After an evening spent eating some delicious ceviche and drinking rum and juice while being eaten alive by little no-see-ums ad mosquitoes, I was thankful to get through to my folks in San Francisco before the family joined together for brunch. It was an early night as we were getting a ride back to the port of Turbo at 6:15AM in order to make sure we could secure a good seat on the lancha (open boat with outboard motor) to Capurgana for what was supposed to be a 3-4 hour boat ride.
We arrived and secured two tickets and then, as we understood there were no cash machines in Capurgana or anywhere closer to the border for that matter, I ran a mission to the ATM, wandering through the early morning bustle of a jungle town, with motorcycles piled high with merchandise, sweeping of streets, juicing of fruits at street vendors, the slightly toasted smell of that mornings arepas being rolled out and cooked. Had some trouble with the ATM and was paranoid to the point I thought the little old lady who was trying to help me (by explaining I could use the other ATM next to the one I was using. Me thinking she was trying to lure me into a booth to rob me...). Successfully withdrew a couple of hundred dollars and then bought bread, water, coffee and sunglasses (Puma mock ups).
Back at the port, a jostling elbow fight for the back row seats as hawkers selling any and everything, gafas, peliculas, musica, perritos, bolsas, musica, gafas... The funniest being the bald guy with a cute puppy. But we managed to get ourselves some good seats, and secured our bags with a plastic trash bag to ensure a dry arrival.
Our boat was the Deep Blue, and we were happy to find that it was covered to keep us out of direct sun for the whole trip, but we were surprised at the number of people they fit on the raft, with about 35 people squeezing on board with bags before gunning the engines and after a quick stop at the port authorities, we were off, southwest across the bay and then up the coast to the Panamanian border.
Upon our arrival, a heavy presence of police and bag searches were the final hurdle before being met by the son of our host Dona Mery, the son Being Enrique, an eager and bright eyed young go getter, who loaded up the cart while telling us his life story and rounding up tow others to come and stay at the Cabinas Darius with us. There is only one moto in Capurgana and we didn't see it until the day we left a week later. Other than that it is horses and carts like this:
After arriving and quickly showering, it was down to the beach to stick our toes into the Caribbean and admire the paradise we had found.
Matty's thoughts on vacation: