The title really says it all -- I will describe this trip but leave conclusions for you. One thing it was, was beautiful.I was supposed to leave Cartagena on Saturday -- but since I really wanted to go to the mud volcano and the boat's captain (Carlos) did not want to leave at night he decided that we would leave Sunday morning. Like on the Navimag we all got on the boat on Saturday night so that we could leave early. There were 6 of us all together Carlos, his girlfriend (Maria), 2 Bolivian ladies (a woman (Francy) and her mom (Sophia) --76 years old!), a Kiwi guy (David) and myself.
The first night was really good, Carlos made really good pasta and then we just hung out for a bit before bed. Then at 6 am we woke up to crazy winds -- in the harbour. This type of storm is called a 'coulo de pollo' or a 'chicken's a**' Our anchor had not held and we had drifted near some other boats, Crlos go the motor running and kept the boat out of trouble .-- welcome to sailing -- and we weren't even out of the harbour yet!!!
That wakeup call kinda slowed the morning down and we all got to see how well Carlos can drag his feet when he doesn't realize how fast time is passing. We didn't end up leaving until 5 pm -- oh well. The weather since the coulo had been nice -- so when we left it was really beautiful to watch the city light up and then grow smaller and smaller. We did not have any real wind that first night and so we were using the motor and all was good. The sunset that evening was amazing!
That second night on the boat (first on the open ocean), I slept really well (in comparison to the rest of the nights -- this one was the coolest). The next day was spent on the open ocean. In the morning before eating my stomach did not like the water -- but only for a few minutes. In the middle of the day we stopped for a swim -- que rico! Carlos is a great cook -- so we ate really well. The only down side to the second day was that we got to see Carlos' attitude to Maria -- and that was not cool (no phyiscal violence). That was the downer to the trip -- and although it was not constant it always made all of us uncomfortable.The following day was again spent in open water with nothing to see but clear blue ocean. On this day we had more wind and were able to sail and not use the motor -- which was nice. I do love being on a boat just staring out at the water -- but it is not as enjoyable when the combination of sun, heat and mild seasickness makes the trip more uncomfortable -- thankfully when things cooled down a bit all was better. That night the stars were unreal -- not quite as good as in the southern hemisphere -- but since some of the southern hemisphere stars were visible -- they were spectacular!
On the last day of open ocean I was sitting on the bow looking for land in the haze in front of us when a group of about 30 dolphins came and played in our bow wake for about 30 minutes -- that was so much fun to watch.
Then about 1.5 hours later the islands of the San Blais came into view -- yea land! It stilll took anouther couple of hours to get there -- but it was fun to watch these paradise islands come into view. They all have white sand beaches and tons of coconut trees. Some are only big enough for one hut and some are quite large. We anchored at Waysanadu one of the islands, which are all run by a native group -- the Kuna. This particular island is Chief Julio's and since Carlos knows the Chief we got to hang out on the island a bit for free (normally tourists have to pay). 
That evening was spent anchored by the island and Dave, Francy, Sophia and I played lots of a new (Bolivian) card game -- good fun. The following day (Thursday), Francy and Sophia went to visit the island and Dave and I did some snorkling around the reef. There were some really colourful fish there -- my favs were a royal purple with bright orange tails :) After that in the early afternoon we left for El Porvenir, an island where we could check in to Panama. Sailing through the islands was beautiful and lots of fun. But we arrived a bit late -- or something was going on and we missed being able to get our passports stamped. There were a bunch of government officials on the island and they said -- just go to land tomorrow and and check-in in Panama City. Ok -- we said. All of us were very excited to sleep on land that night. Francy and I slept in hammoks on the beach, Sophia slept in one of the rooms and David camped. We also bought some beautiful local crafts -- I am coming close to the end of my trip and can now buy stuff -- yea!The boat that we were supposed to take left Porvenir at 6 am Sunday. We got up and went to the docks and were there at 5:40, but the boat was really just a canoe with a motor and it was full of kitchen stuff (like propane tanks). Sophia was not into that idea, and the boat left before we could really decide. So we started talking to people to figure out what to do. The local police said to go straight to land instead of going to the port we wanted to go to -- they said it would be faster -- sounded good -- so we got that organized. Half way into our 45 minute speedboat ride the motor died -- fun fun. The police came by and took us the rest of the way. Then on land we were told the 3 hour truck ride to Panama City would coast $20 each -- what!!! Between Francy and I we got it down to $10 -- still pricy but not too bad.
By this point, it was 9:30 am we had had nothing to eat and we were a bit frustrated. We bought some snacks -- yea crackers, cookies and root beer for breakie, and got into the truck. The ride was beautiful -- through the rainforest.
The truck driver dropped us off right at the immigration office at 11:20am. Good thing we got there early becuase we spent the next 5 hours waiting and arguing in order to get stamps. They tried to tell us that we needed to go back to Porvenir. Thankfully Francy is very good a talking people into things and we did get everything done.So in the end I met 3 really cool people. I now have a place to stay in Bolivia and Cuba, I did some snorking, but had to put up with a guy mistreating a girl I liked -- so nothing is perfect -- although this trip could have been. I do have a stamp and soon I will be visiting friends in Costa Rica.
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