Panama

1st Stop Bocas del Toro

We decided to cross the Costa Rica - Panama border on the Caribbean side and spend some more days near the Carribbean see...we stayed at an island group which is called Bocas del Toro. In the beginning, we were afraid that it is too touristy since we read some bad articles about it...but in the end, we had 3 great days enjoying the sun, the beach, warm and clear water...

do you see me????

Bocas del Toro consists of one main island, which is Isla Colon, and then a couple of other islands with the most popular one Isla de Bastimentos. As you can see on the pictures we went to a beach where we found starfish, also called Playa de Estrellas on Isla Colon. There we found these great yellow flotadores...perfect to chill out on the beach and in the ocean! Guess how much they cost....300 dollars!!!!

The second day we visited Wizard Beach, famous among surfers.

big starfish right in front of us!

chilling out on our flotador

relaxing on the terrace of our hostel

2nd Stop Boquete

After more than a week on the Carribean see we decided to spend some days in a chilly pueblo in the mountains. So we decided to go to Boquete. If you look at the map of Panama, Boquete seems close to Bocas del Toro,but in fact you have to go via David near the Pacific coast since there are no direct roads to Boquete.

Once we arrived in Boquete, it was cold and rainy...and for the first time in the last 4 months we wore are rain jackets!!! We stayed two days in Boquete. The first day we followed a track called the Hidden Waterfalls. The second day we rented a scooter and discovered the area ourselves. That wasnt too easy since there are lots of mountains...with a little scooter carrying two people!

Check out some pictures here...

 

outfit fit perfectly with our scooter

Cocktails Quetzal and Mojito

3rd stop: Santa Fe

Santa Fe is a small village of 3000 inhabitants in the northern part of Panama, 500 meters high. We arrived in the afternoon in our hostel La Quia and fall in love within the first minute. This is the best hostel we ever stayed in!It has one big wodden house with a huge balcony and our room is so big and has the best mosquitonet we ever had! soooo big and we do not feel like in a carcel....haha. And the stuff is sooo friendly!! 

What we did here? The first day we went up to a waterfall, called Bermejo. The trial was quite exhausting, because everything here is soo steep! It always goes up and down, up and down... you can imagine how our knees and legs do feel like. But the waterfall was really nice and we could have a swim there. 

The second day we went to a guy called William who rents tubes for going down a river and he acts like a guide here. So we had an adventurous hour in a river, who went very fast and strong due to rain the day before... well, in the end we both stucked once, Michael fall out of the tube once, Magdalena had to get out of her tube due to stucking the 2nd time... but we really enjoyed our trip which we did with 2 nice guys from Canada ( one of them, 41years, is doing, meaning working, NOTHING, for already 15 years!! he did some "good investments" before and now he has been chilling for sooo long! Imagine this!).

In the afternoon we visited the organic farm of a nice Panamian couple, Maria and Chong. They showed us around and explained us how they grow corn, rice, all kinds of vegetables and coffee organically. They were really friendly and outgoing! They charged 5$ for the visit, which is just fair - we learned sth about their life and their farm, and they make quite a good business. Last year, they told us, they had about 200 people visiting.

Unfortunately, we werent very lucky with the weather - when we got there, it started to rain and it kept on raining on our way home. But we got used to it...

The third day, my birthday, we just did a little hike to a waterfall and then spent the afternoon relaxing, went to internet cafe, enjoyed a nice birthday cake (thanks, Michael) and had a great dinner at a little pizza place!

Waterfall Bermejo with Magdalena in it

We had some difficult trails to hike..

4th Stop Santa Catalina

Santa Catalina is a small town on the pacific coast and is supposed to be THE surf spot in Panama. Well, to be honest, we did not really like it there. The 'vibe', if there is one, was a bit strange, we met only strange people and the prices were really high. Although we had a quite nice outdoor kitchen in our hostel called SurfsideInn, it was almost impossible to buy things as they had only 2 very small supermarkets with almost nothing in it... so we had 2 dinners with only pasta! But the GOOD thing was, that Santa Catalina is the place for trips to Isla Coiba. This is a mini island, around 1h boat trip in the pacific ocean, and the whole area around it is a National Waterpark. We did a snorkeling trip one day and it was amazing! We were lucky as we joined a diving group and were the only snorkelers, so we had our private guide and saw lots of fish. Just think of any colourful fish of the film Nemo, we saw it! Haha. No really, it was impressive. So many fishes and even sharks and turtles (well, underwater only magdalena saw it, although I was right next to her!!! damn it). From the boat we saw even more big turtles swimming in the sea, dolpins and rays jumping around. The cool thing was, that you really noticed, that the animals are living there and were not feeded or something like that by the guides to come along... Cool day!!

drinking our new favourite chile wine from Chile, called Clos

5th Stop Ciudad de Panama

When we got into Panama City, first thing we did by bus was crossing the canal - wow, how impressive, all the containers and the ships! Again, we are staying in a Mamallena Hostel, like in Boquete and enjoy a nice kitchen and pancakes every morning! Overall, the city is quite amazing. Old and new buildings are so close to each other...The only annoying thing here are the mosquitos.....oh and it is super warm here!!!

We have about a week here in Panama City, so we dont have to stress ourselves!

The first day we visited Casco Viejo, Panamas old town before people started to move to the city centre of today due to the canal. It was super interesting to see all these old buildings and in the background the skyline with all the new buildings. Btw. Casco Viejo is UN World Heritage, so it is, indeed, a must see. The strange thing is that this part of the town is also quite posh with lots of expensive and high end restaurants and bars.

When we arrived Casco Viejo, we had a delicious lunch at the Seafood Marked, Mercado de Mariscos, including the typical dish "Ceviche", which is raw fish marinated in oil, limon, salt and onions. 

The second day we went to Panama Viejo, where the Spanish first built Panama City in the 16th century. Only a few ruins are left, but still it is interesting to imagine that this was Panama City in the past. For the first time, we took the bus. Bus rides in Central America are always interesting. Loud music, lots and lots of people, like an organized chaos! In the evening we enjoyed a nice aperitiv at the rooftop bar of the Tantalo Hotel in Casco Viejo and then a nice dinner in the same area. Very delicious....

The third day we were fed up with the heat and the warm weather, so we went to one of the posh malls with a good AC and to the movies. American Pie 3 - definitely a fun movie! And the best, popcorn acaramelado...mmhhh

The fourth day we went to see the causeway, an avenue with palm trees a bit outside of the city with a great view of the skyline. The fifth and almost last day we spent visiting the canal. There is a museum and a good mirador to view one of the three locks. We were lucky and could watch two big cargo ships go through, one of them with the maximum size.

We really enjoyed Panama City, but in the end we were looking forward to move on and to finally embark on our sailing boat to Panama...

Sailingtrip to Cartagena, Colombia passing the San Blas Islands

1st day:
We left Portobelo, a small town on the caribbean coast of Panama in the evening around 8pm. We took a small boat to our big sailing ship. Rachel, our co captain, showed us our nice room, which was actually only consisting of a doublebed( well, 1,20m on the top, getting more tiny at the bottom...) and then less than 1squaremeter to stand. But what do you need more if you only sleep there? So it was ok and we were lucky because the others had even less space...

2nd day:
We arrived in the early morning at the promised paradise islands of San Blas! Actually they do look like paradise but we had bad weather, meaning little rain and, of course.,clouds. That fact dumped a bit the mood of everyone but we tried to do the best of it and had a swim from our boat to the Kuna Island. There we had a nice walk around the island (which took us around half an hour...) and met the "boss" of the island, Giulio. Imagine a indiginous 70 year old man, sitting on a chair, looking at you and winking to you to invite you to talk to him. Actually you really have to ask for permission to walk around these little islands, because they are supposed to be private islands of the Kuna People. We had a nice talk about how he and the rest of this tiny village ( 5 houses ) live and walked and swam back to our boat. The first day we had a great dinner with lobster which was caught by the local Kuna People and cooked by our chiefcooks Rachel and Jeff. We watched him killing the still living lobster...have a look at the pix. This lobster we had was more than fresh! After having some drinks ( we bought rum - abuelo anejo - and some coke and lime before ) we went to bed not too late.

morning swim

3rd day:
We stood up quite early as in the small cabins it gets quite hot and you are really looking forward to breathing some fresh air, although the cabins have 2 small windows ( these typical holes in the wall ) and one big on the top to the deck of the boat. We both had a nice swim before the delicious bananapancakebreakfast. In the afternoon we headed to another island, having a wonderful sunny 2 hours trip through the Archipel of San Blas! The next spot we anchored was amazing as well. Between 2 "big" islands and a bit furhter the smallest island we have ever seen! Must be the smallest of all San Blas or even earth...:-) On both spots a small boat of Kuna people arrived and showed us their handicrafts from their boat or even came up to ours to hand it over. Of course Magdalena could not resist, as almost every girl on board. Look at the pix! The most impressive thing was the high amount of starfish we saw on the island next to our boat. After jumping and a 5 min swim you reached the island and could see hundreds of starfish lying around the island, so cool! We have never seen ( ok, Bocas del Toro we saw some ) before starfish and then sooooo many! We loved it.

Also the snorkeling around the island was so beautiful, swimming with and through hundreds of colourful fishes who actually try to play with you is a lot of fun! In the evening after our dinner we went by boat again to that island where one of the Kuna guys made a bondfire for us. We took our drinks and sat down there, chilling and talking. After a while a group of another sailing boat, Wildcard, joined us. That was quite nice although after talking and getting to known them we were really happy about our nice relaxing and not freaking out party group on our boat! :-)

Most beautiful sunset ever seen

 

 

4th day:
We had again a nice morning swim before breakfast and after that Harry, one of the crew. drove us by a small boat to this tiny island I talked before. Sooo incredible small, we surrounded it in 5 minutes. Unfortunately there was some trash, bottles, on the island....do not know if from some travellers or even the Kunas. Around the island you could do again nice snorkeling. After our last and best lunch we headed up to Colombia, so all our stuff had to be packed save, because from now on it would get more shacky... But actually we were lucky as the sea was quite calm and we had to use even the motor, so nobody got really sick. (ok, we took also these pills, just in case...) But this evening was all about NOT drinking alcohol but seeing the 1st time in our lives a moonrise! Wow! Normally in Germany when the sun goes down, we already see the moon. But not here. After around 2 dark hours the moon rises around 9pm on the horizon, like the sun, starting red and getting yellow after a while. And sooo big, crazy.

Smallest island of San Blas - pictureperfect

Can u find Magdalena on the small island?

5th day:

The next day we stood up and the weather was again phenomenal. Sun sun sun! And it was supposed to be the whole day sailing day! In the early afternoon, Jeff, our captain and Harry put on the sails, which were 2 small and 2 big ones and from then on we were a real sailing boat! Impressive, so cool but from then on the boat lay down a bit, meaning it slanted to the right. From then on we were a bit faster and this is also the reason we reached Cartagena, Colombia, already in the late evening, around 11pm and not as expected the next morning. Magdalena and I, and few others stayed awake till we reached the harbour of Cartagena with its nice skyline by night - was a really good feeling, having arrived finally Cartagena! We crossed not only a country, but a whole continent by a sailing boat! WOW !

Summarize:
We really loved this sailing trip with ONE WORLD. We loved the boat, the food and the crew was always nice, helpful and you really noticed that they want to have happy passengers on board. Thanks Jeff, Rachel and Harry. All the best for your future trips!