Peenie Wallie

Now, a man comes paddling by the boat in a hand made dugout canone with his dog. Just surreal. Like a book cover mural.

Some people decide to swim in, and I join them. The island that we swim to turns out to be Pelican Island. Some locals are choppng up downed palm trees with machetes, putting them into handmade dugout canoes. Then they sail away.

Somehow, the engine starts, and Fritz, the boat captain starts clapping. Like...how to tell if you're on the wrong boat, chapter 1...if the boat captain is clapping when boat engine starts, you might be on the wrong boat.

Some people decide to swim in, and I join them. The island that we swim to turns out to be Pelican Island. Some locals are choppng up downed palm trees with machetes, putting them into handmade dugout canoes. Then they sail away.

Somehow, the engine starts, and Fritz, the boat captain starts clapping. Like...how to tell if you're on the wrong boat, chapter 1...if the boat captain is clapping when boat engine starts, you might be on the wrong boat.

I'm now trying to put together a plan of how to get the motorcycle into Colombia. According to Fritz:

We have to do immigration in Capurgana, Colombia.
Our bikes have to be done in Turbo, Colombia.
There is no customs (Aduana) on this side of the sea. Aduana is in Turbo, Colombia.
Some people go with the trader to Turbo from Sapsuro or, I could take the 8:00 a.m. ferry to Turbo, if the trader (boat) will bring my bike there to Turbo.

Go to Sapzurro, Colombia and unload the bikes.
Find someone to watch your bikes in Sapzurro, Colombia. Or you give the bikes to someone and they take it on trader (boat) to Turbo, Colombia.
This boat that we're on then sails back to Obaldia, Panama where we get passports stamped (exit stamp).
At this point, Fritz and the San Blas Cat leaves us.
We pay $10 to a guy (this is already arranged), and he takes us from Obaldia, Panama to Capurgana, Colombia to get our passports stamped (entry stamp).
Now you take a boat to go back from Capurgana, Colombia to get your bike in Sapzurro, Colombia.
If you go with your bike or in the morning at 8:00 a.m. to Turbo, Colombia. (Customs/aduana).

So, it goes like this: Sapzurro, Colombia > Obaldia, Panama > Capurgana, Colombia > Sapzurro, Colombia > Turbo, Colombia.

Christ.

Wed Dec 20th (continued)

OK. So, today, we stopped at some point on Pelican Island, and were allowed to swim around a bit, which was very nice. I swam in, and walked around the island, and shot some with the GoPro. That was nice, and it really makes the trip more enjoyable, as opposed to just sailing through the islands, seeing them, but not being able to set foot on them. That would be a special kind of hell.

So, when some people swam in to the island, I swam in also, as our boat was anchored.

One the island, they're butchering the trunk of a palm tree with a machete. It's hard really, to grasp what is going on. They ask us if we want pipas (coconuts), and we say yes. We order a total of 22 coconuts. And they set off to another island to harvest our coconuts, while we sort of wallow around the reefs, shooting with our GoPros, and snorkeling, etc.

Then, it's time for us to go, so we are shuttled back out to the San Blas Cat in our little dingy, and we never did get our coconuts.

Now, we sail until dark. Arriving at our evening parking space at about 8:00 p.m. We drop anchor, and now someone mentions that we can go ashore, maybe, and have a bonfire. So, we get into the dingy again, and are shuttled onto the beach. Someone asks the locals (Kuta Laya if they will make us a camp fire, but they have no wood, and don't really feel like helping us, it seems.

So we just sit on the beach in some chairs, but then, as more people arrive from our boat, one of the guys starts a fire, and now we're sitting around a proper bonfire in the Carribbean Sea, wondering if life could ever get any better than this.

I drink one beer, and feel like I'm drunk. At about midnight, we finally are shuttled back to the boat. But this day was very enjoyable as the weather and waves were pretty calm, and we were allowed to get off of the boat on at least 2 separate occasions/islands. So, I think that Captain Fritz basically successfully staved off a mutiny today.