As of yesterday we have started the South American leg of our journey. we arrived in Cartagena, Colombia on the Valhalla, a 65 ft yacht. our last entry was way back in Costa Rica so here is a quick summary before the tale of the Valhalla.

we firstly had to leave Santa Teresa which was hard as we were very comfortable in our beach shack with our busy schedule of surfing, cooking, massage, yoga and the occasional cold beer. we had formed a friendship with a Chillean and Argentinian man travelling together who both live in Barcelona. Gallo pinto(named after rice and beans) and MichelAngelo were a crazy pair and offered to drive us as far as they could in their jeep as they left on the same day. on route they decided to come with us so we had jeep which was cool as Costa is hard to get around with its dodgy roads. we spent a day in Monte verde and flew around on flying foxes through untouched cloud forests. next stop was volcan Arenal, the most active in central america. it was a crazy journey getting there the roads had pot holes as big as cars and we had to cross several rivers being forced to turn back at one. we made it in the dark of night, camped and enjoyed the view through the day which mild eruptions and booms. visited a waterfall but we missed seeing the volcan at night as the spaniards had befriended a yokel americano who had a barbecue nearby that night. we left for San Jose in the morning which is where we parted company with our new friends and spent a day and a half there. we were lucky to meet up with the family that mikes sister lived with here for a few months and louise was given a quick lesson in salsa. on to the carribean coast we were moving fast but felt it necessary. we spent a few days in a few towns and walked through a national park. we got to see a sloth, tapir, racoon and lots of monkeys who followed us. that was costa rica in all its natural beauty and greenish full of exotic wildlife and beautiful beaches, sorry no photos as mike destroyed the camera in santa teresa (its been replaced so photos coming up soon).

Ok next we found ourselves in Panama, which we didnt really know anything about! We headed to the Bocas del Toro islands and were pleasantly surprised,actually that is putting it mildly, these islands are stunning. Probably the closest to paradise yet! and doh doh doh! no camera. The waters here are so clear and turquoise, saw a dolphin jump out as we took a boat to get there. Did some diving together here and visited red frog beach, the only place in world with these tiny,little,noisy things! Stayed a few nights on island bastimentos, which has a small village and community that speak a strange spanglish/jamaican. There are a relaxed and friendly lot,one night we were invited to a locals cousins fortieth bday bash. We Were the only gringoes there and it was all eyes on us, so we had to prove our worth on the dance floor as these people can move. The panamanian woman are very fit and can really get down. The bday girl looked more like 28 than 40 and was dancing with this old man that must have been in his seventies and he was spinning around on the floor. I got to dance with him and Mike got grabbed by some woman. Think they approved of our dancing as they soon warmed to us and kept pouring us more rum. Met some local boys who were our guides for a couple of days and took us to various islands on their boat and we ended up staying on polo beach. It is named after its only inhabitant,an eccentric 62 year old who has lived there alone for 41 years. He is barely alone though as many people visit by boat each day,they pay 2 dollars to visit his beach and he sells beer and cooks amazing fish and coconut rice(for which we have the recipe) anyway one night was enough to spend in his company as he rants and repeats himself alot shouting"i hate black man,black man is a dog" even though he is clearly black. His only method of communication is a fly. which he insists comes and buzzez in his ear when a boat is coming. It was amazing snorkelling there along the reef,mike speared a lobster for lunch and we saw a nurse and reef shark which were way too close! Went to panama city for a night,which was plenty enough! Then we raced to Portobello in order to jump on a boat that Mike heard was leaving the following morning for Colombia!

Portobello is a very small,green little port village. we boarded the boat and after a phone call to the captain decided to join their voyage. we were told they would set sail manaña but as it would become apparent, everything on that ship was manaña. the crew consisted of 4 germans complete with motorbikes at the front, a norwegian couple who were helping out for a cheaper fare though everyone did their part and an english chap. plus the captain and morris, a Kuni indian who was first mate and multi talented made up the 11 strong yacht. we ended up spending 3 nights with the anchor down waiting for the engine to be fixed, a generator and batteries to be bought and charged and other small things. Anyway portobello turned out to be a sweet little village,we made friends with the local kids who were natural born performers. They put on little performances for us,which we would come over from the boat on a dingy specificly to watch. We Were taught some typical panamanian folk dances where the female,flirtingly flicks her long skirt and struts her stuff while the boy dances around and tries to win her attention! We were amazed how these little muchachitas could move. These two chicitas are six! hard to believe as tthey were really dressed up,make up and all! It was like a mini rio carnaval with kids. There was something a bit wrong with how seductively they could act and they even did a strip down to bikinis. It was a great atmosphere all the boys were using buckets as drums and singing along. mike was required to go to the next town with the captain to get the money to pay him. the chicken bus was the slowest in all of central america with no exaggeration. captain dennis spoke of various accidents along this route, one where the drunken driver wiped out a power line after rolling it, leaving the whole area without electricity for 3 days yet the driver was on the road the following day. he explained how he had been on this bus before and that the driver crawls along then he hits a spot and guns it. i didnt believe his story feeling he was trying to scare me as he explained how everyone had got off the bus leaving only him and the crazed driver. so we continued along then like he had said he started speeding up. at first i was pleased to be moving then he got faster and faster and wasnt even stopping for people flagging him down. i shouted tranquillo to him though dennis explained this would make him go faster and sure enough he did. narrowly avoiding head ons he raced through the narrow roads with his side kick shouting next to him as i was holding onto a bar preparing to roll. that was the slowest and the fastest bus i was ever on and i was pleased to get off. on the way back to the boat we past an accident, a bus had come round a corner to fast and hit the drivers arm of an on coming car.

after 2 mechanics tried to fix the engine it became clear it needed a new pump so the captain decided to sail without it and with a wet generator that was kicked in the sea the night before by a drunken local. we set sail sunday morning and were heading for the san blas islands, a group of 350 islands ran by the local Kuni indians, mostly uninhabited. we were told to expect 14 hours of sailing yet it turned out to be 30. it was rolling sea with the carribean banking up at this point with Panama. everyone felt the effects and it seemed the only thing to do was lay down. captain dennis was certainly a character and it seemed he liked to sensationalise everything with shouting and panick stations. we anchored in the san blas after navigating through the reef at night and seemed all clear. that morning our dreams were interupted by a shuddering feeling somewhere in the back of our minds followed by shouting. we had drifted in the night already being too close to the island and ran aground, possibly on reef. a boat was requested and we tried to tow it out but to no avail. we waited for high tide in the afternoon and winched it out with 3 anchors. we spent the day there did some amazing snorkelling and mike went spear fishing with morris. he could free dive 30m and was skilled with the gun. he narrowly missed a 40 pound something and swum above a 6 foot nurse shark which was more scared of him. we spotted numerous manta rays with scary long stingers and one jumped clear from the water. somehow we came back with no fish and one small lobster to feed 11. some kunis came past in a boat and sold us 4 big lobsters for 12 dollars. sadly we left the following morning, everyone wished to stay longer but the winds were right. dennis seemed to be obsessed with the winds saying how good they are to go though after half an hour the wind had died and so had the sails. the next few days were not much different with little wind, some panicky moments coming to close to reefs, panick stations and the rest. we needed to tie the dingy to the side of the yacht to get away from the shore and started to use it more and more. mike took the helm early one morning, setting a direct course for the sun with morris half asleep in the dingy for a couple hours getting thrown about by waves. The days all merged into one and it soon felt like groundhog day. There is not much you can do but cook,eat,read and sleep! The highlight of the trip was when the boat was surrounded by dolphins,around 20 of them! Mike got excited and jumped in with a snorkel and held on to the rope attached to the boat,ignoring the advice of the captain as we were doing 4-5 knots! another german jumped in and so did louise,not wanting to miss the opportunity. The dolphins were playing and dancing under us and around the boat. it felt very dream like swimming beside them and hearing their squeaks. It was an exhilarating and frightening experience rolled into one as shortly after mike called for louise let go of the rope to join him where he was holding the rope at the back,attached to the dingy. Mike climbed in the dingy and louise tried too but it was going too fast and by the time she let go of the rope the dingy had gone past. Mike panicked and threw out a rope but louise couldnt reach it as they drifted away,consequently louise was left stranded in the middle of the sea as the boat rapidly sailed away. As there was no engine it took a while for the boat to turn round and it was pretty scary for louise as the waves were huge and sometimes blocked out the boat she also didnt know if she could be seen. Mike was in the dingy and yelling for the crew to cut the rope with his machete so he could paddle with it to louise. luckily louise is a strong swimmer and managed to swim against the current and fight off sharks and back to safety where she was pulled back on board. Shortly after the crew made light of the situation by dedicating "help" The Beatles to louise. no fish were caught on the journey though we hooked a 40 pound dolphin fish(mauri mali) which was a beautiful green and got it to a few metres from the boat before it broke the line. that hurt as it was said to be one of the tastiest and our supplies were running out rapidly. in the last few nights of the 6 nights from the san blas to cartagena (which were were told would be 2 to 4) we experienced storms where the winds pushed the boat sometimes up to 9 knots and the heavens opened with rain and thunder. that was where dennis was at his best calmly speeding us along whilst listening to dean martin and frank sinatra, quite surreal to awaken to. so after 10 days at sea we caught sight of Cartagena