May 18 June 3, 2026

Spring in Ontario was taking it’s time coming. The miserable weather meant I was looking for something else to do.

I’ve always wanted to do the sailing trip between Colombia and Panama through the San Blas Islands. When a friend said they were going I was tempted. Turned out there was room on the boat AND I could find cheap flights. It was meant to be.

Cartagena

We met in Cartagena and planned to spend a couple of days seeing the sights. The boat we booked had to be cancelled last minute so we opted to take the catamaran option the day before. That meant changing a couple of reservations but was do-able. It also meant only one day in Cartagena.

In the morning we met the crew, handed over passports, paid for passage and spent the rest of the day wandering Cartagena. Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is well worth a visit. It was built in 1639 by African slave labour. When it was no longer of military importance it was left to be overgrown by vegetation. In 1984, UNESCO listed the castle, along with the historic centre of the city of Cartagena, as a World Heritage Site.^[7] It’s now been completely restored. The castle is full of tunnels that are fun to explore.

San Blas Islands

On May 19, 2026 we boarded the Santana, our home for the next 5 days. We had one of the two cabins. There were 3 people in the other and the other 7 guests slept on the upper deck. The catamaran had a men’s and women’s toilet. There was a fresh water shower head at the back of the boat. We were asked to limit ourselves to one rinse per day as fresh water is limited. Since it’s still the windy season we were warned that seas would be rough. Motion sickness meds were recommended.

A full day at sea on a bouncing catamaran is very relaxing. Looking down made me feel ill so no reading. Even playing Scrabble made me nauseated. Oh well. Sitting around chatting and getting to know each other was fun too.

I actually slept really well considering how much the boat was bouncing. It felt like we were IN a washing machine but the motion was kind of soothing.

The journey was not without excitement. More than once we were joined by a pod of dolphins. They frolicked and jumped beside and in front of the catamaran, as if playing with us.
At one point we thought we saw a whale. On closer inspection it turned out to be a giant spool; rather a strange sight in the open sea.

Over the next few days we anchored at 3 different islands. All were idyllic. San Blas still feels like untouched paradise.

The islands are part of the Guna Yala Comarca, an autonomous indigenous region recognized by the Panamanian state. This means the Kuna people have self-government over their territory, their laws, their economy, and the preservation of their culture.

Only 49 of the approximately 365 islands are inhabited. The 3 we visited, one had several families living on it. The other 2 might have had one or two. They all had a place we could buy a cold beverage which was really nice.

I spent my few days in paradise, jumping off the boat, snorkelling, swimming, beach walking, exploring, playing games and chatting with the other guests. On one island we enjoyed a huge barbecue. We were certainly well fed!

Besides my friend and I (both 60+) there were 10 much younger people from the US, UK and the Netherlands. They were a great bunch and we had lots of fun. The crew were relaxed, flexible and provided us with amazing meals. They launched the kayak whenever someone wanted to go and took us by dingy to various snorkelling spots and one tiny island. Apparently every time a sandbar emerges the Kuna people plant coconuts on it. Thus more and more islands emerge all the time. Though they say that with global warming and rising seas, the islands will disappear in time.

We’d handed over our passports before boarding (EEK!) and once in Panama the crew took care of the immigration process for us. It couldn’t have been easier!

I highly recommend Blue Sailing should you decide to do this trip. https://bluesailing.net/en_us/

Once we arrived in Puerto Lindo, we said goodbye to our shipmates and got into cars arranged for us by Blue Sailing. They dropped each of us off at our accommodation.

Panama City

My friend and I spent the next couple of days exploring Panama city. The old city is beautiful. It’s fun to wander the streets, the waterfront and sit in a cafe that features jazz music. We thoroughly enjoyed a meal of ceviche and shrimp cocktail at the fish market. The Panama canal is a must see on any visit to Panama city. It’s an engineering marvel. We were kind of disappointed by museum at the Miraflores visitor’s centre. There wasn’t a lot of information and it’s expensive. Though it was really fascinating to see a giant freighter navigate a canal barely wide enough to contain it. We saw 3 ships go through. A cruise ship would have been really interesting but none were on the schedule. There’s a museum in the old city but that’s closed Sundays and Mondays. Lucky us. It was Monday.

Boquete

Next we took a public bus to David. There we hired an Uber to take us to our accommodation in Boquete. Bambuda Castle was a splurge for us as we’re budget travellers. Hostels are generally our first choice.

Boquete sits at 1,200 metres above sea level, giving it a very comfortable climate. One day we hiked the Pipeline trail. We actually saw the infamous quetzal! It’s hard to photograph at the best of times and all I had was my phone. The trail itself is really nice. It winds through jungle and is challenging enough to be interesting. It ends at a beautiful waterfall where we sat and had a snack before heading back.

The next day we did a much more difficult hike. Piedra de Lino Trail is short but it’s straight up. On private property, the entry fee is $5 each and the owner has kindly carved steps in some of the steepest parts. I wanted to quit several times but my friend insisted and we made it to the top. Once there we had to shimmy up more rocks to see the view. Our reward was gorgeous views of Boquete, Volcan Baru and Bajo Mono.

An early morning uber took us to the bus stop in David where we caught the bus to Uvita. We were confused when we drove right through the border between Panama and Costa Rica. About 10 minutes later the bus finally pulled into a building which is apparently a border crossing dedicated to public buses. After gathering our luggage, we lined up to have our passports stamped out of Panama. Our luggage was xrayed and we lined up to enter Costa Rica. A finger prick blood test was done on all adults. They were testing for all the mosquito borne illnesses. Email addresses were required so I’m assuming they’d email you if they discovered infection.

I’d been to Uvita in 2019 (See that trip here) and remembered it being a beautiful, untouched beach. Well. It’s changed. It’s very built up now. The beach is totally fenced off. Entry is $6 USD per person and it closes at 5 pm. You can’t even sit on the beach and watch the sunset!

Though disappointing we managed to have a great time anyway. Our room had a small kitchen so we could cook meals and save a few $ that way as Costa Rica is ridiculously expensive. We wandered the beach, visited the local hippie village, walked to some waterfalls and relaxed in the hotel pool which was, of course, shaped like a whale tail. Bungalows Balena is a great place to stay should you go Uvita

Next stop was San Jose. There we wandered the city and visited the market where we finally had some local food at a reasonable price. It’s not the cheap rice and beans it once was. The next day I flew home while my friend carried on traveling the rest of Central America.

There are few countries I’ve visited more than once as it’s a big world and there’s so much to see. Costa Rica was an exception. I’ve been several times. Unfortunately it has become far too popular, Americanized, very expensive and it’s more and more difficult to find authentic, reasonably priced areas.

Here are links to the trips I’ve taken. There are a few hidden gems yet, though they’re hard to find.

https://whereisgrandma.com/2024/02/07/costa-rica-can-it-still-be-done-on-a-budget/

https://whereisgrandma.com/2019/04/16/cahuita-caribbean-costa-rica-just-the-grandkid-and-me/

https://whereisgrandma.com/2019/04/08/dominical-and-uvita-beaches-plus-cave-dwelling-at-daimonte-costa-rica-has-everything/

https://whereisgrandma.com/2019/04/03/trek-hidden-costa-rica-into-the-jungle-we-go/

Trek Hidden Costa Rica. Into the jungle we go!

https://whereisgrandma.com/2019/03/31/san-jose-costa-rica-the-beginning-of-a-great-trip/