PARADISE!

This is going to be a quick post with a lot of pictures, because I feel that no matter how many words you use to describe this place, a picture if definitely worth a thousand of them. We decided to journey from Panama to Colombia on a boat. Well, to be exact, on an 80 foot catamaran that had a Jacuzzi, jet ski, hammocks on deck and a very cold fridge. It’s a really popular way to travel between the two countries, and on the way you visit the San Blas islands, off the coast of Panama. On our trip, we spent 4 days frolicking in the warm Carribean water, baking in the hot sun, exploring tropical islands, snorkelling, and eating delicious fresh seafood. We had heard some nightmare stories about people having awful captains, running out of food and water, sailing off course because the captain was drunk (adding many more hours more to the trip) and even a story about one boat that ran into a reef because the captain was too drunk to steer! So we asked around, and went with a boat called Captiva run by an Aussie guy, Jeremy. It was a bit more expensive than other boats, but the fact that the boat was bigger, and that we crossed open water for only 24 hours instead of 48 kind of sold us in the end.

Captiva

I really loved being on the boat, and the whole sailing experience. There is so much work that goes into it, and we even had turns at steering the boat one night- it’s more complicated than I thought! In total we were on the boat for 7 days- a long time to be on a boat, but we had a great group and the boat was big enough that you didn’t ever feel cramped, or in anyone’s way at all. We had awesome cook ups- lobster, barbequed fish, a massive lobster Paella that Phil, one of the crew made up on a bonfire on one of the islands, and lots of comfort foods like spaghetti Bolognese, lasagne and lots of salads. Lots of beers were drunk, and someone even made a punch one night that went down a treat at the time, but ended in one of the worst hangovers I have ever had in my life!

The beginnings of a Paella masterpiece

Phil and his home-made spatula

Almost ready...

FINISHED!

Something that also made the trip pretty awesome was the fact that Jono and I scored the master suite- very lucky, as this room was more than twice the size of all the others, had a huge queen bed, and even a plasma screen TV! We had been tipped off that if you were the first to book then you would get the suite, and so we had organised the trip pretty early, but it was definitely worth it, especially as Jono started to get sea-sick on the very first day (luckily most people on board had sea-sickness medication, so he made it through the trip without any troubles).

Our rockin' huge bed!

We were super lucky that everyone on the boat was lovely, and that we had a good captain and crew. We had such a good time, and were lucky that we had an awesome experience, compared to some of the nightmare stories that we had heard from other travellers! Here are some more pics of our time on the boat and islands :)