Check out our best pics from the trip by using the link below:

Top 40 photos from Colombia & Panama

Colombia totally exceeded our expectations. It is a hidden jewel, a place not yet on the common travel radar. We feel fortunate to have visited when we did, and we hope to get back and explore more of the country, it seems to have so much to offer.

For the brief time we were in Panama, its lush green landscape beckoned, and with more time to explore we likely would have also had great things to say. Its certainly easy to travel for an English speaker, and particularly for Americans since the currency is US Dollars!

Our itinerary on this trip was:

• Medellin 2n / 1d
• San Gil 3n / 3d (+ Giron 1n)
• Cartagena 3n / 4d
• Sailing from Colombia to Panama 2n / 1d
• San Blas Islands 3n / 3d
• Portobelo & Panama City 1d / 1n

Our reading list from this trip included:

• Empire of Blue Water - thumbs up from both Todd & Juli
• News of a Kidnapping - thumbs up from Juli, thumbs down from Todd
• The Darien Gap - thumbs up from Todd, thumbs down from Juli
• A People Who Would Not Kneel - thumbs up from Todd (but be forewarned, this book feels very 'academic' in nature), not rated by Juli

Just after sunrise the Luka eased into the harbor at Portobelo, a city that once was one of the main arteries through which gold and silver from South America flowed back to Spain; it was also a favorite invasion target of pirates in the late 1600s/early 1700s. From appearances, it did not seem like Portobelo had ever grown much from that state - the cannon-lined city wall and customs house (though which the materials were processed) were still standing and made up the significant pieces of the city's landscape.

We gathered our belongings and took leave of the ship, heading to Captain Jack's Hostel where we had to wait for our passports to clear immigration control. Being a Sunday morning and even worse, a Sunday preceding a national holiday, we ended up waiting 4 hours for our passports to be stamped and returned. Our hopes of making it to Panama City by noon, then getting on a quick tour to the Panama Canal were dashed. But we made the most of the time, getting in both a shower and a change of clothes for the first time in 5 days!

Right after getting our passports we hustled down the hill to board a bus that would take us to Colon. Most of the bus ride was along the coast so the scenery was nice. The buses that run on this route are school-bus style, painted with very bold colors/characters and accompanied by very loud sound systems. Fortunately we had earplugs with us to deal with the beats blaring from the speakers right behind us on the bus. The other funny thing about the bus ride was the number of stops the bus made along the way...they must have consulted SF MUNI when planning their bus service, it seemed there was a stop about every 1000 feet along the road! Although it only took about 45 minutes to reach Colon, when we boarded the bus in Colon that would take us to Panama City, already sitting there was the entire crew from the Luka who had caught a bus after us in Portobelo but still beat us to the bus in Colon!

In Panama City we walked around the historical city center (well, the post-Captain Morgan invasion city center), Casco Viejo, which was very similar to Cartagena's old city - narrow streets and a mix of dilapidated and totally refurbished buildings, with several open town squares/parks scattered throughout. On the last night of our trip we also got treated to probably the best sunset of the two weeks:

That evening we enjoyed a few beers in the town square, had a nice dinner, and then randomly ran into our friends from the Luka who were at the store buying groceries. Together we gathered for one more evening of beers and drinking games, this time at least on dry stable land, and finally saying our goodbyes to the group and for Juli and I, our goodbyes to Panama.

Once the rough part of our sailing adventure was over, we had arrived in the San Blas Islands of Panama for three days of calm water sailing along deep blue waters dotted with palm tree covered Caribbean islands.

Except for the smallest islands (think one solitary palm tree), at least one Kuna household permanently lives and "governs" the island, requesting a dollar or two for island access, maybe a few more if you want to sleep over for the night. Aside from visitors, the Kuna make their living with coconuts, fishing, or handicrafts; a few commute to the mainland to farm as well. While living on a beautiful island has some appeal, I think it would be tough for us to adjust to a lifestyle with essentially no utilities, limited fresh water, and such limited opportunities for interaction with others.

Each day we'd anchor near a new island and spend the day snorkeling, swimming, and alternately lounging on the island or on the boat deck. Like the rest of our time underwater on this trip, the animal life was pretty sparse - other than giant starfish and few small tropical fish, we saw one manta ray, but otherwise not a whole lot was visible under the water. In the evenings our group would sit under the moon & stars on the boat deck, drinking beers in the nighttime heat.

Each day we enjoyed three nice big meals on the boat - Juli and I were both hoping for a fresh lobster dinner one of those days but unfortunately due to the high seas the local Kuna fishermen had no lobsters to sell us :(

We enjoyed one last sunset before heading below decks for the overnight journey to Portobelo Panama, the final destination of the crossing from Colombia.

After sleeping in late and enjoying one last morning of very comfortable accomodations, we packed up and headed out to the marina to meet our departing boat for the sea crossing from Colombia to Panama. Due to a lack of overland travel options between these two countries, sailing has become a popular method, and we were fortunate to find and secure passage as crew on the S/V Luka, a 56-foot sailboat in which the Captain Tom completed a solo-round-the-world trip in 2007-2008. We were comfortable that we were in good hands with Tom - after such a trip I'd imagine these 5 day sails were a walk in the park!

As we waited at the marina we started to meet our fellow passengers/crew members, which including us totaled 14 people and 1 dog - a good mixed group, although one that clearly slanted younger than Juli and I:

• 4 guys in their early/mid 20s from Switzerland
• 3 girls in their mid 20s from Argentina
• 2 sisters in their early 20s from Canada
• 4 ship's crewmembers: Captain Tom, his wife Bea, ship's mate Jerry, and second mate Wacek (a jack russell terrier)

Though for the ship's crew members this trip would be easy, they set our expectations right away that the first couple days would be tough for the rest of us, making it very clear that we should stock up on Dramamine and be ready for rough seas. Nobody in the group had done any open sea sailing, so we were all rookies.

After a couple hours of sitting around waiting for our passports to get their exit stamps from Colombia and getting baggage inspected for drugs, we began to board the boat - Juli and I were first to board and as there were only two double beds available in the boat we took the one that was in its own stateroom. Although the drawback was that the room also doubled as crew member access to the engine room (making it the warmest room on the boat), the advantage was that it was also the largest bed...the other double was really a joke for two people, and we felt bad for the sisters who ended up sharing it.

Overall Luka was a solid comfortable boat - we knew we wouldn't exactly be sporting our pashmina afghans and hanging with T-Pain, space on the interior was definitely at a premium but all the essentials were in place - kitchen, bathroom, salon, bed. What first caught our eye was the massive amount of fresh fruit stored in the pilot house and in the 'banana hammock' on the rear deck - we ended up eating lots of oranges and mangos from this cornucopia:

After everybody boarded and we completed a safety briefing and instructional sessions on how to use and flush the toilet using a hand pump, near sunset we raised anchor and began our sail out of Cartagena's gigantic harbor area.

As soon as the sun was set, we had to retire below decks for safety and as we snacked on a light dinner and started watching a movie in the salon, we reached the open sea and the motion of the ocean kicked in. Bea passed out a handful of barf bags to each of us and one by one, people started bailing back to their rooms to try to sleep and/or make a deposit in the plastic bags. I think Juli started feeling sick just looking at other people so she went back our room before I did. Overall I think 4 out of the 11 of us ended up using the bags, fortunately Juli and I were not among them!

Sleeping the first two nights was no easy task however, due to not only the motion but the stifling heat in the cabins - we couldn't crack the ceiling windows while sailing because water from large swells would occasionally wash over the deck. The sea sickness meds did have some sleep aids in there but overall it was a restless and sweaty couple of nights...a couple times I ended up just getting up, sitting at the map table and reading for a while, figuring I would make up the sleep later.

The entire second day was spent on the open sea, more rocking and rolling, during daylight we were able to go up on the aft deck for some fresh air, but there wasn't much to see besides blue water and blue skies.

Mercifully, by the morning of the third day we had completed the crossing of the sea and awoke in the much more tranquil waters of the San Blas Islands - an archipelago of 365 islands which is one of three autonomous regions of Panama controlled & governed by the indigenous Kuna people. Our reward for the rough sea crossing was three days of cruising, relaxing, and snorkeling around the islands before completing our journey to Panama.

We spent Todd's birthday walking around the old city of Cartagena - within the walls built in the 1600s is a very beautiful colonial town / narrow streets, vendors, and small nooks and crannies worth exploring. You can also walk along the top of the wall, and at one point along the wall there's a nice outdoor bar that was a perfect place to catch sunsets. At another not-to-be-named stop, we were also able to catch a little NFL football. Unfortunately, they didn't have the 49er game on but we kept our eyes on the ticker to and watched as the 49ers secured the bye week. Go Niners!

After finishing sightseeing in the city we had pizza in the park and headed back to the fancy Holiday Inn. This would be our last night at this swanky hotel and we wanted to hit up the bar for our free drink!

On Tuesday, we woke early for our one and only scuba trip. We were going to dive at two sites near Isla de Rosario. The weather was perfect and the sea was calm. Todd and I couldn't believe that we were going to dive without wetsuits. The water was so warm - 82 degrees! - we were able to dive for 40 minutes at 40 ft and were not cold at all. That was probably the best part of the dive. Unfortunately, there were not many schools of fish. I guess the Lion Fish, which escaped from aquariums during hurricane Katrin and migrated to this area, have eaten many of the native fish. I guess there are no natural predators to the Lion Fish in the Carribean so their numbers are growing quickly.

After the trip we found a new hotel for our last night in Colombia. Fortunately, Todd took pity on my unsettled stomach and he picked a very nice (and by far the most expensive) hotel we saw. We wanted to make sure that we got a great night sleep before we had 5 nights on a sail boat.

The splurging did not stop there - we had been tipped off by some diving partners to a cevicheria in the old town of Cartagena which also had been an Anthony Bourdain stop on one of his shows. We wandered around a bit until we found it, fortunately there were a couple open seats right in the street, and we sat down to a really good meal of two different types of ceviche - one spicy and one fruity - at $40 USD it was easily the most expensive meal we'd had on the trip (not counting lunch in Miami), but we both really enjoyed it. After that it was back to the hotel for one good night's rest and warm shower before our adventure at sea was to begin.