Cartagena, Colombia
Greetings Gentle Readers. I am happy to be reporting to you from Cartagena, Colombia, South America after 9 grueling days (!) traveling with The Papillon from Portobelo Panama.

The boat: The Papillon, a 31 foot schooner
The crew:
Captain Tom Valentine, originally from Germany
Mette (pronounce Mit-tuh): Danish, recent Business School graduate
Martin: Danish, 22, excellent swimmer. He & Mette have been traveling through Latin & now South America since September.
Ryan Baker: recent graduate of NYU with degrees in Philosophy & Business
Michael Baker: recent graduate of Syracuse University with a major in Computer Science.

We boarded The Papillon on the early evening of Wednesday, December 12. We were to spend the night that evening to make preparations, and to familiarize ourselves with the boat. To put it politely, the boat was modest (or to put it not so politely, and to quote one of my crewmates whose family has their own sailboat, the boat was "disgusting", the kitchen was "disgusting", and the captain?: "He´s crazy!")

We set off on Thursday morning for Port Venir, one of the San Blas Islands, where we were supposed to get our passport & immigration documentation taken care of. However, the immigration officials were not there, scheduled to return in 4 days. So we sailed to a "nicer" island, anchored, and spent about 3 nights there (one night we spent in a hut on the island), avoided a mutiny (the crew was getting impatient), then returned to Port Venir. The next morning in Port Venir, we had our passports stamped & immediately set sail for Cartagena. This would be about Tuesday, our 7th day with the boat. And by this time, we were sick of the boat, sick at looking at the ocean, sick of peanut butter, and after we hit the open sea, I was seriously sea sick! Days 7, 8, & 9 on that boat were a case study in enduring misery & discomfort.

The highlights:
Learned how to snorkel. If u´ve never done it, I highly recommend it. It is much fun to swim with the endless variety of pretty fishies. I even saw a seahorse.

The San Blas Islands
The San Blas Islands (there are about 400 of them) are just off the coast of Panama. They rise just above the ocean about 3 feet, are totally flat, have white sandy beaches, and are covered with palm trees. On closer inspection, one also finds the island shore littered with a plethora of plastic detritus - empty water bottles, oil containers - obstensibly swept ashore after being tossed overboard from sailing vessels in the sea. The islands are home to the Kuna.

The Kuna People
Met many of the Kuna. I would translate Kuna into english to mean "no worries, just gently swing in a hammock?". The Kuna essentially subsist off what the island & the sea provide - coconuts, fish, lobster & crab, though some Kuna had chickens & I even saw a family with a little piggie. The Kuna women are famous for sewing Molas. I met some of the children who spoke Kuna, Spanish & English, and learned a few Kuna words. For example, a common sea bird on the island is called a dui-dui (dewey-dewey). Another interesting thing is that many of the Kuna men, though not quite "flaming", are very open & queenly in their gayness. Apparently, one of the islands is famous for the molas made by gay Kuna men.

Soup
I received rave reviews for taking some left over rice, and 4 cans of Campbell´s Chicken with rice soup, and preparing dinner for the crew on the boat. That was on our 3rd night on the boat. When we arrived in Cartagena yesterday evening, I was told it was the best & most memorable meal we had during our adventure on The Papillon.

In about 30 minutes we meet with Captain Tom who should be returning to us our stamped passports making us official visitors to Cartagena, Colombia - The Most Beautiful City in South America (or so they say).