This sailing trip was the reason I decided to explore Panama. Last time I was in Cartagena, Colombia, I heard of many people who’d sail on boat for 3, 5 or 7 days to Panama. I heard there were tiny beautiful islands with no human foot prints on the way, and that it was the ultimate connection one could make with the open seas, the blue skies and the peace and quiet that nature offered.
I looked up various boats and decided that I wanted to sail with a bunch of people to make the trip more fun. I heard that on the way, we’d get to meet the Kuna people, the completely self sufficient aboriginals of Panama, who made living off fishing and would move with the fish around the Caribbean. I had chosen the Sacanagem boat, which I later found out, means “orgy” in Portuguese. The Captain’s name was Hernandez. I made several calls to make sure I had a spot on the 11 person boat. In Lunas Castel, I asked the guys to secure my spot again, and they assured me that the Captain knew about it.
I woke up at 3 in the morning, waiting with others for Jeep to arrive and take us to the departure point. I was so sleepy, I dont remember much of that trip. I remember being woken up for stops at a big grocery store and many many instances of us having to pay Kuna ‘taxes’ ranging from $3 to $ 20 dollars. I felt a crazy pain in my stomach and suspected that I am about to get food poisoning. In the grocery store, I asked for some medication since once you are on the boat, good luck asking the fish to cure you. The pharmacist gave me LAXATIVES which I suspected would make me worse, but I took what I could.
Finally after 6 hours and a horrible horrible ride up a mountain with the Jeep jumping so high up in the air you’d feel like you were flying, we got to a river. The Kuna people were waiting for us to take us to our respective boats. I couldnt find anyone taking people to Sacanagem. I asked the Jeep driver but he had no idea what was going on. An hour later, rain started pouring down and I found myself alone with the Kuna people who had no interest in helping me. After begging one for an hour, I managed to call the hostel, and they informed me that the Captain was not answering calls. I was already having stomach pain and under the rain; I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, 7 hours away from Panama city and with no one who could help me. I kept on telling myself this is traveling and nothing can always go right, that this is a part of the trip and that I should be calm and happy just to be there.
Regardless, I got frustrated cause I had no idea what to do… so I started crying like a little girl in front of everyone! finally it worked and one of the Kunas offered to take me to where he thought the Captain was for another $20. I had no choice but to agree, and we set sail in the pouring rain and the wind. We rode the ocean for an hour… in the middle of nowhere and not knowing if I was going to the right island.
Finally the Kuna stopped and there was no sight of Sacanegem. I got off the boat since I saw a tiny hostel on one of the Islands and asked a very nice lady if she had seen Sacanegem.. fortunately she had, and assured me that we would find it. The Kuna happy to hearthe news asked for another $10, and we continued our chase across the ocean.
By the time we got to Hernandez’s boat, the sun had came up and I saw a bunch of very cool people on the boat. He greeted me and said he had made a mistake. That his boat was full and couldnt take me on. But he said he had a solution, and told me there is a luxury boat next to him with a Captain who’s been sailing around the world for 9 years. The new Captain did not sail commercially, but had agreed to help me this time. His boat was smaller, but boy was it ever incredibly amazing. The inside of the boat was better looking than a lot of houses I have seen, and he had every safety equipment and basically anything a human would need and more. He was by himself, so obviously the first thing I asked was whether there would be others coming. He informed me that there were 2 couples and a girl joining us the next day. Again, cause Hernandez fucked up.
I took a long nap on the boat after 14 hours of traveling. I woke up to him making me an amazing fruit bowl with oats and a delicious coffee. We then went over boat safety and he started training me on sailing. Before we knew it it was down, and after the storm and rain, I finally saw the most incredible and beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life. It was breath-taking and I finally went back to being comfortable and happy.
He told me that he was a big business man with a lawyer wife, who left him last year after 8 years of sailing. They had a baby on the boat and raised her there until the wife decided she wanted to go back to reality, and took the girl with her. He continued to Madagascar and became lonely ever since. He had brought salt from Madagascar. He made a margarita for us with that salt. I never thought salt would taste good. But this was something else. We had a lobster dinner and some more wine. He had surround sound inside and outside the boat, so we played some great music and talked the night away.
The next morning around 7am, El Captain woke me up and pointed to the tiniest island about 200 meters away. There were 3 palm trees in total and white white sand. He asked if I wanted to swim there and do some yoga. I happily accompanied him. The ocean floor was so clear that from 20 meters above I could see every starfish, eagle ray and reef sharks that passed by.
The breezy air caressed against my hair and the white sand looked fresh against my tanned skin. We did yoga for about an hour, and I felt like a new born baby. Later our fellow sailors arrived. A British couple, an American couple and an awesome girl who was a naturopathic doctor from the U.S. They brought a wack load of food and we all sat down and got to know each other.
We sat down in the evening to have some Crab dinner, but my food poisoning had seemed to come back, so I took the laxatives (stupid me) and basically puked and spent the night in the ocean. The next morning we went to another series of Islands. The water was so warm that we had a hard time swimming in it, but the beauty was so infinite and pure that we spent the entire day snorkeling and having beer on various little islands. The Kunas would come to our boat by their tiny boats and try to sell us fish. We had our own equipment and often caught our own.
We chilled and played cards, taking turns watching over the boat and relaxing. The next morning we set sail to Colombia. Unfortunately, there wasnt much wind but the boat took care of itself. The couples started taking anti-sea sickness medicine and I saw them sleeping basically the entire trip. If not that, they would wake up and watch movies on the plasma TV and go back to bed. I never understood why because if there is ONE time you let go of TV and movies, its when you are in the middle of open sea with the most beautiful views and all the nature and privacy you would ever ask for. Why would you waste a second of it watching something you could watch at home? Anyways, the naturopathic doctor girl gave me some natural medicine which took care of both my food poisoning and possible sea sickness. We would spend the nights under the infinite stars and talked about astronomy and physics. We talked about life and where we had been before.
I honestly dont know what I would do without Karen (the girl) who was basically my best friend on there since the Captain had taken a ‘shining’ on me and wouldnt leave me alone, and the other girls thought their bfs acted funny around us.
On the last day of sail, in the open sea and under the rain I saw a small creature coming towards us in the air. It was tiny yellow bird.. the cutest little thing who was absolutely not scared of humans. It blew my mind that it had managed to fly that much to get to us since we hadnt seen land anywhere close and it would not have any way of resting anywhere. It came in and sat on our heads and bodies and the boat. 5 minutes later its lover came by and the little delightful visitors stayed with us for a few minutes before going their separate ways. It was so delightful to hang out with them…
Sailing for 5 days really makes you alienated from the entire world. There is nothing that would connect you to other humans or life except the ones on the boat. The birds really made a huge impact on us and we were very sad to see them go. On the fourth day we finally approached our first Colombian Island which was about 3 hours away from Cartagena. We got off and couldnt walk straight for about a couple hours. We felt dizzy and couldnt understand how the ground underneath us was not flowing and so still! we chilled by an empty hotel’s pool side and ordered fries! Another beautiful sunset passed by. We wanted so bad to talk to all the locals after 4 days of no socializing. We went inside the village, heard some reggae music and people dancing to it . Obviously some guy came and talked to me and Karen trying to sell us everything from food, beer to cocaine. It was really funny. He asked us to pay him 200 dollars to cook for all of us. But said he needed the money first, and then he’d go inside the village and find a lady to cook. Riiiiight.
After the sunset, El Captain came and picked us up to sleep on the boat. We had some beers and great music, and went to bed excited to land in Cartagena the next day. I woke up early in the morning under the shining sun, trying to take in every last little bit of the sail since I had not experienced peace like that all my life. I was gathering my stuff when I saw a yellow thing underneath one of the boat shields. It was the bird that visited us a couple days ago. It was dead. I held it in my hand and cried for good while before kissing its head and giving it back to the ocean and the mother nature.
Karen and I got off the boat super excited to see others and be city girls once again. I had to take the bus that very day to Medellin since I basically had no time to spare. Colombia again, from the first moment, did not disappoint. The taxi driver took me to the bus stop, got off his car, got me a bargain ticket for the bus, got me some water and gave me a big hug goodbye.
Saying goodbye to the sailing chapter of my life, I took the bus for 15 hours to Medellin.
If anyone is reading this blog and contemplating doing the sail, holly shit, DO IT! It is between $370 – 400 for the whole 5 days including food, drinks ,etc. But its not even about the money, it is about a side of the Caribbean that not too many people experience. The San Blas Islands are hands-down the most beautiful islands I have ever seen, and with little to know human foot prints on them, they will connect you to your nature and your core being like no other. I have visited many many beaches including the ones from Thailand and South East Asia, and never experienced something like it. Trust me, DO IT 
