Yami had been assigned accommodation in Penonomé, and assigned her first clinic in Toabré. In order to get to Toabré for 7am, we left at six and took two buses. When we arrived at the clinic, the locals were already queuing outside the clinic, which served as the medical centre for the whole of the mountain region in the area.

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The clinic, although basic, served its purpose well and was certainly in demand. The patients were all indigenous people, and obviously extremely poor, the poverty being evident in the state of the teeth of the patients. Children of 7 or 8 came in to have adult teeth removed due to lack of care, and most patients over the age of 40 had very few, if any teeth at all. One lady came in for a clean of her one and only tooth, one of the middle bottom incisors. It was a funny, yet sad moment, watching Yami cleaning this single tooth.

I couldn’t believe how the people had let their teeth fall in such a bad state, but Yami explained they literally did not have any money, and buying ‘luxuries’ such as toothbrushes and toothpaste was simply not an option.

Officially, Yami and the other doctors were supposed to charge for the treatments they carried out, however in reality they didn’t charge, as the majority of the patients would have been unable to pay in any case, and probably would not have came to the clinic to receive treatment in the first place.

To get any idea of the remoteness of the clinic, and the inaccessibility of the region in which these people lived, some of them – kids of six of seven included – had walked 8 hours through the rainforest just to see a doctor or dentist, and of course they had to walk the 8 hours return journey home. A pretty tough walk, especially if you have just had two or three teeth removed.

Although only three hours from Panama City, probably the most affluent city in Central America, Toabré and the highlands of Panama are a completely different world, and the vast difference in living standards between the city and the country is both disturbing and shocking, especially considering it is a country that has a unique commodity (the canal) that generates billions of dollars per year.

Although I had seen a lot of poverty in the previous 300 or so days, I never really saw with such proximity, or interacted with people who literally have nothing, not even the money to buy a toothbrush or toothpaste. Thinking about the plight of the indigenous communities in Panama, I couldn’t decide if it was a sad reflection on the failures of the US administration in Panama, past and present governments or the distribution of wealth and resources of the country, but something was definitely amiss.

On a plus note, after Yami had seen all her patients for the day, she gave my teeth the once-over and a clean! Unfortunately my camera had died on the beach in Pedasi, so I didn’t manage to get any pictures of the clinic or the locals. I do have one of Yami working, though this wasn’t taken that day!

I arrived in Panama City in mid afternoon, and didn’t want to travel out to Penonome that same day so I checked in at Zuly’s;, the hostel I stayed at back in February, and caught up with goings on in the World Cup, before heading to Penonome to see Yami the following morning.

Whilst I returned to Panama to see Yami, I knew she would be working and that I would have to amuse myself during the days, something I did by taking trips for a couple of days here and there to various places in Panama.

The first week in Panama I went off to Chitre and Pedasi in the Azuero Peninsula. I stayed in Chitre for a night before taking a bus further south to the village of Pedasi on the southern tip of the peninsular. Pedasi is a village of about 2,000 people and is the hometown of Panama’s first female president, Mireya Moscoso, who ruled from 1999 to 2004. It is well known in Central America for having decent waves for surfers and being a generally nice little village.

Pedasi lays a couple of kilometers from various beaches, which turned out to be a 30 minute trek along a stony track. The beach I saw was a deserted expanse of black sand with waves crashing into the rocky shoreline. The village itself is pretty enough, with enough in the surrounding area to keep you occupied for a day or two. One of the main reasons for coming here is the surfing, with numerous beaches nearby offering supposedly excellent waves.

The morning after arriving I took the early bus to Playa Venao, which has a reputation for having excellent waves, where I was in two minds about hiring a surfboard and jumping into the deep end as it were.

The bus trip took about 40 minutes and dropped me off on the main highway, and wouldn’t return for about 8 hours. I found the beach, an open expanse of sand with grass at the rear and a small island about a mile off shore, and set about killing time. The area was completely deserted apart from the ramshackle huts and beach bar with no-one in. It stayed completely deserted for most of the day, apart from a herd of cattle that came down to the beach at one point to have a swim in the sea, encouraged by some cowboy dudes. I met a local surfer who had hitchhiked from Panama City and planned to spend a few days at the beach, sleeping in a hammock tied to the wooden frame of the restaurant, before hitchhiking back to the city.

I returned to Penonome the following day, and Yami and I caught a bus to El Valle, where we stayed for the weekend. I had visited El Valle during my first time in Panama, so I knew it was a cool little village. Not much happened over the weekend, we were given a tour of the surrounding area by one of Yami’s university professors who owned a weekend house in the village, watched the World Cup Final, and explored on some bicycles we hired for an afternoon.

I would like two separate areas for the two trips, with one home page. Maybe I could transfer all the old posts from that blog to this one. I think I’ll start looking at that option.

I flew back to Panama, spent a week with Yami and returned to Cartagena. I then tried to go south to Medellin, but the buses were a little bit of a problem due to the FARC in the region, so I decided to take another route, via boat from Colombia back to Panama. The trips are organised regularly, and sailed whenever there were enough people onboard. I called the Captain of one boat, arranged my ticket, and as luck would have it, we sailed the next day (Thurs 22nd June).

The Darién Gap is a stretch of land joining Panama and Colombia. Covered in dense rain forest, it is a widely unexplored, inhospitable area of land, home to various indigenous Indian groups, as well as some unfriendly characters, namely three Colombian rebel groups, the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and both left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The Panamerican highway, which stretches about 16,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina, would run continuously if it were not for a 62 mile stretch through the Darién Gap that has never been constructed. Various attempts have been made to link the road through the gap, however due to environmental and political reasons, this has never been accomplished. It is said there are mud roads, which are passable at some times of the year, but for the most they are only accessible by 4×4. The lack of decent road, and the presence of the rebel groups makes all overland passage both extremely difficult and dangerous, and is not recommended, and for that reason there are various sailboats offering passage from Panama to Colombia, thus bypassing the Darién Gap.

The boat I sailed on, the Stahlratte (German for “Steelrat”) is an old fishing vessel, made in Holland and first registered in 1903. In celebration of her 100 year anniversary, the ship’s owners decided it would be fitting to circumnavigate the globe, taking on board random crew members along the way. The financing of the boat is somewhat unplanned, and due to that, the ship was ferrying passengers back and forth from Panama to Colombia and vice versa (with a stop off in Panama’s San Blas islands to break up the journey), in order to pay the passage through the Panama Canal.

The group assembled early in the morning ready to load up and sail out, however it took a while to get everything organised, provisions bought, passports and immigration arranged etc, so we didn’t actually leave the Cartagena marina until late morning. That afternoon and the following day was all at sea, which although it is the Caribbean Sea, was surprisingly choppy, so choppy in fact that one of the girls on the boat started feeling ill about an hour from the port, and for the next 36 hours lay curled up in the fetal position, occasionally letting out a murmur or wail, moving only to drag herself to the side of boat, lean over and throw up!

After the initial euphoria of being on a sail boat wore off, and the gradual – sometimes violent – rocking motion of the ship took became monotonous, I passed time watching the open seas, reading, playing cards or soaking up some sunshine on deck, whilst below deck I took advantage of the classic offerings in the library, a lot of guidebooks, and a host of old (and some newer) movies. Add to this the seemingly constant food preparation or clean up, and the time passed fairly quickly. On board everyone was expected to take on some cooking/cleaning responsibility for at least one meal, so I got mine out the way early on, meaning I could sit back and relax for the remainder of my time on board. At one point on the Friday, out boat attracted a group of curious dolphin, who swam along with us for a good time, jumping out of the water and generally playing around.

We sailed (using a mixture of wind and motor power) from Thursday afternoon through the night, all Friday day and night, arriving and mooring amongst the San Blas islands just as it got light on the Saturday morning.

The San Blas islands are an Archipelago consisting of about 400 tiny islands, or cays, on average the size of a football pitch, covered in palm trees and ringed with white sand. Basically, paradise. On some islands the local indigenous people (the Kuna), have built their villages, whilst others remain untouched and undeveloped. We moored in a position within swimming distance of 3 or 4 uninhabited cays, each covered with palm trees. There was nothing for it but to jump into the warm Caribbean Sea and swim across to explore my own little island in the sun.

I spent the most of two and a bit days we were moored up exploring and looking around the islands, snorkeling and generally basking in the glory of the paradise that is San Blas. I can honestly not say enough good things about those two and a bit days. A complete break from civilisation, and a holiday from a holiday! Over the course of the time we were there I swam, sunbathed, explored, ate, drank, and enjoyed it all.

We left our mooring point on the Monday afternoon and sailed to a traditional Kuna village, where we went ashore and had a quick look around. The Kuna people are about 40,000 strong and are self-governing, separate from the Panamanian government. They gained this autonomy in the 1950′s, making their own laws and running their economy ever since. The three main industries are fishing, trading coconuts and tourism.

One of the most noticeable things about the Kuna is the traditional dress of the women, who are adorned head to toe in brightly coloured hand woven molas, their arms and lower legs are covered in beads, their heads are covered with scarves and some have nose rings and painted faces. The women sell these molas, which are very cheap considering the skill involved and time taken to make.

We arrived in the Kuna village in mid-afternoon, and wandered around the straw huts, taking in the way of life and being offered the various molas on sale, before heading back to the dock and onto the boat for a final night aboard.

The Tuesday was an adventure in itself, being taken to the off loading point, shipped across to the shore in speedboat, before boarding a 4×4 to the city. The 4×4 journey took us through the rain forest, across rivers, through waist deep mud and away from the Caribbean towards the Pacific and finally into the sprawl that is Panama City, where I checked into Zuly’s hostel and had a Cerveza Balboa with some of the folks from the boat, before heading off to Penonome to stay with Yami the following day.

Some more photos from the 5 day trip:

sailing away from South America

last views of S.A

dolphins

looking at the dolphins

first glimpse of San Blas

sunrise over San Blas

sailboat heaven

stahlratte

all seems shipshape

stahlratte

more sailboat heaven

waking up

the day revealed all

island hopping

moi

reef

lunch

me – posing

local sales people came by plying their wares

yee ha

the quintessentail desktop shot

midday on the stahlratte

posing – again

beers

beers pt 2

chess

sale made they shipped out

ashore

paradise!

my island

its mine – I lay claim to it!

stahlratte

stahlratte

moi

moi and my island

kuna school

another village shot

the houses

and the streets

all made from palm

once back on the mainland it was a 4×4 trip

through the jungle, on the washed out roads

and crossing a few rivers

definately 4×4 territory

no asphalt

view over the Panamanian rainforest

and back down to the Caribbean Sea

Rainforest

As far as the eye can see

Where the blog left off, I had just arrived in Cartagena. I arrived on the Thursday evening and I had a flight to Panama booked for the following Sunday. For whatever reason I decided to hang around the city for the weekend, and then I kind of got stuck, and didn’t move anywhere until I took the flight to Panama, 10 days later!

I stayed in the Getsemaní district just outside the old city, in a hotel that for about £2 a night was clean and had a ceiling fan. The downside was the partitioning walls were plyboard! That and the area was a haven for druggies, prostitutes and the destitute.

No matter, it was cheap! I spent the week wandering around the city, visiting the various museums etc,. Cartagena de Indias, founded in 1533 by a Spanish commander, Pedro de Heredia, sits on the mouth of Cartagena Bay.

Originally founded as a port where Europeans landed with their merchandise, and in reverse gold and silver were transported back to Spain, the city grew rapidly during the 1500’s. Cartagena is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, due to the walled city and its contents, and the huge fort that sits overlooking the bay.

As I mentioned before I stayed in Getsemaní, about 3 minutes walk to the old walled city and its colonial architecture. The old city is very reminiscent of Oaxaca, and in particular Guanajuato in Mexico, with its narrow streets and colonial style buildings.

The entrance to the city is via the Clock Gate, or Puerta Del Reloj, which then leads out onto the La Plaza de los Coches, which at night fills up with people drinking café or the local brew – Cerveza Aguilla, and watching the world go by. Inevitably there is a festival or music playing somewhere, usually some kind of live steel drum band. Mingled with the music is the clip-clop sound of horses hooves on the paved roads. The horse-drawn carts pass, one after another throughout the evening, trying to attract tourists to take a trip around the city.

I spent most days/evenings either wandering, or sitting in one of the plazas drinking café (or Cerveza Aguilla!). There are a lot of plazas! A lot of the buildings are painted and it seems in whichever colour is on special in the hardware store at the time. This makes Cartagena a very bright place and gives it a lot of its charm. Some of the streets are continuously busy, and others are all but deserted.

As in Taganga, the variety of fruits on offer is superb, and on virtually every corner there is a stall selling some variety of tropical produce, such as papaya, mango, melon and huge avocado pears. There is also a great range of fresh juices on offer in the various ‘loncherias’.

One of the main attractions in Cartagena is El Castillo de San Felipe (The Castle of Saint Filipe). This is a Spanish fort that stands guard over both the city and harbour. This is one of the strongest fortresses ever built by the Spanish in the Americas. Built to guard Cartagena and the Spanish gold from English pirates and war ships, it took over 150 years to complete. It is laden with tunnels leading to and from various places within the walls.

As testament to its strength, in 1741, Cartagena managed to repel an attack by the English Commander, Edward Vernon, who together with 25,000 men and 186 ships, laid the city to siege for three months. His ships cannons were unable to reach the Castillo, which sat high out of range. However the cannons of the Castillo were a little more powerful, and bombarded the English ships whenever they entered the harbour. By the time he gave up the attempted invasion, Vernon had lost over 70 ships and 10,000 men.

Built to protect the city from pirates in times of war, now in peace time some buildings and open spaces have been adapted to suit the modern consumer climate, and modern modes of transport. Incorporated into the city walls, Las Bóvedas are dungeons initially built for military purposes and now house boutiques and tourist shops.

It seems the residents of Cartagena are proud of their flag, as it hangs from a multitude of buildings, from the fort, to the theatre to what seem like private residences.

I took a boat trip out of the city, passing by some of the smaller forts in the mouth of the harbour, and some more modern naval craft. This trip visited a nearby beach, Playa Blanca, which is where the two Dutch guys I had met in Pasto had spent some time the week before I arrived in the city. During their time on the beach, one of them had done some snorkelling and had acquired a very nasty eye infection. A parasite of some kind had managed to bury itself into his cornea and was slowly eating through it. Apparently it was incurable and he was in serious danger losing his sight. He eventually had to return to Holland for a cornea transplant. I never saw him again so I don’t know how everything turned out, but I wish him the best. Also while I was in Cartagena, the football world cup kicked off. I saw England play their first two group games, but I can’t remember who against or what were the scores.

Below are some photos of me in the Castillo de San Felipe. It was a hot day!

I have been thinking about what to do with the website for a while, and in browsing I decided that even before I can think about what to do next I have to finish the first piece and get the rest of the trip journal completed.

I don’t think it will be feasible to write about individual days anymore as my thoughts and memories look to the trip only with nostalgia. I struggle to remember my emotional state on any particular day, therefore to describe thoughts and feelings of those events would not be a true reflection of my thoughts and feelings of the time.

Therefore I will simply write about where I happened to be and when I happened to be there, adding in few photos along the way. Hopefully I will also write a little conclusion at the end with maps and favourite places etc.

There you have it, a very short reintroduction to roylloydjones. All that’s left to do is publish the rest of the trip….

Enjoy…

Check out was 11am. Come 10.45 we rolled out of bed and quickly tried to pack our things up and leave. I decided that I wanted to go to Cartagena and hang around there for the 10 days until my flight to Panama, so it would be goodbye to the Swedes until much later in the year when we had planned to meet up in England to take in some lash action.

We all went to the bus station together where it was a quick goodbye and I jumped aboard a bus to make a two-hour trip to Barranquilla (birthplace of Shakira) where I would need to change buses to reach Cartagena.

The journey itself was uneventful, but my arrival in Barranquilla was a bit of a shambles. As we pulled up to the outskirts of the city there was an unofficial bus station, and the driver of my bus said I could change here for a bus to Cartagena, rather than going all the way into the centre of the city.

Good idea I thought, then my bowels surprised me I was left a little short. Having no public facilities nearby I went off in search of somewhere to drop the load. I soon realised this wasn’t that good an idea. I had all my stuff with me, I was blatantly not from around there, I was in a pretty dodgy area, I was attracting strange looks, and it was pissing down with rain.

Obvious robbery target, I decided I could wait for the toilet, went back to the makeshift bus station and jumped on the first available bus to Cartagena (it so happened there was one there just about to leave) and got the hell out of that place.

The two hours on the bus weren’t the most comfortable, being soaking wet and in need the toilet but overall I reckon its better to be on a bus whist wet, still have all of your possessions, and be in need of the toilet than be on a bus whilst wet, have a few less possessions and have crapped yourself when someone pulled a gun on you and robbed you!

That was my thinking anyway.

I arrived in Cartagena and discovered that the bus terminal is actually about and hour outside the town centre. Therefore I spend another hour on a city bus, reaching the town centre and finding a backpackers hotel. The first one I tried was full but the second one was decent enough with a double bed, fan and clean sheets for 10,000 Pesos a night (£1=4,500 Pesos).

I checked in (used the toilet!) and went out to the balcony to have a look at the street outside. The first person I saw there was a Dutch guy who I had been drinking with in Pasto when we were stuck there a few weeks before. I hadn’t really got on with them when we were in Pasto as I found them to be a little annoying by constantly trying to out-do everyone. I knew what to expect from them on this occasion and I didn’t pay too much attention when they started doing it again.

One of them had been exceptionally unlucky however and was in a pretty bad way. He had been staying at a nearby beach – Playa Blanca – a place similar to Tayrona National Park, and had been snorkelling with contact lenses. Somehow one of the lenses had scratched his cornea and caused a small cut. He had left it a day or so before his return to Cartagena, however in this time his eye had gotten infected and was clouded and he had no vision in the eye.

He had been to the doctor who had prescribed some medication and carried out some tests, but nothing seemed to be working. By the time I arrived he had been wearing an eye patch for a few days, complaining of bad headaches and dizziness. This obviously wasn’t a great predicament for the lad and he was pretty down at the time.

I spent the evening having a chat with the two of them and generally not doing much, before having a much-needed early night for the first time in a while.

Waking up again a little fragile, it was straight into the sea to clear the head. The cooling water worked its magic yet again, and that together with the fruit juices made me feel almost human again.

By early afternoon I was 99% human, having sweated out the rum and I was ready for a few beers on the beach with the Swedes to relax. Pulling a chair from a beach side restaurant and putting into the waters edge, we were able to sunbathe, sit with feet in the sea & drink a beer all in one. Add to that some fine Colombian totty on the beach and it was the perfect day!

It was to be the last full day I spent with the Swedes as they were flying back home from Caracas on Sunday and wanted to make sure that they were in the general vicinity of Caracas (Venezuela) for the weekend, so they had a 20-hour bus journey booked for the following day.

To say adios we of course had a few drinks in the evening and went into Santa Marta again, back to Puerta or Puerto (Still can’t remember which it was!). We bought ourselves a bottle of Gin (random choice but we all fancied a change) and proceeded to get drunk. We soon got talking to a group of Colombian girls and were sharing the bottle around. Everyone ended up pretty sloshed and we all had a decent time. The two girls we originally talked to were a Colombian and a Venezuelan, and they had introduced us to numerous friends of theirs.