In this blog post, I share about my border crossing experience from Panama to Colombia via the San Blas Islands. From the moment I landed in Panama, I knew I wanted to do the border crossing to Colombia by boat and not by plane. Usually, on my travels, I try to avoid planes. Mainly for budget reasons, but also I’m just really not that big of a fan of all those security controls, check-ins, and all the luggage restrictions you’re facing while traveling by airplane.
So I did my research on how to cross borders to Colombia without having to take a plane, and the boat trip was pretty much the only other option. There are no roads through the Darién Gap because it’s simply too dangerous. I had to decide whether I wanted to cross the ocean with a sailboat or a speedboat. The sailboat would’ve been a 5-night trip, with three days around the Islands of San Blas and then around 30–50 hours on the open sea until arriving in Cartagena. The speedboat, in comparison, has merely 8 hours of navigation, and you sleep on the islands instead of the boat. The total trip is 4 days and 3 nights, with the final destination being Capurganá, a little beach town at the border of Panama.
I ended up choosing the second option because I was afraid of getting seasick and not being able to actually enjoy the travel. Long story short, the motorboat just seemed to be the better choice for me.
I booked my trip around one week before the departure date with San Blas Adventure. The day before we were leaving, the company organized a meeting with all the important information about the trip, and I was really happy they did it because, damn, I was nervous, lol.
Day 1 – Departure:
A Jeep came to pick me up at 5:30 a.m. at my hostel in Panama City. We drove for around an hour and made a stop at a little shop to buy some breakfast. Then we continued for 2 hours to the coast of Puerto de Carti, which was one hell of a drive! Once we arrived at the port, we had to put our backpacks into big trash bags to protect them from the water.
Our very first boat ride was quite short, maybe around 30 minutes. We arrived at a beautiful, small island where they filmed parts of season 3 of the Netflix series Money Heist. We spend some time there enjoying the crystal-clear water before heading to our final island for the day.
Back on the boat and riding those waves for almost 1.5 hours, we finally made it. They showed us around the island and brought us to our sleeping spot, where we had to hang our hammocks. As you can imagine, it wasn’t the most relaxing night. Lunch and dinner were both served on the island, a really big and diverse buffet. It was probably one of the best lobster I ever tasted in my life. Honestly, the food totally exceeded my expectations. We made ourselves comfortable in the hammocks, which really wasn’t that easy, but eventually we all found a position to get some hours of sleep.
Day 2:
Our day started at 7 a.m. with a big breakfast buffet. With a full stomach, we started our 2-hour boat trip to our first island of the day. For some reason, I was always sitting on the wrong side of the boat because, again, I just got soaking wet, while others stayed drier than a desert. We spent most of our afternoon on that island, and while others were snorkeling, I was trying to get some sleep in one of the hammocks since I was basically just a big walking mess. Too little sleep and a long, rough boat ride got the best of me. (Not trying to sound dramatic, just the truth about how I was feeling that day, lol)
Before it was getting dark, we left for the next island, where we were also going to sleep. It was an island with a big community of the Gunas (the indigenous people living on the San Blas Islands). One of the locals showed us around the island, which was so much bigger than expected. It was basically like a little town with shops, local restaurants, and a school. Everyone in the village was so friendly and welcoming, especially the kids were very excited to have us around.
At some point in the evening, a friend and I were surrounded by a bunch of kids, asking us a million questions about where we come from and who we are exactly. They taught us their traditional dance and wanted to play with us. It was a truly heartwarming experience and just made us realize that you don’t actually need that much to have a happy and fulfilled life. I haven’t felt this present and connected to the earth in a very long time; it was truly beautiful.
One of the families offered us their home to sleep in and made us dinner. The food was delicious, and the shower, even though it was a cold bucket shower, felt incredibly good. I put on my sleeping mask and went to sleep early. I fell asleep surprisingly fast and found out that it’s better to sleep diagonally in the hammock, so you’re sleeping less like a curved banana. Yay!
Day 3:
Same as the day before, we had to wake up at 7 a.m. to get breakfast and then leave early for our next destination, another inhabited island but a different community. There are 365 islands in total, but only 50 are inhabited. Something really interesting is that every community of the Gunas basically has its own rules and laws. On this island, we learned a lot about their way of life and their economy. For example, in Guna Yala, which by the way is the official name of the San Blas Islands, coconuts are an official currency. Right now, one coconut equals approximately 45 cents. So when they receive their goods from the mainland (mainly from Colombia) they pay for them with coconuts. Most of the Guna men become fishermen, hunters, or farmers while the women usually stay at home cooking, looking after the children, or creating and selling beautiful handicrafts such as necklaces, bracelets, and their typical colorful molas, which are hand-sewn cotton textiles.
Guna Yala is an independent territory, where each and everyone weighs in on the legal and political decisions. Something that also really surprised me is how much importance women have. They are usually the ones making the rules and owning the land. It’s also the groom taking the bride’s name and then moving into her home, where she will be making pretty much all of the decisions.
The last island we visited and also stayed at overnight was an incredibly beautiful, small island owned by a man who bought the island some years ago for as little as $50 USD! We did some snorkeling and just simply enjoyed our last few hours in paradise. In the evening, we had a little party with the owners and the crew, which was pretty amazing. We danced the night away and then had one more sleep in our hammocks.
Day 4 – Arrival Colombia
We left with mixed feelings, sad to leave this beautiful island but also happy to return to civilization, and made our way to the Panama-Colombia border.
In Panama, everything went very smoothly. We all got our passports stamped with the regular questions, and that was it. It took us almost 2 hours until everyone was done, but for luck, we could wait at a small cafe right around the corner. We hopped back into our boat and left for Sapzurro, a small town in Colombia right at the border, where we had our lunch and got further information about immigration. A couple of hours later, we got into a new boat that dropped us off at Capurganá, our final destination.
As we were standing in line for immigration, I was feeling slightly nervous because I did not have an onward ticket, and having one is a requirement for entering Colombia. Luckily, the officer did not seem to care about any of that, as he hasn’t asked me a single question. I simply got the stamp and was out in less than a minute again.
Tired but happy about this insane adventure, I made my way to the hostel, where I took a really long-needed shower and finally got to connect my phone to the internet again to text my loved ones. Welcome to Colombia.
