One of the things I enjoy most about traveling, more in hindsight than in the actual moment, is that it never goes as planned, throwing you into unexpected situations and demanding you to test yourself in ways you couldnt foresee. --- Emma and I arrived at La Miel from Panama city just over three weeks ago. To get there we had to a take a tiny plane, so tiny they weigh the passengers along with the baggage, that sat a total of 12 people, including the pilots. My seat, right behind one of the pilots, was basically in the cockpit itself. When we got to our destination, which required a small boat ride after the flight, we were a bit taken back at first. The water sports company we were supposed to be volunteering with was comprised of a broken down boat and half built construction house with no electricity (at one point we ran out of propane as well and had to resort to cooking over a fire). We settled in, helping with beach cleanups and doing little tidying chores around the property. No matter how rough the conditions, we were still living on the Caribbean shore with mountains behind us and cohabitating amongst locals and other travelers, who happened to be a really cool bunch of folk. There was also a really special facet about the location we were in. Its the only place on the Panamanian/Colombia frontier zone where you can cross the border over land. The rest of the terrain is too harsh and the area, the Darien Gap, is too dangerous due to FARC presence that even the Pan-American Highway, the worlds longest road connecting all the Americas, doesnt even cross the region. Because La Miel sits right on the Caribbean coast, it falls right outside the geographically and politically divided Darien Gap. The closest towns to us were actually in Colombia, even though we were still in Panama. With just a 25 minute hike over a hill, we could easily, and frequently did, visit Sapzurro, Colombia. Another hour of trekking through the forest and we were the bigger town of Capurganá, Colombia. We made these excursions a couple times a week. Then came time for us to leave La Miel, and being on the backpacking budget that were on, that meant taking a boat and bus to our next destination, Medellín, Colombia, rather than flying. The boat was a nearly three-hour journey in basically an oversized dingy with two motors. The seas were extremely choppy and the waves were enormous at times. It was by far the worst method of transport Ive ever experienced, to put it lightly. Once back on solid ground, we had an eight hour bus ride to endure, which after the boat sounded like a breeze. Little did we know the bus would break down three times along the way, causing the journey to take an hour and a half longer than it should and taking the air conditioning along with it. The route was also mostly through windy mountain roads, filling the bus with the sounds of other passengers vomiting into bags. We finally made it to Medellín at 10:30pm last night. A private room and full nights sleep never felt so good.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 17:00:37 +0000
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