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Boat Adventure from Hell

2006-10-30, Isla Colon, Panama

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Today I had one of those days where you´re happy that it happened because it´ll make a good story, but only happy once you´re back at your hostel, safe and sound. A big group of us decided at about 1 to head out to this beach called red frog beach. To get there you have to rent a boat, so this was an adventure in it of itself. Everyone screaming over the prices. Finally they decided that for four bucks they´d take us there and back, but they were MAD. So first stop, gas station, second stop, open sea. I think he was just mad and driving like a maniac, but lets just say that we all had our life jackets on and were clinging to each other for dear life. When we finally made it to the beach he stops incredibly far from the beach and says "ok, now you swim." What? You want us to swim all the way there? What should we do with our cameras and other valuables? Just leave it on this boat with the shady man, waaaayyy sketchy. So a couple people jumped into the water and swam to shore and finally the rest of us had to abandon ship because the waves were crazy big and making us sick. It took about ten minutes to swim to shore, the undercurrent was sooo strong and the waves so big, we were all in a pretty bad mood once we got to shore. A few people started playing volleyball, and I took a peaceful walk down the beach where i found a seed which is supposed to bring good luck. Finally, the boat captain came up to us and said something along the lines of the sea is getting too rough, we need to leave NOW. Ok, so we jump into the water and begin to swim out to the boat which again, takes forever. I refuse to get onto the boat until there´s more people out there because I´m worried about getting sea sick. So someone throws me a life jacket and here I am, bobbing around. Finally a few more people make it out there and the captain arrives, we look back at shore and half of the people are sitting on the shore staring at us. As it turns out some of them weren´t strong swimmers and were worried that they woudn´t be able to swim all the way back out to the boat since the sea was being very welcoming. Ok, in we go, so I climbed up onto the boat (quite difficult to do when the boat keeps dipping at you and you´re afraid that you´re going to get crushed...)and an unhappy driver starts leading us towards shore. This is incredibly scary because as it gets closer to the wave break the waves get bigger and stronger before their final blow. So he gets in as far as possible and a huge wave comes up and throws us on our side but we bounce back up, haul the people in and take off. He pulls the anchor and then in the hurry to get back and drive just leaves it sitting there. I am sitting up front with this crazy hippy dude from England and we´re starting to get worried about getting decapitated by the anchor so we yell "stop the f-ing boat!!!" he stops, the anchor goes into it´s proper storage place and we´re off again, the waves are so big we are literally airborne. Everyone is clinging to each other just praying to get back safely, so there we are flying through the Atlantic with water spraying everwhere, seat backs breaking, clinging to each other, praying to make it there alive...Finally, we make it back to Isla Colon and we kiss the ground and vow never to use this man as our boat captain again...


Picture of Sam, Chuck, and Viktor Chillin´. Taken 2006-10-30 in Isla Colon, Panama by traveler Lindy.
Picture of Hammocks at the Hostel. Taken 2006-10-30 in Isla Colon, Panama by traveler Lindy.
Picture of My crazy room. Taken 2006-10-30 in Isla Colon, Panama by traveler Lindy.
Picture of Drinking some wine with some Europeans. Taken 2006-10-30 in Isla Colon, Panama by traveler Lindy.

Next entry: Halloween, boats, and busses

 
 

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