A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama

It is difficult and dangerous to cross the area between Colombia and Panama known as the Darien Gap. Supposedly there is no road going through it and it is thick jungle and swamp. Some people believe it is impassable because of the dense jungle, others think it is because of the drug trafficking there that makes it impassable (if you want to keep your life). A friend I met in Chile paddled a canoe with his bike in it across the water along the coast of the Gap and made it across but not without first having his canoe get swamped by waves and losing his GPS and camera. He did not recommend doing that and it didn't sound fun to me anyway. I met many others who crossed this waterway by sailboat. It was an expensive option but it came highly recommended so I decided to go around the Darien Gap by sailboat.

Even though most of Central America is located north of Colombia, Panama is located south of my jumping off point of Cartegena, Colombia. Going south to Panama the winds are favorable and the crossing is less turbulent but I was still seasick for a few hours.

We saw dolphins very early on in the crossing! It was a great omen! These guys stayed with us for about 5 minutes.

The cabin I shared with Sonia (a New Zealander by birth who transplanted to the USA). One bed, no fan, hot as hell!

The captain Tilson and his mahi mahi catch. He said this was the biggest mahi mahi that he had ever caught. It was 4.6 feet/1.41 meters long (I had a measuring tape with me believe it or not).

Death by intoxication...or alcohol abuse...Tilson poured rum in the gills to kill it. 

The San Blas Islands off of the northern coast of Panama. We arrived here after a day and a half crossing in open seas (and seasickness). A group of indigenous people called the Kuna live here in a politically autonomous comarca or reservation called Kuna Yala.  

Some of the passengers left to right; Sonia (my Kiwi/American cabin mate), Linnea (front, Colombian), Lisa (Irish), Enda (Irish), Stacey (British), Antonia (Colombian), me!

I had no expectations for good food on this trip. I just assumed it would be typical Latin American food but Luana was an excellent cook and when she purchased some lobster from the locals in the San Blas Islands it was a great treat!

Fajitas!

I couldn't have asked for a better group of people with which to cross the Gap.

Dan sitting way back on the left of the photo is the British guy I had met up in Taganga and happened to be booked on the same boat.

Lisa and I chilling on the deck. Lisa looked a lot like Sandra Bullock. I wish I could have taken a representative photo of the resemblance. This one doesn't show it that much.

A bit overloaded tender boat-must have been that good food Luana was preparing every day!

This was a wreck protruding out of the water off shore of one of the islands. We visited 4 different islands in the 3 days we were in the San Blas Islands.

Antonio hanging around.

Some of the Kuna locals visited our boat  to sell their craft work when we were moored offshore. 

The Kuna are famous for their bright molas, a colorful textile art form made with the techniques of applique' and reverse applique'.

The Kunas do a lot of bead work as well. Many wear beaded ankle cuffs and arm bands.

Kuna women in a dugout canoe with colorful head scarfs paddle to another sailboat moored nearby. 

A Kuna village.

I went back to the San Blas on a separate trip after the sail crossing and stayed in this bungalow. When it started raining really hard the locals scurried to cover leaks in the bamboo wall and ceiling to keep the rain out. I slept briefly with a huge piece of plastic over me until they got it worked out.

This flag caused some Israeli tourists some distress when they arrived at the island. We were offloading the boat and I heard them complain/question the boatman about this flag and he had to explain it was the flag of the Kuna people. The Kuna flag explained per Wikipedia;The swastika-based design was adopted by the Kuna in 1925. Some variations on this flag have been used, with red top and bottom bands, or with a red ring hung around the base of the top arm of the swastika; the latter was added in 1942 to "de-Nazify" the flag.  

This storm was fun to watch. The lightning show was great!

Like in Ecuador and Colombia, fried plantains (a type of banana) are very popular accompaniments.

Beaded ankles are very typical on Kuna women.

Kuna women working at their handicrafts.

I don't know why vertical photos do not upload correctly sometimes in Blogger even though my photos are rotated upright first! This blog site has caused me to rip my hair out at times because of the formatting issues!

Leaving the island to go back to the mainland. :(

Passing another island, there are approximately 378 in the San Blas archipelago and many are uninhabited.

In full traditional dress these women wait for boat transport back to their island.

A small lancha was taken to leave the islands and enter Panama officially. 

The Kuna guard their comarca with checkpoints controlling entry and exit and by charging fees.

Tankita, still apart from crossing in the cargo hold of the boat, waits patiently for me to ride again :).

My friend Eric has a co-worker with a house in Panama just outside of Panama City and that co-worker, also an Eric, said I could stay in his house when I passed through there. Spartan is the 235 pound/107 kilogram English mastiff guard dog and Yaneris (Colombian) and Joe (American) are the caretakers of Spartan and the house. Yaneris and Joe put up with me relaxing in the house for several weeks. Joe was a life saver for me when my computer crashed really badly. I would never have had it running again without him! This blog brought to you by Joe's efforts! :)

As you can see Spartan is a pretty big boy. I thought it was crazy that I barely had to lean down to be nose to nose with him!

There's a whole lot of jowls going on!

The view off of the back porch where I utilized the hammock a lot.

The house was truly a mansion!

My room while I was there.

A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama is just a fun palindrome (a word or sentence that reads the same forward as it does backward) my friend Eric shared with me. I wanted to see the Panama Canal while I was in Panama but I was much more impressed by it than I had thought I would be. It is really interesting to see these massive ships pass through here and to know that the water flow between the locks is all controlled with gravity!

The medium sized boat full with people is a tourist vessel. One can buy passage through the canal as a tour.

Two huge ships went through this set of locks called Miraflores Locks while I was there.

These little "train cars" replaced the donkeys that used to pull the ships through the canal.

The museum part of the locks was also interesting.

A photo in the museum showing what it looks like when the chamber of the lock is empty.

The Panama Canal consists of much more than just the locks. There are parts of lakes and rivers that make up the canal also.  Marlene' a woman I met further along in Panama and stayed with for four days has a son studying to be one of the pilots who will be certified to control vessels through the canal.

I couldn't believe my luck when I won the daily lottery to be able to help pilot a ship through the canal!! It was so much fun! 

View from the pilot house on the ship! Ok, lets see who is paying attention, I was just kidding, I didn't get to pilot the ship, this was all part of the museum ;). 

As if it wasn't enough that I had stayed in a mansion already, I splurged on a nice hotel in the city too! But I did get a smokin' deal on it at Hotels.com!

A very cool building in Panama City.

More Panama City

View of the old city across the water.

I was also able to see a large container ship pass under a bridge I rode over in Panama City.

Time for some new tires because the blue layer is wearing through the rubber. A friend who visited me in Panama brought me new quality tires from the USA and a new camera to replace the one that was stolen. Then I was ready to roll and conquer Central America!

I couldn't find a good segway photo map of South America to Central America but the black dotted lines off the coast of Colombia show the crossing of the Caribbean.

The transport from the boat took me right from the port of the Kunas to Panama City.

Once I reached Panama and had my rest I decided that I would at least pedal up through Central America before making a decision to end the bike trip or not. It was getting pretty monotonous but my rest did me some good. I met many cyclists that felt Central America was no big thrill but I had met a couple who said they really liked Central America, so I wanted to see for myself and I knew Central America would be a pretty quick shot with no major mountains and a length of only 1,500 miles. So off I went.

This blog brings you up to date on my travels until May 19th, 2013.

Photos and blog posts to come:

Panama continued and Costa Rica-a.k.a. Gringolandia.

Nicaragua-Backing Down A Volcano

Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala-blinked and I was through them

Statistics from Central America

Mexico