PANAMA

Boca del Torro, Panama

Boca del Torro is a archipelago of islands on the Caribbean shores of Panama. I took a bus and then a boat through the national marine marine reserve to get to the main island but when i finally got there i wasn't that impressed. Just a lot of tourists. Not really my bag. I met these cool french guys on the way so we decided to get a hostel for the night and see. Next morning woke up and decided i wasn't gonna stay. They felt the same, so we ended up getting a boat to find a smaller more chilled island, which we did but not before i got my head shaved. I liked it. Anyway we landed this very cool place with rooms, hammocks, kitchen, decking out onto to sea and i just chilled with them for 3-4 days and had a good laugh before getting my sail boat to Colombia.

San Blas Islands, Panama

The San Blas islands are probably the purest collection of sea islands i have ever had the fortune to experience. There are some 350 islands in total, some being 3x3m with two trees others the size of a football pitch. Governed by the Kuna tribe of Panama, the islands have remained intact largely due to the Kuna tribe having 1 seat of the 7 at the Panamanian governing body that decides its fate. The Panama government would like to turn the islands into resorts and hotels, the Kuna tribe have stopped this until now. There are about 5000 inhabitants that live closely together on one main island and there are four smaller islands with four large huts spaced out on each island. Each family in turn spends three months in of the cabins, a sort of break from the main island. The picture below is of a typical sail boat they use for fishing. Our boat was just a little bigger.

I sailed from Colon in Panama through the islands to Cartegena with nine other really cool people and our crazy captain Guido, ze German. We set off at night and all took turns on night watch, looking out for electrical storms coming our way and cargo tankers. We all had to cook and wash up but other than that, of the five days we were at sea, we spent three of them on islands, swimming, relaxing and basically having a very hard life!

It was the first time i had ever experienced seeing dolphins in the wild. On the first night during my night watch i heard this splash in the quiet of the sea. Immediately i thought dolphins. I ran carefully to the front of the boat and in the moonlight there was this silver shiny dolphin swimming along. A second later, his mate was on the other side of the boat. Amazing. Just swimming in the wave of the boat. To top this however, during one of our days at sea, a family of seven dolphins came by the front wave of the boat. Jumping up and down, swimming, coming up for air. it was unbelievable. AND, i had my camera with me so i took a video - see below. Just beautiful.