San Blas Cruisin

Need to cross between two continents?

The area of land between Panama and Colombia, the Darian Gap, is impassible by land due to a lack of roads, no cities or even small settlements, impenetrable jungles and a stronghold for mariginalised Colombian paramilitaries and rebels.

The choices for the making of the journey between Panama and Colombia is an easy one....you could purchase expensive flights and endure the pain of customs and airports.....or you could find a boat with a good captain and sail.


We chose to sail on the Nacar II (Sailing Koala) ... one catamaran, 14 travelers, a Colombian captain, a Argentinian first mate, and 378 islands to choose from in the San Blas archipelago ... ONE HELL OF A GOOD TIME!

Lobster dinner on an island, cooked by the local Kuna people, with 14 new friends!

Our sailing trip was an extremely generous gift from Kate's parents for Christmas --- Thanks so much Helen & John, we will have these memories for a lifetime!

After 5 days without a shower, a trip to the Diana Waterfall at Sapzurro (Caribbean Colombia, only a few kms from the border) provided a much-needed group bath!

Our amazing captain, Fabian, who made the trip so great, despite 2 bilge pumps failing, the loss of all our fresh water, and one engine failing .... still has a smile on his face!

Boat party!!! Thanks to our fun new friends!

Panama City & Canal

We passed through Panama City for a couple of nights before heading on to Colombia.  We decided to take the opportunity to do some shopping to make sure our gear is ready for the next leg of the trip (this is what people seem to come to Panama City to do....shopping tourism...messed up!).


Ahhhh shopping malls ..... 

The modern architecture of Panama City is part of the city's appeal ..... while its not our kind of thing Panama seems to do this better than pretty much all Australian city's.

We also couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a look at the Panama Canal.

An engineering marvel or a human and environmental disaster? Given that 102,000 people died during its construction and the dynamic of an environment permanently altered on a continental scale, its hard to look at this structure in a positive way.

The Colonial part of town in Panama, cute but deserted.

Boquete & El sendero de los Quetzales (the trail of the Quetzals)

Boquete.  A taste of real life in Panama.  This small mountain community, despite the massive influx of expats in recent years still has a small town vibe with vibrant indigenous culture (and plenty f good coffee).

The mountains surrounding Volcan Baru are some of the most intact areas of cloud forest in Panama and Costa Rica.  We were lucky enough to hike the sendero de los quetzales (trail of the Quetzals) which was hard going but well worth the hard work for the beauty of the forests (didn't see any quetzals unfortunately).

Cave of the Tiger (Jaguar) .... Why not pose for a photo at the entrance...

Sheep with tails...soo funny!