The story of us crossing the Darien Gap simple deserves to be told.
Our boat had no motor, so we spent 7 days on the water, when the trip usually takes 3-5days. However, the crew was tight and we had lots of fun.
We were about to reach the San Blas islands, Panama. We had taken boxes of mangoes from Colombia with us and had been munching on them along the way. After a few days, however, the mangoes started to rot and it was impossible to escape the bad smell on the tiny boat. Remember, there were eleven of us and a dog. Before stepping on the boat, we had been eating the fruit for 3 days straight: mangoes for breakfast, mangoes for lunch and mangoes for dinner (the result of us running out of cash and not finding ATM machines in the small town of Capurgana, Colombia).
Mangoes gave me a rash and I couldn’t even look at the big beautiful fruit for 2 years after this trip, but trust me, the worst was yet to come.
I was going strong. Despite the never ending mangoes, despite the rash they gave me and despite the motion sickness that I had felt since the first night I spent on the boat. As I child, I suffered from that a lot (my mom would always have an extra bag with her whenever we went on a bus or stepped into a car). I couldn’t sleep inside the boat, that made me even more nauseous. I preferred to sleep outside breathing in the salty air, feeling the fresh wind, and looking at amazing night sky before closing my eyes. But then along came tuna.
Our captain, bless him, was as gorgeous as he liked to drink. He did take care of us: gave us food (the mangoes!) and water (sat inside plastic containers for days and looked questionable for sure). The captain did try, I have to say. One day he pulled out two beautiful tuna fish and made us all a huge bowl of ceviche right there and right then. It was awesome.
The second tuna was left on the side of the boat for a couple of days. We cooked it on the fire as we reached the first San Blas island. Yummy! We were finally on the ground after a few days at sea and we managed to put together a proper meal. The tuna with potatoes was just what we needed.
Back then I wasn’t keen on potatoes. Please, I had eaten them in every shape and form know to the human kind. In my country you eat potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner (so a bit like you do mangoes before you go on a sailing boat from Colombia to Panama) and for a snack in between. So it was just fish for me at that time in San Blas…
I was lying on the sand after a delicious meal, feet in the water, smiling to myself, when my Peruvian pointed out I had a big rash on my belly. I suddenly started to feel my cheeks burning and had to run to the bathroom (not an easy task when there were no real bathrooms on the small island). Then I needed to run again and again. Lord help me. My Peruvian reported that a few others were not feeling well either. The only girl who didn’t get food poisoning was the one who didn’t eat fish. She only had the potatoes. The first one to get sick was the one who skipped them.
Now let me remind you that we are talking about the same tiny boat with eleven of us and a dog. We had to get moving and could not stay on the island any longer. I don’t think you need much imagination to see us sharing the tiny claustrophobic bathroom amongst us. It was a disaster. It needed a lot of cleaning after.
And who cleaned after me? My Peruvian did.
My Peruvian was a hard core travel companion, and he didn’t think twice for the sake of everyone’s wellbeing. And for that am I grateful. We had each other, even at the worst of times.