Yoghurt Pot and Yachts

Panamanian guys have this strange haircut. They sculpt their front hairline by shaving it, this gives them the trouble of stubble on their forehead if they don't shave it every day. I have decided to go Panamanian and have gone for an M.

Had a good last week or two in Colombia. Went to the Tayrona national park hiking through some more mud trails eventually getting to a beautiful set of Caribbean beaches. No real accommodation there though so some more sleeping in a hammock had to be done, got a great spot out on a peninsula with the sea breeze keeping us cool and the mozzies away. Hardly got any sleep but got treated to a real spectacle, a never ending flashing electric sky in the near distance and a clear starry sky overhead, not quite sure how that works.

My last stop in Colombia was in Cartagena, a stunning steamy walled colonial town that had plenty of attractions. Because of this however some cruise ships docked here and streams of bloated Americans wobbled around the town with their white socks proudly pulled high. It was also seemed to be a place where I kept bumping into people I had met months before further south, met the Cambridge lads from Bolivia, met some some people I had met in Argentina, I think a lot of people were finishing their south American trip in Cartagena, weird bumping into the same folk again and good to catch up with them all. Had a very strange experience at a 'mud volcano', went on a proper gringo trip out to this 'volcano', well more like a hill. Climbed the 20m to the top and got into the mud with the wall to wall gringos expecting a muddy puddle already rolling my eyes wondering why I had come on the trip, slipped into this mud pool and there was no bottom! You just stood suspended in sloppy mud, unable to move very easily at all, a very strange feeling, and I must say probably worth the trip.

Getting to Panama from Colombia overland is not easy. The Darian gap separates the two countries, no roads link the two places, and incredibly dense jungle and guerrilla groups block an incredibly long trek through. I therefore decided that a boat would be the best idea. Despite the best efforts of a senile old guy on the street trying to tell me that he could get me on a speedboat for 50 dollars and arrive in Panama, some 400kms away, 2hours later I decided to go for a private yacht instead. Basically small groups of travellers cough up a good wad of cash to go cruising on one of these yachts that ply the Cartagena to San Blas route. This takes 2 solid days of sailing and then 3 days of idyllic chill on the San Blas islands, a huge archipelago of tiny sandy islands with palm tree sprigs growing out of the middle of them. They are exactly how you visualise paradise islands to be. A fantastic trip with a good group of people and a top capitan and first mate who cooked the most awesome food for us. Days were spent snorkeling, exploring the many islands, eating and drinking on board. We had a right character on board called Patrick, a 61 year old Aussie who, well, liked his drink and women. He recounted many a story from his travels on board but none were as good as what happened on one of our nights... I did actually write a paragraph trying to descibe what happened that night but I felt that it had to be censored somewhat reading it back! A tale for the pub over a pint I think instead..

Panama City is well, American. A big city full of skyscrapers and McDonalds on every other corner. Huge American influence here after all the history with the canal and the like. Not a city I particularly like much but it did have a cute old town, not a patch on the south American cities though. The group from the boat stuck together and we went to see the Panama Canal, an impressive bit of engineering that is for sure. Incredible watching these huge ships laden with thousands of containers squeeze through the locks of the canal with barely a foot spare either side. Apparently each big ship like that is charged around $400 000 to come through the canal, just shows you how much the route is valued. 2/3rds of Panama's water goes toward running the locks of the canal. OK enough of the banal facts.

It rains a lot in Panama, especially this time of year. Pretty much guaranteed that it will pour down for most of the afternoons. Did not matter too much when went to a surf spot though, always think that it is one of the best ways to do when it is raining. There was a surf competition on too for the pros which was good to see. It is an even more frustrating sport when you can see what is possible from the best in the game.

Up to the hills to Boquete for activities galore, except well, the rain prevented you from doing anything. I have never seen so much. It rained consistently from 11am to midnight every day, truly depressing. Went to some hot springs which were more like muddy puddles in the pouring rain but it was quite surreal and cool to be sat in a hot muddy puddle whilst being pelted with cold mountain rain.

The Caribbean coast has been slightly better weather wise. Went up to Bocas del Toro, a group of islands for some good Caribbean vibes. My travel buddies for the trip were a Norwegian and a Scottish lad. Scandinavians always good to travel with, the posh Scot was very 'London' and referred to his Dad as his 'father' and one of his friends as 'my good friend Giles who runs Northern European operations', you know the type, alright in small doses. Anyway we headed over to Bastimentos island, no cars and a very chilled vibe. A lot of the people there spoke Creole, a kind of Spanish English mix which was strange to hear after many months in purely Spanish speaking countries. Some great jungle trekking across the island to some amazing beaches. We also did some pretty intense caving, we turned up on a boat to the small village and were told that as it was Sunday the guide and all the rest of the people were at church so the guide would be an 8 year old boy! Brilliant. He led us into the watery bat covered cave with a couple of torches he had saved from the previous Christmas cracker. As the water was chest high I guess the kid found it a little trickier than us therefore half way into the cave he just jestered for us to continue on our own. A real bit of exploring and quite scary sometimes going under 'sumps' where you have to duck under the water to get to the cave, luckily we managed to somehow keep our Christmas cracker torches dry, the caving went on a for a good while and we really did feel that we were in the depths all on our own with bats flying into our faces the whole time. A good adventure, and we were glad that we hadn't found about the water snakes that lived in the cave until after we had got out.

Had a fun night out on the island as well. Got chatting to a local guy one night who said he would sort a bottle of rum if we sorted some mixers. This sounds an amazing deal but the fact is that the mixers were more expensive than the rum. He went off to fetch his rum and we brought some mixers, it was going down a treat until his mum turned up, a typical big loud Caribbean woman, with her hands on her hips looking at Santiago, him with a guilty look on his face as if he had stolen the rum from the house. Funny. We also attracted the attention of another local wanting to share the rum, he used a yoghurt pot as his choice of drinking vessel which looked quite comical as he was trying his hardest to look Caribbean cool with his big platform shoes and gold chains. We named him Yoghurt Pot.

A panama hat actually comes from Ecuador.