Cartagena and on the way to Capurganà

Cartagena

We wanted to treat us to a nice hotel, didn’t worked out – we tried twice, never again this ‚boutique‘ hotels, you just pay a lot of money for the nice entrance hall, how silly! Also it was a bit of a shock all this traffic and all the tourists after Palomino. We only stayed a week for some partying and some good food. It already feels like enough.

The initial plan was to find a private sailboat in Cartagena, which we could join to any island in the caribbean. When we finally found the right harbour we had to find out that it’s the wrong season – the weather is still to rough for most people who sail these seas. Playa blanca next to Cartagena looks very beautiful – but seems to be a big ripoff and also with a huge amount of people being on just a little stretch of beach. It’s not that easy to find that perfect little paradise!

Towards Capurganà

We decided to go further along the coast direction Panama: to Capurganà. It’s in the region of Choco, but not at the pacific coast. You can only reach it by boat, there are no roads or cars at any of these villages along the coast towards the boarder of Panama. It’s this little part, called the Darien Gap, which cuts the 26tkm long Panamerican Highway in two – all the way from Alaska down to Ushuaia, the southern most tip of Argentina.

Got up at 6:20 in the morning, how inhumane! Bumpy busride with brave overtaking manouvers by the driver all the way to Monterìa, then on to Necocli, the last place to get money from an ATM. Stocked up with 5,4 millions – arround CHF 1800, a stack of five centimeters of paper… That has to last now for up to a month, till my three month columbian stamp runs out by beginning of January. Hopefully they let us cross into Panama even without an onward ticket.

Tomorrow morning taking a boat and then we are the first time quit offgrid – no running water, no electricity- only maybe a few hours in the evening by generator, no internet maybe? How exiting!

The unbearable lightness of beeing

It just makes you realise how much it takes to have a village functioning with all the things we take for granted. It’s so different to just know or actually experience. The quality of a lifestandard is in my mind – all the time. What is it? Is it having a dishwasher or a good car? No of course not. But good drinking water – out of the tab, definitely! Takes me back to the subject of proportionality: How to set the values right? How much free time does one need? With robots taking over most of the jobs within the next few decades it is a subject more actual then ever for billions of people. How much time for yourself? How much stress is healthy? How much distraction in form of tv, movies, books, going out to meet friends, internet? And what about food, i mean already tolstoy was aware of the wrongness of eating animals, because it means killing them. Now even if you don’t care about that fact, maybe you care about the co2 emissions that the production of meat causes? Humbleness is the new greedyness, how about that? Who is ready for wanting less? I guess no one has the time yet, we are so occupied in our little bubbles, in our little worlds. I can’t blame no one. I’m just happy to have had the luxury to be able to break out of the ratrace. Cause if you don’t like what you are doing any longer it’s time to change something. For now it’s still so much to process, i hope the fog of thoughts will clear like on a beautiful morning when the sun comes up and dissolves all confusion of the beauty and the horror existing side by side on this rock we’re floating through space without too much empathy except to oneself and the ones close to you…