Colombia to Panama

By Ella P. Modesitt

Leaving the dock from Santa Marta, Colombia I felt really really weird.  I was back on the sea and it was really wobbly.  It was almost too wobbly for my brother, he fell down and got a big puffy fat lip and bruised his gums and blood all over.   There was lots of blood.   Lots.  Boo hoo.

Just one of the big ships

When we went sailing, we went all night long and when I woke up I was in Cartagena, Colombia.  I saw lots of huge buildings all around.  When we left the next morning there was this huge ship that honked at us.  HOOOOOOONK!  He was not happy with us, because we were a little boat in his way.  There were forts on both sides that are so old.  Cannons used to work there to protect the forts and sink ships.  I’m glad they didn’t sink us.

As we sailed along, my dad caught a big Mahi Mahi.  It was huge – an inch bigger than me!  I’m seven years old so he was pretty big.  The Mahi Mahi was so entirely strong that he took the whole fishing pole off the boat and it sank to the bottom.  This was the cool fishing rod that we traded a kayak for with our friends on Bikini.  Well, we still had a line onto the fishing rod from another YoYo fishing line.  We reeled the line in from that fishing line slowly so that we could catch the fishing rod.  We didn’t lose it after all.  And we also got the Mahi Mahi.  When mom was filleting it, dad was washing off all the blood.  A shark smelled it and swam right under the boat.  And my mom was scared and didn’t want to stand in the water like she usually does.  The Mahi Mahi accidentally slipped out of her hands and into the water.  BooHoo.  My dad didn’t want to jump in the water after it because there was a big mean shark in the water.  We caught five other fish so that was good.

I saw land and yelled, “Land ho!”  We were in Puerto Obaldia, Panama.  I saw a baby

Land Ho!!!

dolphin swimming with its’ mama as we were getting close to the land.  We anchored Rivers2Seas.   Then, we went swimming as a family.

Chase and me played with some other kids in town on the playground.  Alan, Arturo and Alejandra played and swung on the swings with me.  Later, we walked around town. We played tag.   It was a pretty cool town.  There were lots and lots of cool people and really cool houses.  Some of them were huts and some plain.  Some houses were made out of wood and some from bricks and rocks and stuff.  The roofs were made out of thatch palm fronds.

I liked the main square because so many people were there.  One bench had “love” written on it, which I liked.  People were walking around, some with babies and some with kids.  There were lots of kids there.  People were playing soccer, volleyball, bingo and running around.  I swung and a little girl pushed me and my little brother too.  I liked them a lot.  Some were pretty and some had ragged clothes because they were really poor.

“Other than wanting to throw up, dinner was good.”

We had dinner there, which was pretty good, except for the chicken foot, which was pretty bad.  The chicken foot was fried and still had the claws on it.  If I had to eat that I would have thrown up for reals.  Other than wanting to throw up dinner was good.

Panama is pretty beautiful; there are coconut trees, banana trees and horses walking down the beach.  “HeeHaw” says one of the donkeys on shore.  People in dugout canoes fish all around us.  This is my 22nd country and it’s my favorite.