Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar

To get to our next country, Panama, by land is too dangerous - through guerilla territory! That leaves travellers with 2 options: fly or take a boat trip via the San Blas islands. The boat trip is not much more expensive than flying and includes stopping at tropical islands - not a hard choice!

The San Blas are a group of approx 378 idyllic Caribbean islands off northern Panama, which are governed by the Kuna people (so they are almost considered a separate country).

We chose a 5 night trip aboard the 64 ft Quest, a boat built by the Swedish captain Goeran. Cost = $50 to hostel as agent fee, $500 cash to captain and $20 entry fee to islands.

Rose, a fellow Brit, is the first mate / cook. There are 7 other passengers apart from us: 2 Dutch (Amy & Cor), 2 Austrians (Susanna & Michael) and 3 Germans (Sebastian, Nessie & Chris). Everyone was lovely however we grew to dislike N & C a little as they didn't stop pawing each other the whole trip and ignored their poor friend Sebastian.

We weren't meeting until the evening so spent the morning changing money (cute dog, free coffee), got a late check-out for the room (40,000P) and then lazed at the beach and had a short massage before stopping at the supermarket to stock up on snacks, iced tea and beer for the voyage.

We met at the docks at 6pm, were taken to the boat by dinghy, and clambered aboard. We had a cabin with bunks in the front of the boat (no ensuite this time). It's a beautiful boat with every gadget you could want times three! It took Goeran 15 years to build and it's usually a dive boat for the Caribbean but has also been to the Arctic and Antarctic - the cabins have heaters. Definitely a great choice of boat - the biggest one doing the trip with the fewest people.

We sat around in the huge marina looking at the Bocagrande beach skyline which is a mass of lit-up fancy high-rise hotels. We ate fajitas, had a safety briefing, and then set sail just after 10pm. We stayed up, accompanied by a lightning show, until we had left the channel out and then we headed to bed about midnight. There was a soothing rocking motion but it was really hot, despite the individual fans on each bed. We did manage to get a fair bit of sleep though.Read more