Captain Jack demonstrating the game
Cheered on by a crowd of backpackers and captains, Dimitri's trademark walk-away swing managed to astonish, and will most likely gain a spot in the local hall of fame, or perhaps the town's own historical museum, which offers an educational insight into the unesco protected fortifications. But more to the point, the captain helped us secure a spot on a stunning sailboat which brought us, as well as a group of talkative travel animals via the San Blas islands to Americas next top destination Colombia.
Interior of the sailboat
During the sailing trip we snorkeled, ate lobster, saw Kuna and had great fun with the Turkish/Argentinan crew, Danish, Swiss, German and Austr(i)a and -lian backpackers. White playas, palm trees, clear blue sky... now we know where Bill Gates got his Windows backgrounds from!
Contemplating the good life.
It wasn't all sunshine and palm trees though. An anonymous thriller novelist described the doomsday events to follow:
On one of the nights at open sea, a seemingly harmless breeze developed into a vicious thunderstorm which left the captains exhausted and exasperated on the lower deck. With the mighty and majestic sea vessel dangerously drifting without direction, and with all others aboard either panicking or vomiting, team D&G stepped up to the plate. While Graham tried to manage the walls of water swarming the boat which now started to more resemble a bath tub than an ocean cruiser, Dimitri took over the steering wheel and performed a 360 maneuver flipping the boat right side up again. When dysentery started to kick in and forced our heroes to share their last double whopper with the starving crew, Graham attempted to contact the coast guard with Morse code, without success. Luckily, Dimitri managed to pick up a WIFI connection from a palm tree Island we passed. After updating his facebook status they got a hold of the A-team which airlifted them out of an impending certain death.
Although the events might have been slightly exaggerated, the survival was celebrated with enormous pizzas upon arrival in Cartagena.
Americas most important walled port during the 15-17th century, Cartagena is a busy nest of fruit sellers, salsa bars, picturesque market places and 4 enormous forts to protect the rich city against badboys on te sea, aka Pirates of the Caribbean. During a tourist tour, we even ended up in the Esmerald center, where specialists mastered the polishing of the green-blue stone. We were impressed by the beautiful jewelry and the Colombian señoras presenting this Colombian export treat. On the hippy colored tourist shuttle, Graham started a a Mexican wave, while the South-American tourists showed us how to sing, make salsa-sounds and lots of enthusiastic cheers.
'Alllllllll aboard!'
Colombia will be visited by the two of us for three to four weeks. Some cities and world-is-not-enough-challenging hikes are on the program. Keep in touch!
Graham & Dimitri
1 comment:
Cartegena sounds wonderful and very picturesque. Love the multicolored bus. Still trying to figure out how the driver steers it by standing on the running board and pointing. Would love to have been on that sailboat on the night of the perfect storm, just to experience the sheer terror. But after reliving it vicariously I'm not sure I'll ever eat an enormous pizza again.
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