Seattle to Ushuaia

Wow.  Nearly two weeks since my last post. A lot has happened, and the task of getting it all down in narrative form seems a little daunting, so I’m going to start with a list of events and then expand where necessary. I will try to place these events in chronological order, but it’s very possible that I might mix some things around on accident. Days spent on a sailboat in the Caribbean have this way of melding together, if you know what I mean. Sound good?  Good.  Let’s begin.

December 21st

• I arrive in Panama City and stay at Luna’s Castle (a fabulous hostel – I highly recommend it)
• I hear of a sailboat that would take me to Cartagena from a girl named Laura at the hostel.

December 22nd

• I leave Panama City and drive to Portobelo on the northern coast of Panama to meet back up with Laura and catch the sailboat.
• Sailboat does not show up. I see the black Jesus.

December 23rd

• I return to Panama City to learn that the boat had been delayed in Colombia due to bad weather. New pick-up place would be an island in the San Blas island chain named Porvenir.
• Laura introduces me to Kathryn, the other passenger on the sailboat.

December 24^th (Christmas Eve)

• Laura and Kathryn leave Panama City early in the morning and send word that they would wait for me. Where they would be waiting was unclear.
• I drive to Carti, a so-tiny-it’s-not-even-on-the-map town. The KLR breaks down on the way. Last 60KM is mechanically difficult – the motorcycle stutters under acceleration and dies while idling. Bike is basically dead by the time I reach Carti.
• No sign of the girls at Carti. I find a launch (a large boat with an outboard motor) that could take me and the motorcycle to Porvenir. I heave the bike into the launch with the help of three short but strong men.
• I see three girls waving at me from the deck of a sailboat while approaching Porvenir. One is Kathryn – I’d found them!
• I unload the bike onto the only dock in Porvenir with the help of three vacationing Swedes. Porvenir is tiny.
• I try to swim out to meet the girls, but kick a sea urchin with my right foot in the process and decide to turn back. A native man on the island tells me to pee on my foot and then proceeds to whack the stings with piece of tupperware to break up the barbed spines stuck in my foot. I try not to cry like a little girl. A lovely swedish girl bringsme a bottle of rum, which helps some. I now have zero fully-functional feet (my left heel was injured in a motorcycle tip-over back in Costa Rica)
• I borrow a kayak and row out to meet the girls. The sailboat turns out not to be the one we are looking for, but the captain Glen is a friend of Kathryn’s, so we eat dinner together and sleep on the boat.

December 25^th (Christmas Day)

• Captain Dennis arrives with an empty sailboat. We load up everyone’s luggage, then begin the process of winching my motorcycle off the dock and setting it down onto the sailboat.  I am stressed out by this.
• We load the motorcycle without incident and set sail for the tiny, mostly undeveloped island of Chichime.
• It is dark by the time we arrive in Chichime. We pick up seven more passengers who I learn are on the last leg of their trip from Colombia to Panama and had been dropped off on Chichime by Dennis earlier this day.
• The Christmas feast includes overcooked (but still tasty) wahoo fish steaks, pesto spaghetti and lots of rum. We are happy.

December 26^th

• I wake up to find the captain pouring the last of my rum into his coffee. I am slightly disgruntled, but I really shouldn’t have left the bottle out last night.
• We leave Chichime and arrive a few hours later in a group of three islands near Porvenir. We go ashore and wander through a native Kuna village.
• The Kuna are preparing for a 3-day “naming festival” – basically a huge party which culminates with the 7 year-old girls receiving their Kuna names.
• The crew of 11 return to the boat for dinner and rum. We find ourselves too content (and drunk) to return to the island to partake in the festivities.

December 27^th

• The seven crew members heading to Panama disembark at Porvenir to catch a launch to the mainland.

• Captain Dennis informs us that a storm is brewing south of us, and that we would have to wait it out before continuing to Colombia.

• It is late and we make dinner. We probably drink more rum.

December 28^th

• Nothing that I remember in particular. We probably do a bit of swimming, eating and rum-drinking.

December 29^th

• The storm has subsided, so we leave San Blas in the morning. The waves start small, but eventually grow to 8-10 footers. I take a lot of Dramamine to counter the seasickness.
• Dramamine must be a sedative. I fall in and out of sleep for the better part of 18 hours.

December 30^th

• We arrive in Sapzurro, Colombia near sunset after a hellish 36 hour sail through 8-10 foot waves. There is no immigration office within several hours, so upon landfall, we become illegals.
• Laura, Kathryn, Ilana and I meet Chile, the proprietor of one of the only “hotels” in the town. We drink lots of rum.
• The girls and I go for dinner at a restaurant we’re shown to by an amiable guy who calls himself Panama. While we’re eating, a man named Cesar sits down with us and he and I converse for an hour or more. Cesar is a language teacher and speaks English, Italian and Japanese.
• After we finish dinner Cesar takes us on a tour of downtown Sapzurro.
• I am very drunk and the girls are tired, so we retire to the sailboat for some sleep.

December 31^st (New Year’s Eve)

• I awake and decide to go for a swim. There is a pretty Colombian girl swimming near our boat, so I jump in the water and chat with her for a little while. She isn’t much interested in talking with a silly gringo so I swim to shore.
• I run into Cesar. He is cooking breakfast with some friends, so I sit down with them and relax. It takes me the better part of two hours to remember Cesar’s name.
• Cesar shows me the way to a farm on the coast just north of downtown Sapzurro. It is a 30 minute walk, and worth every bit of it. We brew coffee and Cesar shows me how to open a raw coconut to get at the milk. We spend a perfectly lovely afternoon on the beach.
• I return to the boat for dinner and a change of clothing.
• There is nobody left on the boat, so I row the dinghy back to shore by myself.
• I find the girls and we proceed to consume large quantities of rum.
• I suggest a way to ring in the new year and the girls are agreeable. At midnight, Laura, Kathryn, Ilana and I strip naked and go for a swim in the warm waters of the Caribbean. It is dark, but the moon is full, and several passersby see more than they probably should.

January 1^st

• It seems that all of Sapzurro has converged on a single bar. We party and dance and continue to drink for several hours more.
• I dance a bit with Yolanda who apparently decides that I’m now her new boyfriend. I feign ignorance and escape the dance floor.
• Suddenly it is light out. The sun is unwelcome and I retire to the sailboat for a piece of sleep.

• When I awaken, the crew is aboard, but the captain is nowhere to be found. I am given the task of buying empanadas and retrieving our captain.
• I row to shore and find Dennis completely smashed. It is 11 AM.
• I follow Dennis for most of the afternoon as he gets drunker and drunker. I eventually give up and return to the sailboat with a bag of 30 empanadas. The girls have been semi-stranded on the boat all day.
• Ilana and I row to shore at 9:30 PM to find the captain passed out and unresponsive. We accept that we’re not leaving today.

January 2^nd

• Still no word from the captain. Ilana, Kathryn and I are happy to relax in Sapzurro, but Laura is anxious to continue with her trip. The three of us row to shore to escape Laura’s sour mood.
• Is is extremely hot, and we buy homemade ice cream on sticks. Morale improves.
• We return to the boat and spend a lazy afternoon together. No sign of the Captain.
• Captain Dennis finally shows up in the early evening. After feasting on red snapper, we set sail for Turbo.

January 3^rd

• We drop anchor in Turbo, Colombia in the early morning. The captain announces that a launch is coming to ferry us and our belongings to the mainland, and that we only have a few minutes to gather and organize our things.
• We transfer my motorcycle from the sailboat to the launch. The sea is calm, thankfully.
• The launch takes us to the main port in Turbo and we unload. Laura is anxious to continue with her trip, so she says her goodbyes and heads off to the bus station.
• I realize that I left my iPod and a bag of clothes on the sailboat. Dennis intends to leave straightaway, and I’m not sure how to get my stuff back.
• I can’t find my helmet. The launch has disappeared with my helmet still inside.
• My KLR does not start, so I push it towards downtown Turbo. It is hot and I begin to feel very depressed about the magnitude of problems I’m facing, so I decide to focus on solving one small problem at a time.
• Problem #1: I track down my missing helmet with the help of two Colombian girls who tagged along with us from Sapzurro to Turbo.
• Problem #2: Kathryn scouts for and finds a hotel with a courtyard where I can take apart my motorcycle. The hallway into the courtyard is tight, but I squeeze the KLR through. A bed costs 7000 pesos/night (about $3.50 USD).
• Problem #3: It is Sunday and the immigration office is closed. Dennis decides to spend the night in Turbo and leave the following day, so we all return to the sailboat for dinner, and I retrieve my iPod and clothes. We sleep on the sailboat.

January 4^th

• Ilana and I flag down a passing motorboat and hitch a ride into town. We go to the immigration office and find the process surprisingly easy and pleasant.
• I head to the $3.50 hotel and begin pulling apart my motorcycle. The helpful folks at advrider.com have provided me with some possibilities to investigate.
• I check the spark, clean the air filter, and verify that gas is making it to the carburetor – it all looks good.
• I remove and disassemble the carburetor (for the first time ever!). I clean it out with carb cleaner and put everything back together. The KLR still does not start, but I learned more about my motorcycle. It is dark so I stop for the day.

January 5^th

• Ilana leaves for Cartegena and suddenly I am on my own for the first time in almost two weeks. It is a strange feeling.
• I push my bike to a nearby mechanic . His name is Juan, he’s missing the last knuckle of his right index finger, and he assures me that he can fix my bike. He’s busy with another motorcycle, though, so I leave my bike and go for a walk.
• I wander through the outskirts of Turbo. A group of men invite me to join them for a game of Turmeque. I am terrible at it, but Alirio, the owner of the bar/playing field invites me back to his house for lunch. I accept, but tell him that I need to return to the mechanic first, so we decide to do lunch in two hours.
• I return to the mechanic and together we disassemble the carburetor once more. He removes (I think) the main jet and blows through it to clear any trapped dirt– something I neglected to do. He also cleans the float bowl.
• We reassemble the bike, and after cranking the starter for what seems like an eternity, it fires right up! Hallelujah!
• I ride the motorcycle for the first time in almost two weeks and it feels amazing.
• Lunch with Alirio and his wife is a lovely experience. His wife (whose name I’ve forgotten) is an English teacher, and she loves to practice her English with native speakers.
• I mention to Alirio that I still need to process my bike through the Aduana (customs). He offers to help, which I readily accept. He hops on his scooter and I follow him to a military base several miles away from where I though the customs office was.
• Alirio explains to the customs official that I had arrived by sailboat from Panama, and 30 minutes later I have all the paperwork finished.. at no charge!
• Alirio invites me for dinner, and I accept. After washing my motorcycle for the first time since leaving Seattle, I head to his house, where we drink excellent tequila and eat very well. His wife wants me to listen to some English songs and transcribe the lyrics for her. Instead, I teach her how to use the internet to find the lyrics to just about any song.
• I teach Alirio how to download pirated movies. The first movie he downloads is Rambo IV.
• Alirio’s wife invites me for breakfast the next day. I graciously accept and return to my hotel to pack up.

January 6^th

• Breakfast at Alirio’s is fried corn cake, cheese, butter and hot chocolate. It’s very tasty.
• I say goodbye to my new friends and leave Turbo. Finally back on the road!
• I arrive in Medellin in the early evening.

And that about brings us up to date!  I’m in Medellin and it’s lovely.  Getting into Colombia took longer than I’d hoped, though, and now I feel as though I need to make up some time, so I’m planning to get an early start tomorrow and ride southwards.  I don’t have a particular destination in mind, and I’m excited to finally reach the southern latitudes soon!

This entry was posted on January 7, 2010 at 2:25 pm and is filed under On The Road.

Tags: bordercrossing, colombia, panama, pictures