Panama Fishing Boat to Columbia

On Tuesday i arrived to Puerto Lindo harbour in Panama. I met to Daves and the guy below on the right had sailed from New York to Ireland on a raft about 10 years ago

(see more at http://floatingneutrinos.com/). They offered me a free lift to Florida on a boat but i turned them down as i was set to leave puerto lindo in Panama to arrive in Cartagena in Colombia on Sunday.

After 2 hours on the boat i questioned why i paid $375 to feel this violently ill, it was cheaper to get the plane for fecks sake, after a while i got my see legs and learned its best to lay down when the boat is rocking. We spent 3 nights on different San Blas islands and they are beautiful and remote. The last 40 hours of traveling were horrible and tiersome but lets not focus on the negativities as they will soon be forgotten and i will never set sail on the trip again.

On the last night i steered the ship at 5.30am, lost control twice and blamed it on the waves ...lol

On the trip I would swim from the boat to different picturesc islands so unfortunatly i didnt get many pictures to capture the special momentswhere i met different Kuna Indians. Kuna are also known as the Tule, Native South American group of the Chibchan language family and of Panama. These people are independent and survive sustainably off local resources and passing tourism. Its a weird wonderful feeling when you meet these people who are still living life in the most traditional possible sense with their surroundings slowly changing. The women are full of friendly smiles but the men are focused on the deniro. Althoug myself and Vincent found a lovely fater & son who gave us a free cocnut after i helped crushe some cans. They explained that they got $0.15 for every pound of crushed cans off Columbia. There are hundreds of islands which comprise of 49 communities, each with an elected chief. Each chief then votes in 3 higher chiefs to act as the board or council for the Kuna people. It´s truly a unique experience when you meet the people living on these tiny remote islands, they have little possesions and often change islands and they belong to all Kuna Indians. I hung out with the son who was 23 so a similar age but he had a little sprog and one on the way. For the craic we made a trap to catch a bird but it was never going to work and when his father came back he hid it to save himself the embarresment.

When we arrived to Cartagena in Colombia, i expected to see the large 16th century stone walls to protect the "spanish" gold from vicous pirate attaks but i was shocked to see how developed it is, so the adventure continues.