips to a Gresham swimming pool and a weekend in the Puget Sound. Before they took Lindsay to 45 feet today she was taught a few hand signals and how to clear her mask. The lesson took all of 8 minutes. She demonstrated her calm, calculating manner when after the mouthpiece became separated from her regulator 30' she found her safe second almost immediately. We dove down to a line of reef and checked out the remains of a 400 year old wreck that is suspected to be Drake's ship. Not a bad way to spend a morning. 

huge!

The Marshmellow & Claudette.

official business, Zachary recording every word

get off the cannon, Linds.

Zachary & Sachi

This is Boris- our booking agent for shipping the rigs. so far so good...

when the construction @ the panama canal is finshed, it'll be able to handle a single ship loaded with over 10,000 of these bad boys.

On the road again!

Leaving Puerto Viejo we hit the road running. It was funny how quickly we both got accustomed to living indoors. The transition back to overloading life went smoothly, but normal anxieties like "where are we going to sleep tonight" and "were running out of gas in the panama jungle and a gas station is nowhere to be found" felt like we were fresh out of the gates of Portland again. But after a few hundred miles, we are back on our game, and Claudette as home sweet home has never been sweeter.

The border crossing into Panama was muy tranquillo… and maybe a little too tranquillo for the border employees. The seguro (insurance) man returned an hour and half later than when he was supposed to come back to his desk. The guys at the Aduana (customs) were in their office, but their focus was more on alcohol and pretty ladies in the office. We didn't believe the German guy in front of us who said they were drinking until we got to the window and saw it for ourselves. We really couldn't believe that they managed to print up our vehicle permit without any errors. 

Claudette pounded pavement as we headed to north to Colon to meet our broker for shipping the car. His office, in the second largest "zone libre" in the world, took us two hours to find. Think "duty free" at the airport spread over 20 city blocks. The crux in this whole trip is getting ourselves and the van into Colombia all in three separate whole pieces. Boris seems like very capable hands to place the fate of Claudette while she travels between continents. 

That same evening we headed South (we were at both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in one day!) to Panama City where we met the folks who we will share the vehicle container and thus the super high costs of said container. 

Panama city is umber metropolitan. We thought that we might have taken a wrong turn and ended up in Hong Kong. It is huge. And of course our first night we got lost. At night. And made our way into the slums.  After a few tears on my part we turned towards bright lights and eventually found a place for the night. I wont say that it was a hotel connected to a shopping mall. I also wont say that we got dinner at Tony Romas. Im a little embarrassed. 

Tonight a hostel with 140 other stinky kids in bunks. Lunascastlehostel.com 

Miraflores locks on the Panama Canal tomorrow.

The bridge from Costa Rica to Panama. Eek!!

"Hey can I have a little sip??"

Muddy river and a muddy van

Volcano rainbow!

I heart Panama!

Driving over the Panama Canal 

Ceviche mixto. $1.25 and the best ceviche you will ever have.

Guatemalan chicken buses are back for revenge! They are bigger, meaner and stronger!

Good looking Panamanian boy I found in the street. 

Getting cozy in bunks 109 and 110 at the hostel