in South America

The border between Panama and Colombia (which is also the border between North and South America), called Darien Gap, is one of the most difficult and inhospitable border crossing. It is not only that that there is no road; the whole area is covered with thick jungle, steep hills and vast wetlands; if this wasn’t enough it is home to unfriendly natives and a hideout for drugs dealers and Colombian guerrilla. Pretty much not a place where you would like to go to (however some adventure seekers take the challenge).

There are few options to cross the Gap, but the one that worked best for us was to take a 5-day cruise on a sail boat, with 2-day stopover in San Blas. Something we’ve heard of fairly recently; and however not cheap, it turned to be a great experience. First of all, we’ve never sailed before, so that was a great opportunity to try it; secondly, San Blas Islands are just 

BEAUTIFUL! It is one of those places that it is hard to believe they are real, even though you are there. Our only concern (mine much more than Raul’s) was the seasickness. But the motion sickness tablets did their job more than perfect – they knock us down for two hours after taking each tablet. But on the open ocean, let’s be honest, views are monotonous, so a good nap is not bad.

Our cycling adventures in the new continent haven’t started yet. The bikes are having well deserved rest, which is actually good, because they are needy; mine tire must be changed (after cycling the whole continent), Raul’s rear wheel goes flat all the time (with three different inner tubes and the tire and rim being examined back and forth hundreds times). So while our vehicles are waiting for their well-deserved spa treatment, we became backpackers again.

We have long-awaited visitors! My sister and her friend are here! And they brought lots of goodies and present for us. Thanks to all of you who participated in it! Special thanks for the lanterns; it was a beautiful surprise! (thank you Sis for organizing it!) They all flew up to the stars, so surely all the wishes will come true soon! We happy you’ve started to do the dinners again! Hope you will keep it up and invite us once we are back J

So we are spending some time with Ania and Kamila, at this moment hanging out on the Caribbean coast. Us, definitely NOT enjoying the heat and humidity. Unlike the girls, who spent the whole summer in Scotland. J

It´s been a while since we´ve updated here something. It is mostly because, for the first time during this trip, we have a deadline. One that we are looking forward a lot, though. My sister is coming to visit us in Columbia on 11th September an so we need to get there by then. And since we were very slow in Mexico and slow in Guatemala, we had to speed up through the rest of the countries.
The other reason why things won´t be updated soon is that our computer refused working in a very crucial moment (when I was copying the only copy of some pictures from it to a external hard drive) and now some of the writtings we´ve done for blog as well as all the pictures from Nicaragua, Costa Rica and most from Panama are trapped in the broken hard disc. However, there is hope - the guy who checked our computer promised that all the pictures can be saved, but it´ll take like a week. so we just need a week off somewhere and a good IT.

And now the most important - we are in Portobelo, a small port in Panama. From here we take a boat to go to Cartgena, Columbia. That means that the North America is finished!!! 16770 km 470 days and one continent completed!
m.