Are You Ready for This?

Nothing shows you the truth of a city like leaving the tourist areas. As we took a shuttle through the "other side" of Panama City to meet our boat and sail off, we saw just how much poverty and squalor there was to the dressed up city we'd been enjoying. I couldn't help but be reminded of Belize with the heaps of garbage and dismissive attitude of the locals. It always strikes me that I consider us to be "struggling", only a few years out from when we  (gratefully) relied on food stamps, to see true hardship and that with our modest means, we can live the high life in these countries. Clearly there is much out of balance.

There really is no good way to segway from the 'Debbie Downer' moment I just gave you, to talk about the next leg of our adventure, sailing off on a sailboat to the private islands of San Blas. So I'm going to just let it hang there and talk about some serious white people's problems.

The shuttle picked up the other people we would sail with, a mix of Europeans, and we spent the next couple of hours getting to know each other. As we all introduced ourselves, we were relieved to find they were all incredibly bright, well traveled, very interesting people! This was going to be a blast. And they had the chance to get to know our son who is anything but an average 11 year old, clearly a relief to these couples who for a moment couldn't believe they had to spend their vacation with a "kid".

Driving the  tangled, broken roads through rural Panama was a neon rainbow. Houses painted in mustard yellow, turquoise, hot pink and lime green pierced the juggle and dotted the shores of picturesque lakes. The van bounced and lurched at breakneck speeds jostling us about, foreshadowing the adventure ahead of us.

Once transferred to our 52ft sailboat, we were given our cabin assignments. This had been a point of high stress since boats are tight on space and our kid has sensory issues. Amazingly, this boat was equipped with 5 cabins with private toilets! Now you probably just jumped in your imagination to picturing some lavish boat with grand rooms and dancing space. WRONG! This was still a tiny boat for 15 people, but we had a bunk setup with a double on bottom and single (with very little head space) on top. The private toilet was just that, a toilet. There was space enough to stand and the toilet was crammed in next to a dollhouse sized sink. I was grateful I had dieted prior to this trip because my ass seriously would not have fit otherwise. But hey, it was all ours.

We set sail that night headed for the San Blas Islands. Our Captain was a man of few words so we knew no details, but the wine was cold and the warm breeze sweeping off the sails as the setting sun's rays twinkled on the aqua water made for a relaxed, excited start to what would be one of the most intense experiences of my life.

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!
www.VivacWinery.com