First of all, I want to apologize to everybody who I promised to that I would write a blog article every day. I could have foreseen that there is no internet on remote tropical islands. I hope no one has reported me missing yet. So far, Interpol doesn’t seem to be looking for me, as I was still able to cross a border (though I think at that specific border crossing, Interpol would have had to send a pigeon to reach them).
From the beginning: Thursday morning, my container partner and me were picked up at our hotel in Colón and taken to the harbor Puerto Calí. From there we were taken by boat to an island called Naranjo Chico, part of San Blas, PAN, where we arrived safely.
It was a beautiful island with palm trees, surrounded by clear blue water and coral riffs. A travel agency’s brochure couldn’t have pictured it prettier. We directly went snorkeling and when we were asked whether we wanted to stay one day longer, we agreed – under the condition to leave very, very early on Saturday, so that we could make it all the way to Cartagena in one day (and night), where we wanted to have the full Sunday to explore the city before dealing with getting our cars on Monday morning.
During the morning of the next day, we realized that – as beautiful as it is – there is not much to do on a tiny island. Even the boat tour we added wasn’t really worth it – except that we swam with starfish. But as I might have had a bit too much rum the night before, it maybe wasn’t the worst idea to have another day to recover.
This morning, we left the island by boat, but apparently the definition of “really, really early” is a bit different here. When we expected 6am (sunrise), we were told we would leave at 9am and didn’t start before 9:30am. The boat ride was sunny and calm… For a while. Until we left the San Blas Islands and got into rain. The waves weren’t big at all, but the tiny boat jumped up and down and the rain drops felt like hail on the skin.
Eventually we arrived safely at Puerto Obaldia – the last town of Panama, which has no road connection – where we had to stamp out of Panama. We arrived at 2:55pm, the immigration office was open until 3pm. Luckily, the captain and one passenger knew the officers, so our bags didn’t have to get checked and we got our stamps although it was already way past 3pm by what time.
We continued to Capurganá, COL, where we arrived safely at 4:10pm. The immigration office closed at 4pm. Without entrance stamps in the passport we cannot continue. Also, the last boats to Necoclí or Turbo – cities WITH road connections and busses to Cartagena – had left already. This is why we are stuck here now. Maybe sometimes “European early” does have some advantages.
Tomorrow we will still have enough time to arrive in Cartagena (if nothing goes wrong), but we won’t have a full day anymore to check it out before we have to work on getting our cars out on Monday.