This trip has been planned for the most part in order to get me to South America (my 7th & final continent!) before I turn 40 next month. I've been hearing amazing things about Colombia since it's now safe for international travelers, AND I've long had my eye on a Panamanian island group called the San Blas. And THEN (isn't this exciting?) learned that there are organized boat trips running from Panama to Colombia via the San Blas. Too perfect.
So in the wee hours of the morning after our last day in Panama City, we joined a group of 25 for the 4WD ride across Panama to Carti (technically passing into the beginning of the forbidding, impassable jungle of the Darien Gap) and set out on our four-day voyage through the San Blas to Colombia. The first island we stopped at (for lunch on the first day) looked like this:
And no, I'm not kidding with this. It just kept going like that. Pristine white sands, amazing blue waters, paradise islands everywhere.
Each day we traveled 2-3 hours further south in fiberglass boats among waves that left us all pretty sopping wet and perhaps in need of a chiropractor...but it was still kind of fun, especially since sea sickness didn't haunt me. On the first night we stayed on this island...
...and slept (surprisingly well) in hammocks.
The two following nights we also slept in hammocks, but in island villages of the indigenous Guna tribe, which is a totally fascinating, strong, independent culture that I knew nothing about before this and loved learning about.
A toilet, islands-style; they just build a platform over the water and your stuff drops straight down. The fish take care of the cleaning up!
One of the two boats our group of 25 rode in.
SUCH a cool experience!
