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Sailing from Colombia to Panama,  31st July 2009

The crossing

Colombia to Panama via the San Blas Islands

Our catamaran consisted of the John and his wife Yesika, their 11 month old baby, Yesika's mum, Dave and I, David H, 3 bikes, 16 bags and 1 dog. It may sound like an awful lot of people and luggage, however on the catamaran we each had our own private double beds, the bikes and bags were stored in their own storage hatch and all of us had plenty of room to move about and find our own space.

The three of us agreed that we had paid economy prices for a business class passage. We had a one night, two day crossing (about 30 hours) over to the San Blas Islands. Thankfully the anti-sickness tablets worked as the crossing was rougher than expected, but it was all worth it when we moored up at the Holandais Islands.

San Blas is a vast archipelago which is made up of 340 islands. It is a unique place, home to the Kuna Indians. It is said that the Kuna's have the best preserved culture and traditions of all the tribes in the Americas.

The Kuna's are deemed a nation, they are organised with a strict hierarchy of tribal leaders. Their economy is based on trading coconuts, along with lobster, king crabs and octopus to the Colombian trading ships. In addition, the Kuna's also survive on the little tourist trade that passes through, selling sea food and their famous molas - applique textiles that were introduced by the Christian missionaries in the past.

Officially, San Blas is part of Panama although it is ruled autonomously by the Kuna general congress. They have managed to keep development to a minimum, as although they accept non-Kunas to visit the islands during the day, they are not allowed to marry non-Kunas nor sell their land to outsiders. Therefore the islands have been left untouched.

This archipelago also has one of the most untouched stretches of virgin rainforest, it is also home to warm turquoise waters, uninhabited islands and sea teaming with marine life. Our captain moored up just off the Holandais Islands which are uninhabited. None of us needed asking twice and jumped into the crystal clear waters to cool off. The following day we had time for a snorkel and enjoyed observing reef sharks, rays and enormous grouper fish.

From there, our next stop was to moor off the Chichime islands, home to a few Kuna families. It was at this stop that we met the Kunas who came up to the catamaran in their dugout canoes. We bought a king crab and two lobsters off them for the incredible price of 15 dollars.  Dave and I were also tempted to buy a canoe off them, but were not too sure how we would transport it on the bikes!

Swimming in warm waters, snorkelling, seeing dolphins and sleeping on deck under the stars were definite highlights.

John told us that the best place to drop us off was near Linton island close to Portobello. The evening before we were due to depart the boat, we stocked up on supplies at a nearby store (on land of course!) and then went to visit 3 monkeys that lived on Linton Island. The monkeys were huge and hilarious. As we approached them in our dingy we saw them running up the pier on two legs and looked like they were waving at us. John was keen to keep a safe distance from them as they have been known to grab the ropes and pull the boats into the pier, useful but they have also been known to bite! They amused us running up and down the pier and asking us for food.

As we settled down to our final meal on the boat we could hear howler monkeys in the distance making their presence known. From the boat, we looked out towards the hot and humid tropical rainforest and wondered what Panama had in store for us.

Colombia - a reflection

Medellin to Cartagena 

We left Medellin early Sunday morning and were very pleased to discover that the double carriageway leading out of the city was closed off to cars, to allow cyclists, walkers and joggers to enjoy the city, free from the pollution and chaos of the cars. We were encouraged to see that this weekly event attracted hundreds of people, from families enjoying an early morning bike ride to racers in training. It made our escape from the city so much more enjoyable!

Our map showed that the climb out of Medellin towards the coast was to be our last major climb in South America, and so we were ready to tackle it in good spirits. Unfortunately, our map was also somewhat inconsistent in its information of height gain. We thought that we were in for a 1000m climb or so, however the climbing lasted two days and we gained over 3000m.

The climb was made easier as we built up enough courage to try a few cheeky truck surfs. We had seen a number of people on bikes pass us smiling whilst hanging onto the back of a truck in order to get a lift up to the next village or town. A couple of times during our climbs up the Colombia hills we had noticed that a number of trucks had cut us up on the road and chugged up the hill dangerously close to us, what we had not realised was that they were offering the back of their trucks for a lift. As we continued our sweaty climb up out of Medellin, we heard one truck honking it's horn at us and gave us the thumbs up, it slowed down as it approached us and so we decided to go for it and managed to pedal up to the truck and hold on and allow it to drag us up the hill for a good few kilometres.  Getting off was slightly more trickier as we had to ensure that there were no vehicles behind us before we let go (Don't try this at home folks!).

Many people who visit Medellin take the opportunity to paraglide just outside of the city as the favourable winds allow them to soar over a beautiful valley. It was just as we were approaching this spot that we saw David and Julie, a couple from the States, approaching on their bikes from the opposite direction (www.recyclingtheworld.us). David had already cycled around the world once, from West to East in 1975 and so now retired he and his wife had decided to hit the road again, but this time take a few years to cycle the globe, but this time from North to South.

Although Medellin was fun, we were relieved to get out of the city and be in the countryside once again. I think that is the great thing about cycle touring, it allows you the freedom that a bus does not. Most of the places that we have enjoyed visiting are the villages and towns not necessarily on the tourist route. Both Santa Rosa and Valdivia offered us the chance to sit in the plazas and watch life being played out on the street and soak up the atmosphere, the Colombian music blaring out from the cafes, men chatting in their cowboy style hats and seeing how the Colombians celebrated their Independence Day.

In Valdivia, we were warned about the next town, Puerto Valdivia, where the previous day four murders had taken place. Apparently the area had been experiencing problems of late between various gangs. We were advised to pedal as fast as we could through the town and not to stop for anyone on the road. We past the town slightly anxious, but found that in the  town, people were smiling at us and shouting words of encouragement as usual. The only danger we experienced was trying to dodge the iguanas that were laying on the road in the sun.

Throughout this adventure, we have always worn our cycling helmets, but, as soon as we descended down from the mountains, the heat was so unbearable that our heads felt like they were being boiled alive inside of them. So the helmets were quickly put aside in favour of wide brimmed sun hats. With such a wide hard shoulder to cycle on, we figured that we had more danger from sun and heat exposure than the vehicles.

Despite the heat, we were able to take advantage of the relatively flat roads and easily put in 130km days, being spurred on by the promise of the warm Caribbean waters that were only a few days away.

Just outside of San Antero, Dave was distracted by a sign beside the roadside of two naked ladies frolicking in a mud bath set within the Volcano El Tesoro. We discovered that the volcano lay about 1km from the road we were on, so Dave was keen to investigate. We soon discovered that the small volcano spewed mud, and for one dollar each we had the gigantic mud bath to ourselves. It was a strange sensation, the mud pool was deep, but it was virtually impossible to sink in it, although it was very hard to move around. Dave was disappointed that the naked women did not materialise.

Feeling refreshed and ex-foliated, we hit the road again and caught a glimpse of the Caribbean Sea. I have to say that my emotion took me by surprise and I found myself quite choked up at the sight of the sea, reminiscing over the good times and hard times that we have had over the last nine months.

A couple from Medellin cruised along in their car beside us on the road to ask about our

journey as they had seen us on the road two days before. The chat turned out to be very

useful as they recommended some beach bungalows further up the road, 4kms from Cove��nbsp; that they were staying in. Normally we would not have entertained the idea of hiring a bungalow as we thought that they would be way out of our price range. But, because it was low season, we managed to get a bungalow for five pounds each per night, a stones throw away from the beach. We could not believe our luck as we entered the bungalow, to our disposal we had a kitchen, sitting area, two bathrooms and enough beds to sleep ten people.

We spent two days swimming in the sea, relaxing and getting to know Mabel and Andres, the couple from Medellin. It would have been so easy to have stayed their for a week or two, but we were keen to plod onto Cartagena and try and figure out how we were going to get to Panama.

Our timing into Cartagena turned out to be perfect, David Holmes had already told us that he had booked into Hotel Familiar near to the old quarter of Cartagena and was expecting us within a few days. As we turned into Calle Guerrera looking for the hotel we spotted Dave H stepping out of the hotel.

Cartagena was a fantastic city, we didn't really visit any particular sights but instead, 

we were content to spend our days strolling around the old quarter, a UNESCO heritage site admiring all the brightly coloured colonial architecture and trying to peek inside people's houses to view their beautiful courtyards.

Crossing over into Panama has been something that had been occupying our thoughts since our arrival into Colombia. It is impossible to go overland by road and so the options were to either fly, board a supply ship, pay as a passenger on a tourist sailing boat or spend a fortune bribing various boatmen and officials to pass through the Darien gap.

We found out that flying cost about 150 dollars per person and then the same again for the bikes, neither of us wanted to fly and have the hassle of boxing up the bikes and all our equipment. The supply ships we had heard about sounded like a cheap option (30 dollars) and take about ten days to cross into Panama. We had heard that they leave from a place called Turbo, which is supposed to be quite a dangerous place, and not somewhere to hang around in for long, so we ruled that option out too. Neither of us fancied going through the Darien Gap as we had heard that option was not only expensive but arduous, involving many boat crossings, dragging and hiking with the bikes and eventually a plane journey, all through quite dodgy areas. That left the only option of paying as a passenger on a sailing boat and stopping at the Islands of San Blas.

We had heard that Hostel Casa Viena on Calle Media Luna in Cartagena is the place to call in and find out if there are any spaces on any boats sailing over to Panama. The going rate seemed to be 375 dollars per person - the same price as a flight would have cost. The people in the hostel seemed quite busy, so we decided that the best course of action was to get ourselves down to the Marina and try and speak to the captains ourselves and check out the boats first hand. This seemed to the best course of action as we found out about many other boats that had not been mentioned in Casa Viena.

I have to say that just looking at the boats made me feel sea sick. Most were 35ft

yachts and took about 5-7 people for a six day passage. Knowing I am no good on boats (or cars, or buses, and even throw up when I am in my kayak) I began to get quite worried about the journey as we had heard that it could be quite a rough journey.

In the marina, we noticed one large catamaran (52ft) that was moored up. We discovered that it was a private catamaran, belonging to an America, who was setting sail over the next few days to Panama.  However we also found out that he does not normally take passengers (due to a previous bad experience with tourists). Despite this we decided to be cheeky and seek him out to chat with him, and after assuring him that we were all very well behaved and willing to help out on board, he had a discussion with his wife, they agreed to take all three of us and our bikes over to Panama. Someone must have been looking out for me as a catamaran is more stable and nicer to be in than a rocky mono-hull. Not only that but it is a lot faster than the other sailing boats, allowing our open sea crossing to be cut down from three days to two...however just to be on the safe side we bought sea sickness tablets just in case!

Medellin, 18th July 2009

Such is the friendliness of people in Colombia, that our intended one night stay in Ibague turned into a 5 days. We stayed with Luz Edith, a university lecturer at the Universidad de Tolima. We had previously met Luz in San Agustin and she had asked us to come and visit her on our way through Ibague. Luz lived with her daughter Kony and they spoilt us rotten and showed us the sights and nightlife of Ibague.

During our stay, we visited an SOS Children's Village. One of the main reasons for this adventure is to try and raise awareness and money for our two chosen charities; Julia's House in Poole, which helps terminally ill children and their families and SOS Children's Village, a charity which helps orphaned and abandoned children all over the world.

We were very pleased to be invited to an SOS Children's Village in Ibague, to learn first hand, a little more about the charity and how the money that we have raised is being spent. We met the director of the village, spoke to the children, had lunch with one of the families and chatted to many of the adopted mothers and aunties that work for the charity. We left humbled and inspired by what we learnt.

The SOS Children's charity in Ibague was set up in 1985 after a volcano erupted and buried 25,000 people in the city of Armero in a avalanche of mud. As a result of this terrible incident, many children were left orphaned. SOS Children's Village bought 5 hectares of land in Ibague and initially built about 16 houses to accommodate the children.

Now, SOS Children's Village in Ibague supports 185 children, 220 families and has about 22 houses. The SOS Children's Village is a safe place for the children to grow up in. The children are brought up in a stable environment in a beautiful home. The children live as a family unit. There is a maximum of 9 children that make up a family, and they share three bedrooms, therefore they grow up with many brothers and sisters to play with. In each house the children have their own adopted mother who looks after them and cares for them. In addition, the children also grow up with aunties that provide additional support to the children.

Like all families, rules are laid down for the children, however we were interested to see that the running of the house and rules are created together by all the family. Each child has certain responsibilities or alternatively, they have a rota for jobs around the house. Saturday is the day for cleaning. Education is also very important and success in educational achievements are celebrated within the families and throughout the village. The children also receive pocket money. We were also impressed to see so much art decorating the houses that the children had made either at school or through various art activities that have been held in the village.

Kelly and I were inspired by the mothers and aunties that we met. They have dedicated themselves to look after these children as if they were their own. Prior to working with the children, the mothers and aunties have to undergo a rigorous selection and training process.

Whilst we were in Ibague we found out that the surrounding area is prone to avalanches and land slides due to the steep canyons and gorges. The rivers feed from the snowy mountains and they regularly have natural disasters when they experience heavy rainfalls.

Luz took us to visit Ca��del Combeima, a spectacular canyon where many families from Ibague go to spend their Sundays. There had been some recent landslides which had damaged some of the homes and left a few of the locals homeless, fortunately there had been no deaths but we were able to see first-hand the devastating effects of these landslides. A few families were living in make shift shelters by the side of the road. The people that had been affected are relying on local people for support, food donations and any help they can get as the government is doing very little to help. It made us reflect on how lucky we are each day.

After a fantastic few days in Ibague it was time to hit the road again, we were not sure of our route, but after an extremely hot day of cycling to the village of Mariquita, we decide it would be wise to try and head back into the cooler mountains rather than try and cycle the River Magdalena valley. From Mariquita we cycled up towards Manizales where, after two days of hard cycling, we needed a rest day as the heat and climb had taken its toll on us.

We then carried on towards Medellin, the second largest town in Colombia. Everyday in Colombia we are amazed at how friendly people are. It is a shame that this country has such a bad reputation.

In Medellin we have treated ourselves to two nights in a backpacker's hostel, where have been able to meet other travellers and exchange stories and travel tips.

We are now getting ready for our final stretch in South America, where we will be working our way towards Cartagena. We are a little worried due to the high temperatures that we have been experiencing recently. It is only another 645 km to go before we will be at the top of the continent, another major milestone in our trip. It is hard to believe that we set off nearly 9 months ago and have cycled all the way up from the tip of South America.

Ibague 10th July 2009

Two cyclists became three. Samuel, a French cyclist who was also staying at the Casa de Ciclistas was leaving the same day as us and so we decided to cycle north together. It is always difficult when you initially set out cycling with someone else and I think we all worried a little as to whether our pace would fit in with each other. As it turned out, we all really enjoyed cycling together and found it very easy to be in each other's company and we were equally matched in the cycling.

Saying goodbye to Igel, Paola, Rambo, Dala and Costena.

We left San Agustin in the rain, but as we descended from 1700m the clouds parted and the temperatures began to soar, which left us taking regular breaks to try and cool down or find some shade.

We had decided to take the road north through the middle of Colombia, following the River Magdelena and were relieved to finally experience some flat roads. After the mountain challenges of Peru, Ecuador and Southern Colombia we couldn't quite believe that we had a few days of flat (ish) terrain. We enjoyed making the most of it easily cycling 90/100km in a day and enjoying the pleasant scenery at the same time.

Following the River

Dave experienced his first puncture in eight months which turned out to be caused not by anything on the road but due to disintegration of the inside of his tyre, small metal wires had begun to show through the lining and caused the puncture. It was a shame as the tread of the tyres looked  fine even though they had already covered 10,000km.

The rolling hills of San Agustin turned into pasture lands as we followed the river and so it was very easy to camp. Although most of the land that we passed through was private, we decided to try our luck and ask permission to camp in the safety of people's farms.

Samuel

Our first night after leaving San Agustin was spent on the grounds of a 200 acre cattle ranch, just outside Altamira.  We briefly met the owner, who invited us to stay a few days on the farm and then we settled in for the night sitting on the porch of the farmhouse chatting to the "ranchkeepers" They told us all about cockfighting which is very popular in Colombia and about life on a ranch. Having already spent two weeks in San Agustin, we were keen to press on the following day.

The heat continued the following day and we guessed that the temperatures must have been in the high 30s with very little breeze, so we were pleased that the terrain wasn't too challenging as the humidity sapped a lot of our energy and we guzzled copious quantities of fizzy drinks.

That evening, after asking in about five farms, we were eventually given permission to camp on a farm that produced tobacco. Once we were settled in, the farmers came to look at all our equipment and gave us fresh mangoes, coconuts and Colombian coffee to enjoy.

As we were camped so close to the road, we didn't sleep too well, but it meant that we could pack up and leave early to take advantage of the rain and grey skies as we weren't looking forward to another terrifically hot day.

We cycled past the capital of the department, Neiva and enjoyed people watching in the tranquil town of Aipe. We have discovered that many of the towns or villages that we have been passing don't look that special as we bypass them on the road, however we have often sought the central plazas and the small villages turn out to have the most beautiful squares with humble colonial houses. The plazas are often a great place to people watch and take an afternoon siesta in!

Our aim that day had been to reach Natagaima, however just as we were investigating a river to cool down in we met a French couple cycling towards us. As it was late afternoon, we all decided to camp together and share stories and luckily the farm next to the river offered us land to camp on. The river was bliss, we had our first wash in about three days and enjoyed the luxury of our own private beach spot.

We had a great night chatting all together, the only thing that spoiled it was all of us got eaten alive by sandflies. The pesky flies are so small that you can't see when you have been bitten and we soon discovered that we had hundreds of red blotches covering our bodies. Dave spent all night itching and in the morning we discovered that he must have had an allergic reaction to the bites as his face was puffy, he was feeling sick and covered in huge red blobs.

Dave?s arm covered in sandfly bites

We bid farewell to the French couple and Dave managed to cycle the 30 odd km to Natagaima where we decided to have breakfast and see how Dave was. The restaurant owner took on look at him and gave him her rocking chair and placed him under the fan. It was obvious that he wasn't going any further that day and needed anti-histamines and rest.

As it was still early, we said our goodbyes to Samuel who was continuing onto Bogota and we managed to find a cheap hostel and got Dave to bed. Natagaima wasn't a bad place to spend the day as it had a beautiful plaza and so I installed myself in a cafe to watch life unfold in the town.

Natagaima

Dave still wasn't right the next day, but he decided that he wanted to plod on slowly to take advantage of the cool morning. We managed to cover 60 odd km to Espinal, a bust town which stands at the cross roads that link Bogota to the cities of Medellin on the other mountain chain. From there we climbed again up to Ibague where we have arranged to visit an SOS Children's Village tomorrow. As it turned out, Dave had met a lady in an Internet cafe in San Agustin and she had invited us to stay with her and her daughter in Ibague for a few days, like all the Colombians we have met so far, they have been so friendly and welcoming towards us and told us to treat their home as if it was our own.

Kony teaching Dave to cook patacones

In the meantime we are still really undecided which route to take north, we have the choice of heading back up into the mountains where it will be cooler or back down to the valley to follow the course of the River Magdelena.

Relaxing in San Agustin, 3rd July, 2009

We tried to leave San Agustin today, but failed miserably, the breakfast was too good, the sun was shining and our washing wasn't quite dry!

San Agustin is a very small town which stands at 1700m near to the Rio Magdalena. It is set within a lush green rolling landscape and is close to many impressive waterfalls. The town has a lovely sleepy feel to it. Not only is it peaceful but it still retains some colonial buildings. People still ride around by horse and have their shopping delivered by horse and cart. Although it is the launching point to see one of the most important archaeological sites in Colombia (and possibly South America), the town isn't too touristy.

A few expats have settled here and have opened small restaurants or hostels. We can understand why they chose to live here. San Agustin has a near perfect climate all year round. Warm enough to wear a t-shirt during the day and slightly cooler in the evenings. As a result of the temperate climate, fruit and vegetables can be grown all year round here and many of the people here can live self-sufficiently without too much hardship.  

The two weeks that we have spent here have flown by. We have been staying in the beautiful Casa de Ciclista's owned by Igel and Paola, a German couple whom we met in Peru and again in Ecuador.  They own a finca (house with land) which sits just above the town and has great views of the surrounding countryside. The first week we spent on the finca with David H (whom we met in Peru and Ecuador as well), Samuel, a French cyclist and Dala, the caretaker of the finca, whom we found out used to be in a successful Colombian Reggae band called Alerta.

During the second week, Igel and Paola returned to their property after having spent the past two years cycling around South America with their dog, Rambo. They found that Dave had installed himself as resident cook. He has been enjoying using the clay oven to produce pizza and cakes for all of us or trying out various forms of chilli and curries.

The area around San Agustin is named the "Valley of Statues" because hundreds of statues have been found in and around the local area. It has been quite hard to motivate ourselves to leave the finca as it is a place that oozes relaxation but we did manage to walk the 2km from the finca to visit them and it was worth the uphill walk! The stone statues are a mixture of figures, animals and gods. The oldest date back to 3300BC. What is interesting about these statues is that there is very little known about the culture that produced them or what they were for. Some stand at over 6ft tall. What has confused archaeologists is that the statues display characteristics from many different cultures, including Asian influences, Hindu and also those of the Amazon cultures. Speculation states that they were something to do with sacred ceremonial and sacrificial sites and it is believed that this area was a particularly spiritual place.

We were also quite lucky as our stay in San Agustin coincided with the festival of San Juan, which apart from a few fireworks and people getting very merry quite early in the day, it also included a parade. Men, women and children paraded themselves and their horses around the streets for people to admire them. It was a great day to sit in the square and people watch and watch life go by.

The other reason that it has been quite hard to leave San Agustin is that Dala introduced me to the Rio Magdalena foundation which is being set up by an English expat to provide activities for the local children to participate in. They also provide a little library for the children to borrow books from.  Most afternoons I have been enjoying teaching a group of children English through games. Both the children and I have been having great fun and the lessons turned into a mutual teaching session as they would help to correct my poor Spanish!

NB If you would like to donate and send any book to the foundations, in either English or Spanish, please email me.

Tomorrow we plan to hit the road again and continue to head north through Colombia. We aren't too certain of our exact route, however we will be stopping at Ibague to visit an SOS Children's Village and find out a little more about their projects and how the money that we are raising will be spent.

Don't forget you can make donations to either Julia's House or SOS Children's Village by visiting www.justgiving.com/cyclingnomads