Colombia is awesome

Wow what day is it today? Clay posted some pics a couple days back and I think I'm over due for an update on our boat trip and our first few days in Colombia.

After leaving Panama city early (kind of but not too early) we road out to a town called El Llano which is North East of Panama city and is toward the Carribean coast. But Just before we arrived in El Llano we were stopped by huge amounts of cars and trucks that were parked in the road. As we weaved our bikes between the traffic or more like a parking lot we arrived at the scene of the crime... a protest in the country. There has been disputes in rural Panama between titled land owners and the local governments about using the land for tourism development. In this case the rightful owners have had their land taken away by the local government so they could widen the road and build hotels. Kind of sad. Anyways somebody had the smart idea to send an ambulance through the protesters road block and once the protesters let that ambulance go through it was a free for all and vehicles just started shooting the gap. After that little hold up we were on our way down the dirt road and over the river crossing (clay posted pics earlier) to the San Blas Islands. We loaded up the bikes on to Fritz The Cat and we were off. We spent 3 days and 2 nights kind of cruising through the islands getting drunk, swimming and throwing ourselves off the sail boat in any possible retarted way we could think of. After San Blas the true adventure begins. the 200 nautical mile journey almost perfectly east from Panama to Cartagena, Colombia.
Sailing on the open ocean for almost 36 straight hours was pretty exciting. The intial bit of water was covered during the night. We set sail after dark and Fritz was able to use the boats GPS, radar and autopilot systems to navigate the islands and reach the open water. From there our course was pretty much fixed at 75 degrees which is just lightly north of east until we arrived in Cartagena, but it varied between 70 and 90 degrees based on wind conditions. Our speed varied between 4 and 7 nmph which i don't think is very fast for a boat like this but with winds coming from the north that was about as fast as we could comfortably go. Fritz also aided our sail power with some motor which helped keep the boat from drifting as a result of our relatively upwind course. During the 2nd night at sea the conditions became somewhat entensified (sp?) when the wind reached speeds of 25 to 30 knots and the swells increased to 12 ft. We had water coming over the boat for sure. The bikes had a nice salt water bath to be sure.
But not to be outdone fritz was unfazed and sailed us into the Port of Cartagena with Dophins in toe right on schedule.
Cartagena is a beautiful and romantic city, or so says Lonely Planet.... not sure what makes a place romantic.... but without a doubt it is beautiful. We will post pics as evidence soon. I took a bike ride to discover the city with my new friends Matt, Paul and Brice.
Yesterday after doing our vehicle import stuff, we set out to find a motorcycle shop, and we did find a great one, and for 20 bucks clay and I got our bikes washed, our oil changed, our chains cleaned and our disk brakes polished (because of salt water rust) and we made friends with the guys at the shop as well. They invited us to go for a ride with them tonight and promised us to show us the real Cartagena. We are definitly going to take them up on the offer. I'm having kind of a lazy day today, just crusing the web and walking around town eating and drinking as I please. The others went to a mud volcano, can't wait to hear the stories, but it was a little hot today to be playing around in the mud for me.
Colombia in general is impressive, at least what I have seen so far. The country is nicely developed in its own way, and that is to say mostly without American influence. The people here are happy and genuine and they our into their own lives which is refreshing coming from Central America where the street people would nag you and beg you. Here you are not bothered and the feeling as you walk down the street is fantistic, especially when I think to myself "I'm in Colombia right now, Cool!"