7/5/23
Today was the start of a long couple of days of travelling! And it was an early start, too! Since we’d been out the night before, I’d had a quick two hour nap before being the idiot that packed in the dark with a torch in a 12 bed dorm!! Laura and I had decided against 24+ hours on the bus, in favour of a short flight, followed by a taxi and bus to round off day one. It went fairly smoothly, with a woman asking to share our taxi and then ensuring we found our way to the next bus. Cute. We had a tasty and cheap lunch looking very bedraggled before going in search of lodgings for the night in the town Necocli.
Necocli is a coastal town, but while it should be nice, set by perfect turquoise waters, it somehow is not! It is a gateway town for refugees to move from South into Central America and therefore has many people living on the streets and on the beaches, making a lot of rubbish and making you acutely aware of your privilege. Red Cross had a base there, and there was a huge water tank for people to use. Camping stuff was sold in nearly every shop, so people could live as well as possible in the circumstances. We checked into a hotel that looked very cute from the outside, but that looked very tired on the inside. The room opposite us had four young men in it. While we were heading out to start an expensive tour around some paradise islands, they were hoping to head out, cross borders, and find better opportunities. Life isn’t fair.
We headed out for a wander and to figure out where the ferry to Capurgana (the start of paradise) went from. After awhile, someone called ‘Sarah, what the fuck?!’, and I looked up to see Miss Aisling striding towards us! Considering we hadn’t confirmed dates of travel, it was funny to bump into each other in this strange town. Laura and Aisling were introduced, and we went for limonadas de coco and sat on the beach. It was nice! After Laura and I headed to the shop for snacks, dinner, and booze for our boat trip. We were exhausted after barely sleeping the day before, so we went to bed early.
8/5/23
Travel day number two! We headed to the boat and Aisling was already there with another girl from her hostel, Sandra from Cali. We bought our tickets together and then prepared our rucksacks for the boat by putting them in bin bags and ensuring they were well sealed. There was apparently potential for them to get wet! We boarded the boat more or less last when Sandra’s name was called to find (of course) only the front seats spare. We sat down and prepared for a bumpy ride!
And wow! By George, was it bumpy?! The first forty minutes was quite fun. We rode the waves and braced with our arms and legs. The waves crashed against the side of the boat and leapt into the boat. I had two weeks worth of money in my bra (for safe keeping) as there was no way of obtaining money or paying card where we were going, and it all got absolutely soaked along with the rest of me, wet down to the core!! (When I later paid my hostel with wet cash, they looked at me strangely!) After the first forty minutes of being on a rollercoaster, the jolts and buckets of water thrown at us were no longer fun. Headaches were settling in, legs were tired from squatting on and off for forty minutes (to reduce impact on coccyx, spine and skull!), and my fingers were beginning to blister from holding on tightly while wearing rings. Sometimes, the waves were so big that when I was bracing my legs, I would stand fully upright!! The captain was going full speed ahead with no regard for anyone’s safety. By the time we arrived, Laura had thrown up in a ripped off scrap of bin bag, and we resembled half drowned rats. I did not like the driver. We collected our bags and called time out since we had another boat to get yet. No one could face it! We stopped for drinks and recovered. My berry milkshake was glorious, and I felt so much better afterwards. Laura, Sandra, and I headed off to get our next boat, and Aisling stayed in Capurgana to check it out for a day.
Our next boat driver was delightful – friendly, relaxed, and not in a mad rush! We set off on our own private little wooden boat for another 15 minutes before arriving at a cute harbour in a stunning bay with turquoise waters and white sands. No-one was around, it was gorgeous. Then began a mission up a hill through rainforest to our hostel. It was hot and humid, and my rucksack was big! I arrived sopping wet from the first boat and then again with a top-up of sweat and suncream. I was hot, wet, and bothered when we arrived! We began check-in, and then the mosquitoes started to attack. The hostel had had no guests in three days since our Cali friends Mauricio and Kirsten had left, and so it seemed the mosquitoes were all the more hungry! Check-in was not a quick process, and in the end, I had to admit defeat and pause check-in so I could go and wash and then dress for the jungle in long trousers and lashings of bug spray! Everyone thought I’d gone mad, but survival is key!!! (And hundreds of bites isn’t fun!)
We continued check-in when I was kitted out for another 30 minutes or so before we could relax and enjoy the incredible terrace. We had lunch in the town and then went for a mooch to the beach before returning home for cocktails and snacks at sunset on the terrace. I played some guitar before the electricity cut back out and I couldn’t access the chord progressions anymore. We chilled and chatted, and I looked at the stars lying on a bamboo mat on the terrace by candlelight. Glorious.
9/5/23
Aisling arrived to our place in time for a second breakfast and then we all headed out to walk from Colombia to Panama to spend the day at the beach there. The walk was a short steep up and down again through the rainforest and then into a tired but cute village. The beach was beautiful. A few basic bars were strung along the beach, selling beers, so we got some and enjoyed them in deck chairs, while bachata was playing in the background. The sea was refreshing. Aisling went to Duty Free to get boat booze. Then we headed back to our hostel for family dinner and drinks. We did a spiritual grace, lead by the owner holding hands (the left hand receives), and then we tucked into a fairly tasty veggie dinner.
10/5/23
We moved minimally today. Had the hostel breakfast and wandered into town for lunch after waving Sandra off. Sandra was heading back to Capurgana by boat to then get another boat a little round the coast. Our lunch was tasty – I had a big slab of a very meaty fish with the usual rice, salad, and plantain. Then we returned to the hostel after getting ice cream to chill and read (and nap) in hammocks. We ventured back into town for the evening for a snacky dinner and drinks. We had drinks and snacks sat on the dock at sunset and then decided to do a dance there since the town was basically deserted. Laura taught us her bachata warm-up routine, and it was fun!! Afterwards, we went to get more fast food from the same fried yuca, arepas con huevos and empanadas stall. We got talking to a couple on holiday from Medellin and a guy that had moved away from his hometown to Sapzurro to run a cultural centre. In the cultural centre, he said he had a skeleton of a teredactyl. He also talked about wood and coral, which Aisling understood in Spanish. When he took us to show us the teredactyl, it became clear. He had made what resembled a teradactyl’s skeleton out of driftwood and coral found on the beaches, along with palm leaves. Very niche, but very impressive! Afterwards, we headed home.
11/5/23
Today was the day we would meet our tour group for San Blas Adventures, a four day tour around Kuna Yala, land owned and governed by indigenous people called the Kunas. We had to meet the group in Capurgana and decided we would hike there there the rainforest , go to the meeting and then head off to some natural spring pools hat Aisling had found on her one day in Capurgana. We did it.
The hike was hot and sweaty but was well worth it with beautiful views, and thankfully, we made it in good time for the meeting. The group of nearly thirty was over-run with Brits, or Londoners to be specific!! One quarter of the entire tour was from London, with another two girls from Bath and me🏴. (No Northerners to speak of sadly!!) The rest was mainly Aussie with a couple of Dutch, French and Germans thrown in along with a Canadian and an Argentinian. We sat through the normal welcome chat and paid up before Laura and I followed pur guide Aisling to a natural pools she had found a few days before. We passed the set for Survivor along the way and then skirted past the jungle along the coast to the paradise pools nestled just above the ocean. They were gorgeous. We had juices and iced coffees, chilled, chatted and danced a second round of bachata before heading back along the coast to catch the boat back to Sapzurro.
The boat ride back was calm, and then we headed up to our old hostel for group drinks and to collect our rucksacks. We had dinner all 28 of us back at the new hotel.
wanderingwelshie2 travels 