Northernmost point of South-America

You can pay loads and take organized tour or organize it yourself. We did the second one. And it was very easy. Collectivo picked us Friday morning at seven and we arrived to Uribia at nine. It was so funny when we got out of the car, ten people ran towards us offering rides to Cabo de la Vela. We picked one and ended up waiting like an hour it to be full. Another funny thing was when one more gringo entered the truck.. Taidat olla Suomesta? And so we met the first Finnish traveller :)

Ride was very interesting. Back of the truck, along the straightest dusty road I have ever seen. On its own way it was so beautiful. Dry desert, cactus and very basic mud houses. La Guarija is very poor area with no running water at all, but still we saw village after village, kids playing and asking for treats. Few years ago in was not even known that you can enter this area, but now the goverment is building a new road there so it will be totally different in 10 years time. When we arrived to Cabo, so many places were closed or shut down. Colombian holiday season ended few weeks ago and you could see it. Few local indeginous people, Wayuu, were selling bright color bags and bracelets. Our driver gave us a ride for Agua ge Ojo (beach), pilon de azocar (100m hill) and el Faro (light house) where we watched our first proper sunset. With a little bit more people and places open this place would have been superb!

Punta Gallinas, northernmost point of South-America, CHECK! From Cabo we continued our way even deeper for the desert. Passing by salt flats, plain sand fields and probably miljons of cactuses. We weren't given an option which one of the two hospedajes we would stay. Our lancha driver made that decision for us.. We got a tour around the area with really really old car which I was afraid would leave us somewhere middle of the desert. The best place was Playa Taroa, amazing dunes! After sliding down the hill, it was nice to take a dip in the cool water.

Later on we got private tour to see pink flamingos with our new Belgium friends. It was so nice!! After two minutes we saw a huge caiman just chilling on the beach! So basicly cross the bay where we entered the boat. Not swimming from that shore again! And then we saw them!! Pink flamingos, CHECK! Jeiii :D I was so happy with our tour, I have never seen flamingos in their real living space. Such a beautiful bird. I learnt that the older the bird, the darker the color gets. There were few really dark red ones and few new borns. 

I wish I could say our hospedaje was nice but I can't. To see the view you had to walk end of the rancho, hammocks where we slept were really greasy and dusty. Meals were on certain times and you weren't given any other option. But Punta Gallinas and the place in total was worth of all that travel up north. On our way back today, I was real grumpy. So typical that OUR car was the one to broke down. So our group was split up. And of course it was US who were put on the car going back to Cabo, not Uribia where we had paid our ticket. I was ready to curse our luck and driver, but later on when the driver apologized and bought us ice cold drinks, I was happy again :) 

We still have one place on the Caribbean Coast to be checked, Parque Tayrona. We head there tomorrow, hopefully meet up with the belgiums and probably some diving! One last beach to chill before heading to the colder areas.

Chinchorros

I Am flying, Playa Taroa

View from Pilon de Azocar

It hasn't rained here in 3 years!!

Northernmost point, Punta Gallinas

Child of the desert

This lovely caiman was just 20m from our pier

Riohacha

Definitely not the nicest town, but most certainly the nicest hostel, Pura Guarija Hostel! Clean, light, simple with nice little details, rooftop terrace, balcony, hammocks and huge kitchen to cook. Not to mention how nice and friendly the owner couple is :D 

I had a walk by myself this morning while Mr. R was snoozing. And I must say I missed him so much! It felt like I was just piece of meat, cars were stopping and beebing, guys were hissing and yelling, some even changed the direction and started to walk along side of me. I had forgotten how it is for a blonde girl (or any western) to walk alone in these streets. It made me feel unsafe and sad for the first time in this trip. It is such a shame that local men here don't have any manners or respect for female gringos (foreingers). 

Cartagena

Monday morning after a bad night sleep (music was playing till 2am and I felt like the ground was moving, my body was still on the boat)we went to look for new hostel and found a really nice one, Tree House, just few blocks away from the main street. Alfonso, the owner is so nice and friendly that it has been like being at home. Mamallena was little too crouded for our taste, more like party hostal, thou a/c and pancake breakfast was bonus. I love looking around places to stay, when you have the time and you don't have to carry the bags with you.

I can't believe how hot it can get in here! Seriously, the sun is literally burning hot!! We have been walkinf along the small streets, admiring the colorful houses and tasting different street foods. Monday there were no breeze at all, so we walked around the city walls, which was really nice because you could see the sea and houses from bird perspective. It was funny to notice that after sunset, people really started to come outside. More street vendors with tasty little snacks, all plazas were filled with couples and families watching music or dance performances. Evening we had get together with our sailing team. It was great to see everyone with clean clothes on and fresh from the shower :) But can you imagine how hard it is to deside where to eat when there are 11 different opinions?! Everybody else continued to night club for some salsa, me and Mr. R made the wise decision and headed back to the hostel for good night sleep :) 

Today we woke up early, had a walk around the city before it got too hot and enjoyed one of the most perfect breakfasts! Oh boy, discovering new tastes and places to eat... Love it! When place looks cute outside and you can here good music inside, menu is tempting and when you enter the restaurant everything just falls in to places, Beiyu was this kind of place. Im not even going to describe how deliciosa/rico the food was! Made me think of my favorite breakfast place in Guatemala, Doña Luisa's, oh those banana breads :D

We spent the afternoon in South-Americas greatest fortress, San Felipe de Barajas. Built in 1536 and expanded hundred years later, it used to be the most powerful fortress of the spaniards. We discovered hundreds of meters the tunnels going who knows how deep underground. What a maze! Enjoyed the view to the old city and walked around the walls to watch the sunset. It is amazing how red the sun turns, and how big it can be. It was street food once again for evening meal :)

Tomorrow morning we will leave this beautiful city behind us and head more north to Riohacha. Hopefully we will figure out away to reach the northern most part of South-America, Punta Gallinas.

Sailing from Panama to Colombia

Day 1
Early wake up and we were on the road at five o'clock already. Drive through San Blas hills was as horrible as I remembered! Proper roller coaster, up and down, holes on the road, bent after bent, Hardknott pass is peace of cake compared to this one. It didn't help that our driver only kept his other hand on the steering wheal cos he was busy changing cds or drinking at the same time. Seatbelts, out of question :) Anyway, got safely to the Kuna Yala where we paid the entry fee and lancha took us for our sailing boat where we met the other sailors (New York, Alaska, North-Carolina, East-German, North-German, South-German, 2x GermanPeruvians).

Our boat, Koala 1, was anchored in front of Chichime island. I had huge deja vu when we arrived, I was sure that I had been in this island before, 2012. It was still very pretty - turqoise water, palm trees, white sand beach, coconats,.. Like all the San Blas islands. Our crew Captain Fabian, Sebastian and Chef Daniel had prepared us a breakfast, soon it was lunch time and rest of the day we spent chilling in our hammocks, snorkeling and lying on a beach. After the sunset there was lobster dinner with coconut rice waiting for us.

Day 2
I was pretty happy to sleep till 6.30am :) jetlag almost gone! Even tough our cabin was bigger than I had hoped, it was still pretty hot and humid. Sunburn on my back didn't help me to stay still so we got up and went outside. Crew was still sleeping and it was actually really nice just sit still and watch the sea and palm trees moving along the wind. Breakfast was amazing with fresh fruits, cerials and granola, toast and pancakes!

We changed island to Wanedub, even smaller and more peaceful. All of us spent nice couple hours snorkeling and swimming around the island. Lunch was delicious mushroom pasta, I am very impressed how well Daniel manages to do all the food in that small kitchen with few ingredients! Afternoon we chilled on the beach, doing nothing except enjoying our life!

San Blas islands are separate country from Panama. Kuna Yala is owned by indigenous people who have their own law. Nobody can enter without their permission. Diving, fishing or picking coconut is not allowed without their permission. There are many sailing boats just anchored close to the islands, Germans, Italians, Spanish people enjoying their retirement days. And I can tell you that those boats were beautiful! We were lucky to experience caribbean style supermarket floating next to us. Fruits, veggies, beer, water, eggs, toiletpaper, petrol, your pick :) Second night we enjoyed amazing barbeque, followed buy Guatemalan rum, Ron Zacapa, best one what I know!

Day 3
Eagle rays jumping around our boat during the breakfast was pretty cool :D Dark clouds and gust wind meant little bit rain would come soon. When the rain started, I quickly changed into bikinis and went to stand front of the boat, shower time!! At dirty level I felt 13/10 when I woke up, but after that rain I definitely felt like 8/10 ;D 

We had a first touch with sailing when we moved futher on San Blas.  Waves were huge and only option not getting seasick was sit on the front deck and watching horizon. Later on Captain told us that we would postpone our leaving till tomorrow morning. It would be easier for us to travel during the daylight. First plan was to leave tonight and sail through the night but it has been too windy. So we anchored in front of Maya Caye.

Everybody was pretty much sunburned so shade places on boat were really wanted. Few locals came to offer us fresh fish (Urel, local tuna) and oh boy, how good it was! Never mind the sailing and awesome caribbean landscapes, just come for the food :D

Day 4

CAN NOT WRITE, HUGE WAVES!!

Day 5
Land ahoy!! After 32 hours seeing only water and huge waves it was a pleasure to see Isla Fuerte. I can tell you, I am not going to be sailor on these seas, I need a flat sea :) Friday morning when we left, it took 15 minutes for me and Rob move away from the front deck. It was pretty rocky waves immediately. Half an hour later and the first man was down. Second followed soon after and third American was down also soon. We were really riding on the waves. Dolphins followed us and we could see flying fish through our journey. That was amazing! Also the water!! I have never seen so crystal blue water before :) It was funny how the water kept changing color. When it was deep and no islands anywhere nearb it was so blue, when it got shallower it became to be greener and when we arrived to the island it was turqoise.

Waves were 6-7meters high some even 10 meters!! I have never seen so nig waves, I was thinking that how can this boat stay up?! I sat the whole day in the same spot, I was scared if I would move or go down I would feel sick. Some of the waves flushed through the boat, getting everybody completely wet. Night was mas o menos, so hot cos we had to close all the windows that the water couldn't come inside. Pills pump broke down middle of the night and the water just kept coming inside. It took 3 hours to fix it. We actually managed to get some sleep and I felt fine in the morning but when I went to pick my shirt from inside, it hit me. I had to bend over and feed the fish, disgusting! Luckily it was only that one time and I felt great after. 8/13 were seasick! Captain said that it was a bad wind and we were very unlucky.

From Isla Fuerte it is still almost 12 hours to Cartagena. We stopped for food, little freshing up and cleaning. Daniel has been amazing! I can't even imagine how horrible it has been inside when he has been cooking breakfast and lunch for us. Fabian and Sebastian have been pretty awesome themselves also. Even they have been sick toob they have looked after us the whole time. We have had amazing crew!! :)

Day 6
It is 11pm and we are finally at the hostel!! We were suppose to leave last night but wind got bad again so we postponed it till morning. No clouds anywhere to be seen, it was going to be hot day! I think I got a sunstroke or then I just had had enough. It was so hot, no breeze, I felt disgusting being all swetty and sticky from the sunlotion and seawayer. It took 13 hours to Cartagena, wind got rough again and at some point our speed was only two knots, we were hardly moving at all. 

Putting feet on steady ground has never felt so great. It was funny how it felt like waves were still rocking us. Shower has never felt so good in my life! It was cold but I didn't mind. 

Sailing trip from Panama to Colombia was experience and I loved it! It is definitely not for everyone. Small toilets, no shower. Have to hold on all the time that you won't fall. Being sticky from seawater and breeze all the time. Living in a small boat with 12 others and sharing everything for one week. Eat when 10 meter waves are hitting the boat. See other people getting sick,.. That is not all though! Caribbean islands, clear water, palm trees, fresh fish and lobster, reggae music, snorkeling, relaxing, wonderful people! Thank you Sailing Koala 1, Fabian, Sebastian and Daniel.

Our cabin

Floating supermarket

Daniel cooking

Seasick people

You can't see how big the waves were but they were huge!

Trip has started

34 hours later we finally arrived our hostal Luna's Castle in the old part of Panama City.

I will be honest, I was seriously thinking that what the hell are we doing!? Iberia messed our flights already before we even had left, didn't get seats next to each other, then they erased our vegeterian option for our meals on the flight, immigration took forever and after getting our luggage we still had to que for security check, taxi drivers trying to get the best price out of us outside the airport when we were obviously tired and sweaty plus carrying our heavy backpacks, hostel full of travellers already in party mood and our tiny room already full of other people stuff, fan not working.. Yes, this is what I want!! :)

After the first shock, very sweaty night and 4 hours of sleep, I woke up 3am, waited the sun to rise so I could go and see the quiet streets of Casco Viejo and the beautiful silhuet of the skyscrapers in the new part of the city. I felt much more relaxed after pancake breakfast and shower. We had a nice stroll along the promenade, ate lunch in local place where everybody was staring at us - why are those gringos in here? But I can't tell how happy I was when I got that full plate of beans, rice and plantain! :) Jetlag hit before one and I had to give up and go for a nap. We are trying another local food place for dinner. We will walk to the harbor and enjoy some fresh fish, maybe Mr.R will het his lobster ;)

Tomorrow we will set off for five day sailing trip to Cartagena, Colombia. First days we are island hopping in San Blas archipelargo. I have been there before and it is a paradise! Then the last 48 hours will be in open sea.. It will be rough!

This portion cost 1,5 dollars