Zo on the Go

Cuba

2007-09-13T02:54:39Z

I have seen many, many colonial cities in the past 8 months. I was pretty much over them until I got to Havana. La Habana, with the exception of Habana Vieja (the old town, which has been restored) is pretty much falling to pieces, reeking of a fabulous past gone era in all it´s crumbling charm. There´s an energy that runs through it, always sitting just below the surface, ready for action at any time! Most tourists stay in either the Habana Vieja or Vedado (where all the posh hotel are, including the one we stayed in our first night in Cuba) but we decided to stay in Habana Centro where I think you get a better picture of Havana life. Boys play marbles in the streets, women hang their washing from their balconies whilst gossiping with their neighbours (there are no secrets amongst neighbours in Cuba, balconies and doors are always left open to combat the stifling heat), men sit outside their houses, bottle of rum in hand. There is always lots of noise, hustle, bustle, an energetic street life.
Besides just soaking up the atmosphere, Gill and I spent a lot of our time in Havana with our friend Ron. We had met Ron a while back and weren´t suprised to find him on our plane to Havana. We´d had a few fallings out along the way (Ron can be a very bad man!), but we were very much back on speaking terms in Havana. We spent some of our best nights out in Havana with Ron. Ron, is of course, Rum and no Cuban holiday would be complete without him!
Our first night out in Havana just so happened to be a Saturday night so we decided to do a bit of bar crawl. There are many watering holes in Havana, some of them quite famous, mostly because of who had drank in them - you could practically spend an entire week following Ernest Hemingway! We had made a list of where we wanted to go, but we ended up missing half of the ones we´d planned on going to and ended up in a whole heap that we hadn´t planned on! In our last bar, we met some Cubans and they invited us back to their place for more dancing and a few more Rons! They taughts us how to shake our booties like a Cuban, introduced us to their grandmother, who was still up at 3 in the morning and could shake her bootie with the best of them! We stumbled home at 7 in the morning and spent most of the next day in bed - Ron was in the bad books again! We salvaged the afternoon with a trip to the famous ice creamery Coppelia in Vedado. Cubans queue for miles on every corner to get in this place. It was built post revolution as a symbol for the revolution and communism - surely everyone deserves the right to not only affordable ice-cream, but also a plethera of flavours? Unfortunatley this seems to have gone by the wayside, as tourists are shuffled into a seperate cafe with no queues to pay for their ice cream in CUC instead of pesos. I don´t think I´ve explained the money situation in Cuba before. They have two currencies - Cuban Convertable Pesos, which is a currency kinda pegged to the US dollar (actually a little higher), that is used to pay for mostly things that tourists need, like hotels and restaurants and they also have CUC supermarkets. Then there is the national peso, which pretty much isn´t worth the money its printed on. 1 CUC = 24 nationales...on the street you can get a hamburger or piece of pizza for 5-10 nationales whereas in a cheap CUC restaurant it will cost you about 6-8 CUC for a meal. It´s a crazy system and after 3 weeks in the country I still didn´t understand it! So, going back to the ice cream place, surely having two seperate cafes, one for the Cubans only with nationales and one for the Cubans and tourists with CUC´s, goes against the very principles it´s supposed to stand for?! Just another one the idosyncrancies of Cuba!
Next day we headed to the beach to top up our tans. Nearest beaches to Havana are actually quite nice, if not a little scrappy and littered. Still, the water was lovely, the clear warm water we had began to expect of Cuba. That evening we out for some chinese in Chinatown. Yep, Havana has a Chinatown, there are some 10,000 Chinese living there. The Chinese was disappointing (the fact that pizza was on the menu should have been our first clue!) and just after we left the restaurant, Gill had her bag snatched. Luckily I was carrying our money and camera, the lucky thief got away with some toilet paper and a few coins. Gill felt quite smug at the thought of his reaction when he discovered his loot! We were quite shaken from the experience, so we headed to La Florita, a Hemmingway haunt, for one of their famous dacquiris to calm ourselves down.
Our second last day, we went to Havana Vieja to finish off sightseeing, we´d reserved our last day for some last minute shopping and packing. We visited the Museo de Ron (it would be rude not to, considering that Ron was a good friend!) and had an afternoon Mojito in Ambos Mundos, the hotel where Hemmingway lived for 10 years. That night we went to Vedado for a drink first in the Hotel Nacional, Havana´s most famous hotel. The Hotel is huge and grand and many a famous person stayed here during Havana´s hey day. After scoring a free dacquiri from our admiring waiter we went to a posada for dinner. A posada is a restaurant run out of someones house and are generally pretty cheap and serve the standard Cuban fare - meat and rice. We´d been to a couple and the mains had never been over 8CUC, with drinks around 3CUC. So you can imagine our suprise when our bill arrived with the meals at 18 and the drinks at 5! After 7 months of being a traveller and being ripped off, Gill and I decided enough was enough, we were going to stand up for ourselves and we weren´t going to pay the extortionate amount they were asking. We complained about the bill, telling the waiter we had just paid less for drinks at the Hotel Nacional. He replied "Yes, but don´t you think ours our better". We´d had Rum and coke!! After a bit of stand off, we won and we were quite pleased with ourselves when we left the restaurant! We cooled down at a funky little jazz bar called Gato Tuetro (one-eyed cat) where there was a band headed up by a big mama on vocals playing the traditional Cuban Buena Vista type stuff.
Our last day in Havana, we spent in Habana Vieja again doing a bit of souvenir shopping (read: wading through countless Che t-shirts and berets!) and then headed back to the casa to pack, have an early dinner and night for our very early flight the next day. Ron on the other hand had other ideas. He kept us up all night chatting on the balcony and playing cards.
Ron is a very bad man.

Gran Teatro

Capitilo building

Our first bar on our bar crawl

Dancing with the Cubans - notice the grandmother teaching me how to dance!

Street performers

At La Floridita, post dacquiri

At the museo del ron

View from Ambos Mundos

Lady dancing in the plaza

Musica in the plaza

Coolest taxis EVER! I want one to hoon around Sydney in

Me and Ron on the balcony, last night in Havana

Gill on balcony

Cuba remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cuba

2007-09-05T19:21:15Z

Viñales was lovely. That´s the most fitting word for it. Lovely.
It was unlike anywhere else we had been in Cuba so far. Lush green countryside dotted with the mogote (flat topped) mountains that it is famous for. And the actual village itself was very quaint. Existing of only a few streets of coulourful cottages each with a couple of rocking chairs on the porch. It was just what we needed after Santiago.
After arriving and finding a casa, we headed out to explore some nearby caves. They were a bit lame really, we had wanted to go to some bigger ones, but they were closed for some reason, so we had to settle on the very touristy ones nearby. I have to say, that most of Cubas tourist sights aren´t that amazing, it´s more about the music, culture and atmosphere.
That afternoon we took a lovely (there´s that word again!) horse ride through the valley. It really was some of the most beautiful countryside I had seen and it was very tranquilo. We stopped for a drink which turned out to be a coconut filled with coconut juice (of course), lemon juice, honey and rum (not our idea, I swear!)
The next day we headed to the beach, Playa Jutias. It was a beautiful beach, the same clear, warm, calm waters we had begun to expect from Cuba. We had a lovely (sorry, had to) day, soaking up the rays and swimming.
That night we were supposed to go and see a typical band and eat traditional food, but when we turned up to the venue, it was closed and empty save for an old cuban man who told us nothing was happening there tonight. Hmmm, we had already paid for it and walked 15mins out of town, so we were not happy! We headed back into town to the agency we had booked it with, but of course they were closed. The agency was joined to a bar and restaurant so we decided to stay there, have some food, a few drinks and enjoy the live music they had on offer. Luckily, the operator tracked us down there (small town and all) and gave us back our money. We ended up having a great night there, dancing salsa and to reggaeton.
Next day it was back to Havana. We were sad to go, but it was time we actually went and saw Havana properly!

Cuba remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cuba

2007-09-05T19:20:51Z

There has only been three times since I have been travelling that I have almost been reduced to tears. Once was after a particularly long bus journery to Buenos Aires and then being ripped off by a taxi driver, the other was when I said goodbye to Sama (awww) and the third was in the bus terminal in Santiago de Cuba. (I´m not much of a crier and those who know me well know it takes quiet a lot to bring on the waterworks for me!) Santiago just about broke me though. After three days of the worst days we had in Cuba, I was waiting for an overnight bus to Havana, I was sick from a stomach bug (when your guide book warns of parasites in the water it´s probably not best to accept drinks with ice cubes!) and all I really wanted was my Mum (what is it about being ill that makes us want our Mums?) Of course I didn´t break down and bawl, because I was in a bus station and that would have been embarrassing!
We had gone to Santiago for the music which is supposed to be some of the best in Cuba. What we got was three days of constant harrassment by the men and it all got a bit much in the end. We couldn´t walk down the street without being followed or yelled at or hissed at (Cubans hiss to get your attention, kinda like yelling "oye, you!" and for some reason I found it really offensive!) We ended up spending a lot of time in a gringo hotel, Hotel Casa Grande, just to get some peace.
Gill had remarked that we needed to get me a wig, as my blonde hair was getting quite a lot of attention, everything from a supposed olympic boxer stroking it (at which I promptly told him to bugger off and walked away) to comments like "your hair is like sunshine" ...they are anything but poetic, the Cuban men!
Still, Santiago wasn´t without it´s good points. We were staying an amazing casa which was pretty much an art deco museum. The old lady that owned the place only seemed to use her wicker rocking chair, the rest of the place was untouched. We did hear some good music, it seemed to spill out from every street corner. And we had a lovely morning visiting an old fort, driven there in an 1930´s convertible. Cool.
But then we both got sick. The bent over forward stomach hurts real bad kinda sick. And we had to catch an overnight bus to top it all off. This is when i wanted to cry...it was the bus station toilets that did it, not nice. When we arrived in Havana, we had planned on going straight through to our next destination, but Gill was pretty bad by this stage so we decided to stay in Havana for the day and see how we felt later on. A taxi driver took us to a casa which was a little apartment run by an old couple (when we got there, at 7am, the husband was asleep on the couch, think he was in the dog house!). The senora looked after us, she was really sweet. We went to the hospital for Gill to see a doctor (I was feeling much better by this stage) and then went back to the casa for some more sleep so that we would be ok to leave the next day. It was our second night spent in Havana without really seeing any of it!

The fort

me at the fort

Our cool mode of transportation

Santiago rooftops at dusk

the casa

yet another car shot!

Cuba remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cuba

2007-09-05T19:20:26Z

Most people go to Santa Clara to visit the Che Guevara memorial. Gill and I went because we missed our bus to Santiago after a particulary big night in Trinidad, and Santa Clara was the next best option. So we found ourselves on a bus, hungover, on our way to see where Cuba´s favourite (and most famous) adopted son now rests.
We were met off the bus by our crazy landlady. She had been an actress for 35 years (and it showed!) but now she runs a casa with her son. In Cuba there are no hostels as such, just state run hotels or casa particulars. Casa´s are basically rooms letted out in a Cubans house, anything from seperate apartment types or just a bedroom and you share the rest of the house with the family. It´s a great insight into Cuban life and a way for them to make extra money.
We weren´t up for much that night so after dinner we had an early one. We were woken very early to a voice on a loudspeaker. Turns out our casa was across the road from a cigar factory. The voice was reading the news to the workers as they rolled those famous Cuban cigars. Our day revolved around Che. First we went to his memorial and the museum that was attached. The museum was quite impressive for a Cuban museum - the ones we had seen so far reminded me of someones year 12 assignment! There were lots of pictures and personal artifacts, everything from his inhaler (Che had bad asthma) to his leather belt, which you can see him wearing in most of the pictures. Attached to the museum is a memorial where the remains of Che, and other important revolutionaries, lay. The memorial and museum are under the Plaza de Revolution, where are giant statue of Che is erected. The Cubans (and the government) are pretty quick to commercialise on Che, even though I´m pretty sure he´d be turning in his grave right now if he could see all the t-shirts and berets that are sold on practically every street corner!
After the museum we headed back into town for some peso ice cream and a sit in the plaza. Gill asked "how long do you give it?" I replied "2 mins". I was wrong. It took all of 30 seconds before we being harrassed by an older cuban man. It did, however, take him about 2 mins before he asked if I wanted to go to a hotel room! I´m pretty sure he was (or thought he was/wanted to be) a jineterah, which is kinda like a prostitute, or someone who wants to hang around westerners for their money/visa and will do certain "favours" in return. Someone had forgot to tell the poor dear he was about 20 years out of his prime!
After some lunch we went to visit the sight of Che´s most famous victory. At the train tracks where Che had pulled off a defeat against seemingly all odds, lay the wrecks of the carriages that were carrying the army in their attempt to stop the rebels from reaching Havana. Che had derailed the train and caputured the soldiers, even though he was far out numbered.
And that was it for Santa Clara and Che for us. We boarded an overnight train for Santiago de Cuba, leaving Che behind, but not seeing the last of him in Cuba, that´s for sure!

Cuba remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cuba

2007-09-01T19:00:59Z

I have a confession to make. I have always wanted to stay in an all inclusive beach resort. You know the sort. The ones where you get a fluro wristband when you check in, so you can enjoy the all you can eat and all you can drink, and the sunbeds and paddle boats on the beach not to mention a full board of activities like aqua aerobics and dance classes. The ones where middle age divorcee women go to pick up toy boys (and boys go to pick up middle age women in hope of being toy boys!) Personally, I blame it on seeing Dirty Dancing one too many times! So when I found out that I could have a few days on Veradero beach in Cuba for not much more than the flights would cost alone, I jumped at it! Gill and I booked our flights and 4 nights accommodation (3 in Veradero and 1 in a super fancy four star hotel in Havana) in San Jose, Costa Rica, and were off the next day. Gill felt a little guilty - she was supposed to be backpacking, not livin it up in four star hotels and all inclusive resorts! I had no such qualms, after 7 months of slummng it, I thought we more than deserved it!
We flew with Cubana airways which was an experience in itself. We got our first taste of the Cuban men as the hosts tried to chat us up whilst selling us duty free rum and promptly pouring us a drink!
We arrived in Havana in the late afternoon and were picked up and taken to the fanciest hotel I´ve ever stayed in. The Riviera was built in the 50´s as a casino by the mafia and enjoys a waterfront position on the Maceo (the boardwalk) in Vedado, Havana. It felt like we were going back in time when we walked throught the foyer, it´s managed to retain the feeling of the era and the furniture doesn´t seem to have been replaced either! Unfortunately we arrived too late to fully enjoy the hotel, we lamented not being able to go for a swim in the amazing pool or enjoy a bath in the big tub. But we wanted to enjoy our first Mojitos in the piano bar at sunset so there was no time. After dinner and a few more drinks we headed to bed for an early one in anticipation of our transfer to the beach in the morning.
We arose early and trotted off downstairs for our buffet breakfasts. I love buffet breakfasts - all you can eat pancakes, fruit, bacon, sausages and not to mention the omelette bar! We had to make a trip to an atm to get some money and having been warned about the frustrations of getting money in Cuba, were not suprised by the long queue - luckily Gill is British so I was in good company! We had to make a quick dash back to get the transfer. We were glad when we were finally on our way to the beach.
We arrived at the resort a couple of hours later and were checked in and given fluro green wristbands - very exciting! Our resort was one of the cheaper ones on the beach, but still pretty flash for a couple of backpackers! It boasted nice rooms with balconies, a big pool, a 24 hour bar, a pool bar, a bar on the beach, two restaurants, a poolside snackbar, thatched sunshades on the beach with sunloungers, kayaks, paddle boats and dodgy nightly entertainment!
After our first buffet lunch, we headed straight to the beach...WOW! The beach had the bluest water I have ever seen. The water was truly amazing, with crystal clear water, warm and as still as a swimming pool in the morning and with gentle lapping waves in the afternoons. I think I will be putting it in as No.2 best beach I have had the privelage of being on, after the San Blas. Sure, it wasn´t as idyllic San Blas, in fact, it was downwright crowded on the weekend, but still that in itself has it´s own charms. I like to see people enjoying themselves and nothing screams happy holidayer more than a paddle boat meant for four overflowing with 20 or so people!
So, we enjoyed our 3 days there, mostly sitting on the beach, lots of swimming, eating buffet food (we were storing up our fat cells for when we hit the rest of Cuba and wouldn´t be able to afford to eat!), avoiding seemingly besotted waiters and the occasional dip in the pool, cocktail in hand.
Some people claim that Veradero is not the "real" Cuba, but we met lots of locals there despite the misconception that they are not allowed there and it was nice easy introduction to Cuba. Besides, you only have to go the bus station to witness the jostling queues to see that communism in well and truly alive in Veradero too!

Veradero Beach

Enjoying the paddle boat

One of my MANY car shots in Cuba!

Gill

Sunset

Cuba remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cuba

2007-09-01T19:02:04Z

After Veradero, we headed to Trinidad, a UNESCO declared work heritage sight. Trinidad is a postcard picture perfect cobblestreet town filled with colourful houses and colonial mansions. It´s a town that is now totally built around tourism yet still retains an old world villagey feel, with horse drawn carts sharing the roads with 50´s cars. Everyday, hundereds of day trippers descend on the town looking for that perfect 50´s car photo opportunity!
It´s a pretty small place, with not a whole lot to do but soak up the atmosphere, visit museums - on the revolution and colonial furniture, although you can get the latter for free by just wandering the streets and peeking into the seemingly always opened doors of the houses. Wicker rocking chairs and art deco decor abound.
We spent 3 days in Trinidad and practically felt like locals by the time we left. We kept running into the same people who always had a ready smile and offers of salsa lessons! One day we visited the Valle de los Ingenios, home to most of the sugar plantations that the region made most of it´s money from back in the day. Another afternoon we went to the beach, Playa Ancon, which wasn´t nearly as nice as Verdero but still, it was good to escape the afternoon heat under a palmtree and with a swim. Apart from that we spent most of our time just soaking up the atmosphere, drinking in the bars, listening to the live music that Cuba is so famous for, and a few dances with some particularly persistent suitors! Trinidad has some very memorable watering holes, from the Casa de la Musica, to a bar in an old ruined theatre and my favourite, someones backyard complete with a muscial trio and chickens running about!
We had a great time in Trinidad and it could be said that we spent longer in Trinidad than first planned due to some sore heads and missed buses after some big nights out!

Trinidad

tower at sugar estate

Sugarcane country

another car shot

Gill and I with some of our dancing partners!

Cuba remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Panama to Costa Rica

2007-08-09T01:12:38Z

I think i´ve been spoiled for life from the San Blas islands. I´m afraid that never will beaches and islands be so beautiful again. Or maybe it was just the weather that put me off the Bocas del Toros islands off the Panama coast. Gill and I headed there after Panama City on the recommondation of some guys we met on our Lost City trek. They raved about this place, but we found it to be overun by American surfers, a bit too touristy and pretty expensive when you countered into the fact that most of the islands and beaches could only be reached by boat and you also have to pay national park fees on top of that. Still, we had a few fun nights drinking cuba libres and cooking some yummy meals inspired by Fredrickos cooking on the boat. And I´m sure the beaches are much prettier in the sun, but we pretty much had three days of overcast and rain, which is not very inspiring.
Before that, we were in Panama City for a couple of days. We stayed on with one of the guys from the boat, Nir and caught up all things western, including some McDonalds, yummy pizza, massive shopping malls and a movie - Transformers - pretty good if not a little too corny in bits ( I don´t like my action flicks mixed with corn.) Of course we had to go and check out the Panama Canal whilst we were in Panama City. The three of us agreed that it would have to go down as possibly the most disappointing tourist sight ever!
Because the weather was getting us down, Gill and I hot footed it San Jose, Costa Rica. We wanted to look into flying to Cuba from here and thought we could check out the pacific coast whilst waiting for a flight. Little did we know that it would be so easy to get a flight and have found ourselves booked to go tomorrow. We got a pretty good deal, and against our backpacking ways, we have managed to include ourselves three days of luxury in an all inclusive resort on the beach. Nor sure how the all inclusive crowd will react to us and our dirty backpacks! It will be nice to have a few days of pampering for ourselves before we immerse ourselves into the culture shock that I think Cuba is going to be. Can´t wait!

Panama Canal

Gill, me and Nir at the Canal

Bocas

Panama to Costa Rica remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Moving Continents

2007-08-08T15:29:24Z

I have a new ambition in life (for when I grow up of course). It's to get me a dog and a yacht and sail around the world. A couple of obstacles. 1. It seems I have a wee small problem with with sea sickness. 2. Apparently you need a lot of money to buy one of these yachts and I don't have have any! I'm working on both.
Yep, you've guessed it, I've just been sailin'. Two (horrendous) days on the high seas, and then four amazing days sailing around the beautiful San Blas islands off the Panama carribean coast. Gill and I met our captain Fredricko (a nice French/Brazilian man) in Cartegena yacht club and set up to sail from Cartegena to Panama. We got a pretty good deal. We got six days instead of the usual 5 that most other boats seemed to offer as well as drinks (alcohol and soft drinks that most other boats charge extra for). The day we went to meet him, I was feeling unwell and within about 2 minutes of setting foot on the boat, had my head over the side...not a good sign of things to come! The next day we went back to pass over our passports (so he could sort out immigration for us) and a deposit, and he told us he wanted to leave a day earlier than planned. So that didn't leave us a lot of time in Cartegena and meant we had to miss out on our planned mud wrestling in the volcano - damn! Oh well, it meant an extra day for me in Central America.
We met early the morning of departure and introduced ourselves to our travelling companions for the next 6 days. There was the Captain, Fredricko, his Colombian wife Claudia, deckhand Marcel (who we later found out was Claudia's sister), Pedro and Ezequiel from Argentina, Mickael from France and Nir from Israel. Oh, and Reina, Fredrickos tiny little black poodle!
Ok, so the first two days weren't much fun. I have been sea sick before (on a particularly rough whale watching trip in New Zealand) and had heard that this part of the trip can be a bit rough and a lot of people get sea sick. But I was told it was worth it to see the San Blas islands. And having not really been sailing before, I didn't know what to expect. I took some ginger tablets and decided to sleep most of the morning in my cabin. I rose for lunch and that's when the problems began. It appeared that being vertical didn't agree with me and whilst everyone else was enjoying their lunch of salad and freshly caught sashimi barracuda, I was bent over the back of the boat bringing up my breakfast! Nice. Back to bed and then a repeat performance at dinner time. At this point, a storm seemed to be rolling in. The sky was threatingly dark, being lit up with spectacular lightening, and the sea was getting bigger by the second. The only option was to get back to bed and sleep it out.
The next day, I awoke to find the storm gone, but my sea sickness was still very much with me. I decided it would be best to spend the day lying down, but I wanted to lie up deck and as I could only stand up a few minutes before the nausea set in, this had to be done in stages. Get dressed, lie back down, go to the bathroom, lie back down, crawl up deck, lie down...you get the picture! I spent the entire day lying down up deck praying for land, only raising my head to watch the schools of dolphins that came to play beside the boat. We were supposed to reach the islands that afternoon, but as we went to bed (after I actually managed a small dinner), land was still no where in sight.
I awoke the next day to a very early rising, excited Gill, exclaiming "land ahoy!" Thank god for that! We sat up on deck in the early morning light as we neared our first destination in the San Blas, the Holandes islands. They were picture perfect tiny islets covered in palm trees, circled in white powdery sands and ringed in turquiose water. Paradise found.
The San Blas islands, otherwise known as the Kuna islands, are the home to the Kuna indians and have a rather sweet story behind them (and also some rather scary ones about island incest, but I won't go into that!) Originally habinats of the jungle covered coast, they were pushed to the islands by some rather agressive escaped slaves some 500 years ago. They came by canoe and set up homes on the islands. In the beginning of the last century when the US came to Panama, they also discovered the islands and decided they would like a bit of this paradise also. The Kuna people decided, "no more", they had lost their home once before and weren't about to let it happen again. So they declared war on the US and sent out an ambassador around the world the tell of their plight. With international pressure they won their war and declared themselves an independant sovereign under the protection of Panama. (This story was told to me by our captain, so I have no idea how accurate it is, but thought it was a nice story!)
Days on the boat were spent a little like this. Rise early morning to move onto deck, taking time only to change into bikini and slather myself in sunscreen. Go for a swim whilst a breakkie of eggs is being cooked. Get back on the boat for breakfast and jump back into water as soon as finished eating. Take back up position on deck for a little sunbathing before getting into dinghy to head to nearby island for some time on the beach and swimming in the beautiful, crystal clear, warm, shallow waters that surround them. Swim back to the boat for more lounging on deck. Locals would come to us by canoe to sell their wares, some days it was Mola (amazing embroidered peices of cloth that they use to make blouses of, but westerners put on their walls!) or lobsters or octupus for our dinner - this was my idea of shopping! In the afternoon, we'd start having a few beers in the lead up to dinner, where we would have a few more beers and then maybe a couple of rums. Some nights we headed to one of the islands for a bon fire, others we just spent on deck, chatting and listening to music. The food was amazing. Fredricko was a great cook and we had gourmet salads, of papaya and lobster and octupus pasta to name but a couple of his amazing dishes. Now, this is the life!
On day five, I found my perfect beach. I have been looking for this beach my whole life. Coming from Australia, we are a bit spoilt for beaches and I have to say that whilst travelling, I haven't been able to find a beach yet that literally takes your breath away. But on Chichime island, as I walked around it's tiny circumference, I literally did have my breath taken away. This beach was perfect in every way. From it's white, fine powdery sand, to it's lilting palm tree studded shores to the perfectly clear warm waters, I felt like I literally had walked into paradise. I felt extremely lucky and privelaged as I spent the day swimming on this beach.
As day six approached, Gill and lamented our return to the mainland, we really didn't want to leave this paradise we had been so lucky to spend the last four days in. Everything about the trip had been amazing, except of course for the sea sickness, which was already well and truly forgetten. We'd had pretty good weather (one afternoon of rain, which didn't seem to matter as we swam in the sea amongst the storm), an amazing boat and very good company. As we left the boat, whisked away by some locals to the coast, we didn't know that our adventure was no quite over yet. We were pretty late getting away that afternoon and we arrived at the place to catch our final boat to the mainland where we were supposed to meet a car to take us to Panama City, we were told it was too late and we'd have to spend the night in a Kuna village. There was some kind of coming of age fiesta going on in the village, which was basically a bunch of women getting extremely drunk (and I mean extremely drunk, falling over yourself, falling asleep on strangers kinda drunk!) on chicha (alcohol made of corn) and then some dancing later on in the evening. We were introduced to all the important people of the village and had dinner, a few beers and watched the fiesta before heading to bed in our hammocks. We arose early the next day to get a boat and then a 4w4 and then a van to Panama City. After a long journey we finally arrived and said our goodbyes, a great adventure over.

Cartegena

Arriving at the islands

Gill

Reina

Swimming with our beers

Swimming in the rain

Floating shops!

The perfect beach

Me at perfect beach

Nir

All of us on the boat

having dinner

me and Reina

the boys and "wilson"

jumping off the boat

in the village

Dancing Kuna's

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