Panama to Colombia by boat

At Luna's Castle hostel in Panama we met Bob, the captain of Viva, a catamaran that was sailing to Colombia via the San Blas Islands. We also met an Irish couple who had just sailed from Colombia to Panama with Bob and they highly recommended it. Two days later we took a bus to Sabanita and from there a taxi to Portobello from where we would sail to Colombia.

Chicken Bus in Panama

Well taking a taxi wasn't as easy as it sounds, we were a group of 5 so we needed two taxis but we couldn't even find one taxi to take us. We made two attempts at taking the bus but the they were so full they had people hanging outside of the doors. No way 5 of us with our rucksacks could fit. Eventually we convinced a guy in a pickup truck to take us for 35USD the going rate was 20 so he was making 15 extra and we were saving 5. Only problem was 2 of the guys had to sit in the back of the pickup for 45 minutes during the midday sun, this resulted in some sunburnt knees. Luckily I was inside.

Stuart and Cristian in the back of the taxi

We checked into the only hostel in Portobello and soon met up with our captain Bob. We would set sail the following day at 11am first stopping for lunch on the Panama coast in Puerta Linda and then sailing to the San Blas Islands. The San Blas Islands consist of over 340 islands on Panama's Caribbean coast and are home to indigenous Kuna Indians. The islands and the associated mainlan territory are called the Kina Yala by the autonomous Kuna Indians who control this area of Panama. The Kunas allow visitors but they prohibit any non-Kuna from permanently settling or intermarrying. Also foreigners cannot buy or invest in land in Kuna Yala.


There are lots of boats catering for backpackers doing the trip Panama to Colombia. The going rate for the 5 day trip is between 300 and 500 USD but the quality of the boats, the number of passengers and the food tends to vary a lot. I've heard some horror stories of overcrowded small boats with little or no food. Bob's catamaran was the most expensive option that we had come across but it came highly recommended and once we were on board we could understand why. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a nice living area, a large kitchen and a massive cockpit. The deck of the catamaran was quite large also so plently of space for hanging out for the 5 day trip.

Catamaran Viva

The wind was surprisingly calm so we used the engine all the way to the San Blas islands. We arrived at 3am and anchored in between 4 islands only one of which is inhabited with two families. At sunrise we could see that Bob was correct when he said we'd arrive in Paradise in the morning. Clear blue caribbean sea, white sand, palm trees and blue skies.

Caribbean Paradise

Our day consisted of eating, drinking, sleeping, swimming to the islands, snorkeling on the reef, fishing although we didn't manage to catch any fish. After about an hour snorkeling around a reef Seamus and I swam to a small island that was a small mound of white sand with 2 palm trees. Obviously we didn't have our camera with us but here is a photo we took later in the day from the dingy.

Palm Island

Throughout our 3 days in the San Blas the kunas would sail over to us offering us lobster, mangos and fish. Their boats are dugout canoes called "ulu" and in some cases their sail was a bed sheet with some patches on it yet they moved surprisingly fast through the water.

Kunas sailing in the San Blas

The next morning we sailed to an area of San Blas where there are 2 inhabited islands connected by a foot bridge. We took the dingy to the island and walked around for a few hours.

The group that sailed to Colombia on the Kuna Bridge

It was an interesting mix of new and old on the two islands, for example their toilets are a hole in the floor at the edge of the island yet many of the houses we passed had satellites and one shop/house that we entered had a 40 inch plasma TV. Not the first time I've come across this, I saw similar in a yurt tent in Mongolia! We bought some bread in the town bakery and also some drinks in a shop. A small bottle of water cost 1 dollar yet a bottle of coke cost 65 cent. Strange.

Kuna Toilets

The afternoon we went to another part of the San Blas Islands for more swimming and snorkeling and then the same again the following day, slowly moving south. Whenever we weren't anchored we were fishing and we managed to catch three fish on the Friday. One of which was a shark but Bob our captain was a wary about taking the shark onto the boat as it could be quite dangerous. While we were deciding what to do the shark managed to slip away, luckily Arnold managed to get a photos before this happened.

The one that got away.

The one that didn't get away.

At 5pm on Friday we left the San Blas islands and started our journey towards Colombia expecting to arrive early Sunday morning. The sea was surprisingly calm. Bob has been making this trip for a number of years and he said this was the calmest journey he's had on this route. All of Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night was spent on the boat in the middle of the ocean sailing towards Colombia. At this point we really appreciated the size and stability of the catamaran. Plenty of room for hanging out, reading, sunbathing, watching movies on laptops, writing blog posts and listening to music.

Couchsurfing through Central America

After Semana Santa I spent a week living with a Guatemalan family while attending a Spanish school. It was a good experience and I spoke only Spanish for the week. At this stage I was traveling for 7 months but other than having a flight to Mexico and a flight to Cuba I've never had to keep to a schedule before. 2 weeks in mexico turned into 2 months and 2 weeks into Guatemala was now at one month. I needed to leave Guatemala and start making my way south. Seamus had just crossed the border to Panama so I was going to have to travel fast if i was to catch him in time to sail together to Colombia.


I organised some couchsurfing for the journey south, committing to meeting people along the way was was a good to force me to keep to my schedule. My first stop was San Salvador. Getting here required an 8am bus from San Pedro to Antigua, 1 hour wait then another bus to Guatemala city, 3 hours waiting there then a bus to San Salvador. I arrived in San Salvador at 10:30pm. I dislike arriving in new cities at night time but the alternative to this was spending another night in Guatemala City and then taking a 6am bus.


As it was so late I didn't hang around, took the first taxi I saw when I got off the bus. Sarah an English student and couchsurfer from San Salvador had agreed to host me for 2 nights. It turned out the previous person she'd hosted was Mattia a guy I'd met in Belize and Guatemala who was also heading south. The next day Sarah took me to the downtown which was a really hectic place, more so than any of the cities I'd seen so far. So much traffic, noise, people, music, pollution and market stalls. Next stop was the university where I participated in their English class. As with Guatemala everyone was very curious as to what I was doing and why.

English Class in San Salvador University

A few bus journeys later and we were at a restaurant in a town outside San Salvador to eat papusas, which I'd describe as tortillas with fillings. Options were beans, beans and cheese or beans, pork and cheese. They are accompanied by some pickled cabbage and a spicy tomato sauce.

Salvadoran Papusas

After lunch we took a bus to see a volcano, the name of which I can't remember. The bus wouldn't take us the full way but some guys in a claro van (imagine a small Eircom van) offered us a lift and then went out of their way to take us right to the entrance.

The Volcanio Crater

After a couple of hours at volcano we started making our way home. This time there was transport back to the village, well turns out the bus was a pickup truck that you stand in the back off. I've seen them in Cuba, Belize and Guatemala but never traveled in one until this stage. It was an interesting way to travel down the mountain.

View from the back of the pickup truck bus!

The pickup took us as far as the village from here we needed another bus which would take us back to san salvador. It started raining really heavy and there was a massive queue for the bus which was running late. Some cars pulled up and offered people lifts, eventually we decided we'd take the next lift that was offered as it was just too cold and wet to be waiting around for a bus that might not show. We got a lift in another pickup truck only this time we were inside and we had seats. The other passengers were very interested in talking to me but I really struggled to understand their spanish. They spoke so fast, had a different accent and also used a lot of slang that was very specific to San Salvador. It was dark by the time we got to San Salvador we took another bus and made it home in time for more papusas.


The next morning I left in a taxi at 4:30am to take a 6am bus to Tegucigalpa in Hondorus. I arrived in the afternoon then took a taxi to another part to town where I got a bus to Zambrano, a small town about one hour north of Tegucigalpa. At this stage I was really glad to have some Spanish as all of this would have been quite difficult to organise only speaking English. In Zambrano I was hosted by a couchsurfer who owned a rural hotel. It was nice to have a break from big cities and spend some time in a small village. It also helped that it was a really nice hotel that I was staying in.

My host Jorge and I in Zambrano

2 nights in Zambrano then the 12pm bus back to Tegucigalpa. The bus stop was a kiosk which served food and had some seats outside. The sun was really strong and I didnt know when the next bus would arrive. I decided to stand under the shelter to get some shade. Just as I did a few people starting talking to me in Spanish, it was tough to understand them as they were speaking so fast and frantically but I gathered it was something to do with my head. I moved away slowly and looked up, there were some live electrical wires hanging about 2 inches from my head. These were coming from the main electrical lines and providing electricity for the kiosk. Obvioiusly they don't have too many tall people visiting Zambrano.


An hour on the bus to tegucigalpa then another taxi and then a long bus to Managua. While waiting for the bus I met a Finnish couple who were making the same journey south. We had to change buses somewhere in Hondorus, the name I can't remember. Our connection was 4 hours late, the result was we arrived in Managua at 2:30am. Managua isn't a popular tourist destination except to take a bus to somewhere else, most backpackers avoid it. Apart from there not being much to see or do there, it didn't strike me as being a particularly clean or safe city. Most of the city was ruined by an earthquake in 1972 and since then the city centre including the cathedral has not been rebuilt. That said it was an interesting place to visit and to see this side of Nicaragua.

Catedral de Santiago in Managua

Visible Earthquake damage

I still spent two nights in Managua and did some sight seeing with the Finnish couple I met on the bus. We took a taxi to the old town and walked around for a bit. The area was pretty desolate, lots of rubbish scattered everywhere and there were gangs of children begging while sniffing glue at the side of the street, all fairly depressing.

Stage and Christmas tree in Managua

Park in Managua

The second night my Finnish friends asked what I was doing for dinner, they were going to cook in the hostel. So we went to the supermarket together but when I realised what they were having for dinner I changed my mind and decided to go to a restaurant. Their dinner consisted of 12 hard boiled eggs, 2 cans of tuna and tomato pasta sauce. They only ate the white of the eggs so at the end they had 6 egg yolks on each plate. They assured me that this isn't normal for Finland. Next stop was Granada, more tourist friendly than Managua. Here I met some people I'd met earlier in Belize and Gautemala so it was obvious that I was back on the backpacker route again.

Granada rooftops

Next I had a long bus journey to San Jose in Costa Rica. This was my first journey with Tica bus in Central America. As we approached the Costa Rican border one of the Tica bus staff came around to us individually and said if we didn't have a flight out of Costa Rica then we would need a bus ticket to enter. He would sell us a ticket for 20USD which would suffice. I explained that I was going to Panama so I would like to buy a ticket from San Jose to Panama but he said it wasn't possible to buy one of these. The ticket he was selling was to go back to Managua. I decided not to buy one as from what I could see they were fake bus tickets, either way useless to be as I couldn't use it. When we got to the border no one asked me if i had a ticket out and I had no problems entering Costa Rica.


After an uneventful 3 days exploring San Jose I took a night bus to Panama. This was a painful journey. We arrived at the border at 4:30am and had to get off the bus but the emigration office didn't open until 6am. Lots of standing around. Exiting Costa Rica was fine but entering Panama I was told that you must have a bus or flight out of Panama if you want to enter. I had neither so they told me I wasn't allowed in. I explained that I had a flight to New Zealand in September I was taking a boat to Panama. He said this was OK but he needed proof of the flight. I needed internet to get this. He told me to find internet. The bus driver was willing to sell me a special ticket from Panama to San Jose for 35USD and with this I would be allowed to enter. Most people bought these useless tickets but again I declined and decided to try the Internet cafe. The internet cafe had no internet so I couldn't print the details of my flight. As a last resort I decided to create a booking confirmation email myself saying that I had booked a boat to Colombia. I printed this off and returned to the emigration desk. This time he didn't say anything about needing proof of exiting the country, just stamped my passport and returned it to me.


I arrived in Panama city in late afternoon and met up with Seamus. I'd not seen him in about two months as he'd left Cuba a week early. I'd been following him but failing to catch him since then. We spent a few days exploring Panama, playing pool, hanging out at the hostel and also visiting the canal.

Panama Skyline

Panama Canal

Miraflores docks at Panama Canal

We also organised a 5 day sailing trip to Colombia. Right now I'm in a small town called Portabello on the Caribbean Coast waiting to set sail for Cartagena. Next update I'll be back in South America.

Semana Santa in Guatemala

Semana Santa or Holy Week/Easter Week is a big celebration in Guatemala. I didn't realise this until I was in Gautemala City and everyone was asking where I was going for Semana Santa. I ended up spending the first part of it in Antigua, a town famous in Guatemala for their Semana Santa celebrations and the remaining days in Lake Atitlian traveling by boat between the various towns on the lake.


The biggest celebrations were in Antigua, all day everyday there were processions throughout the town. Large processions that involved hundreds of people and lasted all day. In advance of the processions they prepared colorful carpets called alfombras along the processional route. The alfombras are very colorful and quite intricate with lots of details.

Preparing the alfombras 

Lots of detail

Alfombras in lake atitilan

This is at the entrance to the church

Once the procession passes over the alfombras they are destroyed. A cleanup crew generally follows the procession and cleans up everything in a matter of minutes. The first part of the procession was all guys carrying some big floats.

The start of the procession.

The float is quite heavy

Turning the corner with the float was difficult

The latter part of the procession was all female, dressed in black and white. They also carried some floats which appeared to be quite heavy.

Girls carrying the float