I booked my trip in Panama City, at a hostel called Luna’s Castle. There was a few similar trips leaving during the upcoming week and I booked one that was cheap, seemed to include a lot in the price, and was sailing to Cartagena, the city in Colombia where I wanted to start my South America travels. It was suppose to leave from Portobelo in Panama on the 9th of December and cost US$ 350. It was five days until then and I had just arrived in Panama City so I stayed in that hostel for the whole time.

Two days after I booked my trip came one of the people that worked at the hostel up to me and told me that the boat I had booked had been cancelled. I never really got the reason for the cancellation, more than it was the captain that cancelled the trip. Fortunately was there another boat leaving on the 10th, sailing the same route and everybody that had booked the first boat was offered to change to that one instead. It was US$ 30 more expensive but with the alternative being to wait for another week was it an easy decision to leave one day later even for a bit more money.

After the second boat was booked and all was set, was there nothing much to do than wait and go about with normal tourist activites i Panama City, before I headed up to Portobelo, the town from where the boat left Panama.