Colombia

Disappointing Parque Tayrona, Santa Marta, Colombia

Disappointing Parque Tayrona, Santa Marta, Colombia

Torben and I parted ways as Kai and I made for Parque Tayrona which Tamil had remembered as a worthwhile destination. As we were driving along the coastal highway Kai remarked that something about the bike didn’t quite feel right and that it was making noise. I continued to insist that the noise came from [...]

Sweating in the Getsemani neighbourhood of Cartagena, Colombia

Sweating in the Getsemani neighbourhood of Cartagena, Colombia

As the banana boat pulled up to the multitude of unavailable berths in Turbo (apparently one of the most dangerous towns in Colombia) we felt like we might finally be able to get on land and drive our bikes after 6 days of boat travel. After unloading the bikes down rickety planks through a crowd [...]

Day Five – Darién Gap Sailing From Panama to Columbia

Day Five – Darién Gap Sailing From Panama to Columbia

Simon the only backpacker left on the boat, got on a fast boat at 7am.  Our pre-arranged fast (3 hours on a 2x200hp outboard motors) boat didn’t arrive at 8am at our boat but picked up the other bikers on the MetaComet boat and left. We eventually got our bikes off Fritz-The-Cat and onto the [...]

Day Four – Darién Gap Sailing From Panama to Columbia

Day Four – Darién Gap Sailing From Panama to Columbia

We began the day with a motor malfunction for the second time resulting in the now familiar exclamations from Fritz – “Scheisse!”, “Fuck!”.   After this was corrected we headed into the open sea without the benefit of any reefs or islands to dampen the waves.  Ben turned white then green and finally succumbed by vomiting [...]

Day Three – Darién Gap Sailing From Panama to Columbia

Day Three – Darién Gap Sailing From Panama to Columbia

Attacked at 6am by a swarm of flying ants that climbed in my ears and hair, I was the first one awake on the boat.   An hour later breakfast commenced with a discussion on the why there were so many gay men and transgendered people on the Kuna Islands.  The American’s comments centred around their [...]

Day Two – Darién Gap Sailing from Panama to Columbia

Day Two – Darién Gap Sailing from Panama to Columbia

We stopped at two Kuna islands – the autonomous indigenous, mainly island-dwelling people of the south-west of Panama. They were having a fiesta of sorts on the first island. All of them totally drunk inside the dark palapa hut – maybe 100 people. The woman traditionally dressed swilling rum out of large bottles and crying [...]

Day One – Darién Gap Sailing From Panama to Columbia

Day One – Darién Gap Sailing From Panama to Columbia

We drove into Panama at night quite exhausted from ~500kms of driving from Uvita, Costa Rica and checked into a $55 hotel in a newer fancier neighbourhood. I was told by the skipper of the boat (Fritz of the boat Fritz-the-Cat) to go to a hostel to follow an 4×4 truck down the Pan-American highway [...]

How to Cross The Darién Gap (Panama to Columbia) including Motorcycle

How to Cross The Darién Gap (Panama to Columbia) including Motorcycle

General Information: The Darién Gap: an undeveloped stretch of mountainous, swampy, jungle with no road that connects southern Panama to north-western Columbia.   The area is sparsely inhabited by indigenous tribes, smugglers, and bandits.  The reasons for there being no road seem to be either that it’s not possible given the rough nature of the region [...]