The journey to Carti through Guna Yala territory was a crazy road: steep, twisty and through lush green jungle. After what seemed like ages we came into Carti and saw a whole load of bikes on the dock and a glorious sailing boat, ready and waiting. Phew. We had been told to arrive at 10am and we got the dock at 9.59, check us out! As Nariyama Shihan would say: "timing".


We boarded a small boat to the island of Porvenir to stay one night on land. What an experience! A group of strangers taken to a tropical desert island and left to their own devises. Well, many beers and bottles of wine were drink, some of our merry band didn't feel quite so perky the next day for boarding the Stahlratte!

It was a wonderful way to cross from Panama to Colombia. We stopped at one totally deserted island which we swam to (for those that know Imogen, a big feat, helped by Lucie who swam alongside!) whilst James snorkled for hours. The food was wonderful, the drink plentiful and we had the added bonus of watching dolphins and flying fish leap alongside. One night saw us being tossed and turned, the sails snapping and creaking and many were ill, but apparently this was normal and a rough sea is one with waves of 7 metres, these were piddly ones of 1.5m. Thank the travel gods we didn't experience those!


We arrived at Cartegena in the evening, Andy was in need of ice cream so he went ashore and came back like a Father Christmas of frozen tasty goodness, which we all ate whilst admiring the lights of the city from the boat.


A crazy confused dash to the customs building ensued. As a convoy we managed to get hopelessly lost en route, luckily we were given a police guide - just as well as our passports and papers were with the fixer at the customs office. Finally we were sorted with insurance, import papers and stamped passports and the South America leg of our trip has officially begun!


Photos as usual on Imogen Burman-Mitchell's Facebook page.