Distance makes the heart grow fonder

While we have been travelling together for almost 11 months, this was the first time we had spent more than two hours apart from each other. Kendra headed to Edmonton for Sean and Courtney's Wedding while Paul and Rupert boarded a boat to sail to Colombia. This blog is a bit different than our other ones because we both had very different experiences during our time apart.

May 26^th to May 31^st –  Our days apart

Paul’s first few days were incredibly lowkey.  On May 26^th, after cleaning up the room and packing up, he and Rupert did the 25 minute walk to his hostel.  Although the hostel he chose was well reviewed it was cheap, mostly because the neighbourhood was described as “sketchy”.  Because Rupert was staying with him he was required to get a private room (which was only $25 usd) but the room smelled like a stereotypical hostel room.  The smell of feet, body odour and random other things.  Paul decided to immediately drop off the dog and walk to the nearest grocery store for an air freshener and some drinks.  He returned with exactly what he needed and spent a few minutes spraying every inch of the room.

Kendra's flight from Panama landed beside her plane to Canada.

Kendra’s day started early with a taxi ride to the airport and boarding her flight to San Jose, Costa Rica.  After the short hour or so flight she arrived back in a city that had been full of stress and paperwork, luckily there was no paperwork this time. After buying a Christmas ornament, a Starbucks coffee and a snack, and converting the leftover Costa Rican money into Canadian funds it was time to board her plane…well it was time, but the airport shuttle for the flight crew didn’t pick them up, so she was delayed by about 30 minutes. Kendra had booked a flight with 1 hour and 38 minutes downtime in Montreal before her flight to Edmonton. This 30 minute delay was compounded by a 30 minute delay she was informed of the night before.  That meant she now would have 38 minutes to land in Montreal, clear customs and board her flight to Edmonton.  Travelling with a carry on bag she was confident she could make it.  However, since the flight crew arrived late, we sat on the plane for an additional 20 minutes as they completed their safety checks.  If you’re good at math you will realize she would be cutting it extremely close.  Needless to say, while Kendra was en route to Montreal, Air Canada determined that she would not make her connecting flight in time and removed her from the flight to Edmonton (4 hours before she even landed in Montreal, while Kendra had no way to check her email). So when the plane landed in Montreal and they sat waiting for a gate, Kendra’s hope diminished as time ticked by, but she was confident she could push herself to make her connecting flight.  After reminding people standing in the aisle of the plane that they made an announcement to let passengers going to Vancouver, Frankfurt, and Edmonton off first, she made it to customs and cleared customs within 5 minutes. After exiting customs she asked the Air Canada info desk which gate she was leaving from.  They recognized her name and said she had “already been removed from that flight” but gave her $20 in meal vouchers ($10 for dinner and $10 for breakfast) and a night at the Sheraton Airport Hotel. While it wasn’t ideal, the king sized bed, soft linens, and hot shower plus the quiet time alone was just what she needed before arriving into the pre-wedding chaos.

The next day Paul and Rupert decided to explore a few areas of Panama City that he and Kendra didn’t have time to see.  Thankfully Paul brought Rupert’s backpack as today turned into a long walk from the hostel to the Cinta Costera area of Panama City.  This area is very similar to the seawall area with amazing views of Panama City.  Paul, with Rupert in his backpack, ended up walking almost 9 kilometres past the seawall area back into Viejo Panama before returning back to the hostel.

Kendra arrived into Edmonton around 11 am (about 15 hours after her initial arrival time) and was whisked away from the airport to the mall to buy shoes for the wedding.  After a quick lunch with her mom and sisters she put the shoes and her dress on in the parking lot to make sure they looked good and then headed to the tailors so her bridesmaids dress could be hemmed in time for the wedding. After the tailors she got to watch a tradition in Beaumont, the soap box derby. After finding a spot with her nieces, family friends, and sister’s in-laws, she got to watch her nephews Jude and Oliver race down the hill.  Neither of them won, but it was great fun to watch.

Paul’s next few days were spent mostly just in the hostel as he developed a cold and an ear infection.  Instead of going to the doctor to get the infection taken care of he decided instead to just drink lots of water and get lots of rest.  Obviously good ideas, except without any antibiotics the ear infection never really went away meaning by the time he needed to leave Panama his ear was still bothering him.  One annoyance about staying in a hostel; theft.  Paul tried to portion his food so that on his last day he would run out of food, but frustratingly people kept stealing his food from the communal fridge.  Talking with some backpackers later they agreed that this is becoming a frustrating issue in hostels.

Kendra’s next few days were filled with catching up with family and friends. Everything feels like a blur and Kendra also caught a cold at this point in time (luckily neo-citron and buckley’s saved her). With catching up with Krystal on Sunday, going to Kellsie’s AirBnB on Monday to hang out with the nieces, hanging out with 2/3 of her nieces while shopping with her mom and attending Corutney’s bachelorette party on Tuesday, preparing some food items on Wednesday and hanging out with Courtney, Krystal, and family who had just arrived, her week was already full.

June 1^st – Setting Sail

Flying with Rupert was going to be incredibly expensive, if not impossible.  There is a lot of paperwork to complete in order to fly which include health certificates, export permits and import permits all of which require paying administrative fees that will be over $300 USD.  Even if we did all this paperwork our problems would continue as Copa Airlines, the main airlines in Panama and our only real option to fly to Colombia with Rupert won’t accept dogs as cargo if they are over 11 years old and Rupert is too large for the cabin.  This has been a known issue for the last year but thankfully with lots of research we learned that we could take a sail boat to Colombia and not only would it be a fun adventure but it would also be cheaper than flying (after taking into consideration all the paperwork fees, cargo costs and the cost of accommodations).

It wasn’t a quick journey as the sailboat only goes around 6 knots or 12 km/h and we had to travel 450 km.  Thankfully the sailing company spilt the journey into 5 nights with three days of time filled exploring the San Blas islands of Panama.

We (Paul and Rupert) would board the sail boat in Linton Bay, almost 2 hours north of Panama City but thankfully the hostel Paul stayed at had a shuttle right to the sailboat.  This was the reason Paul selected this specific hostel (smells and all).  The sailboat company had implied that the shuttle only ran from this hostel but frustratingly he found out it only starts at this hostel meaning he could have stayed at better hostels in more desirable areas of the city.  Oh well, he was sick and staying there allowed him to save money.

The drive was fine, with everyone in the shuttle exchanging pleasantries.   They did make one stop at a grocery store to pick up snacks.  Paul didn’t quite get that we were buy snacks (and alcohol) for the entire 5 night voyage so he just bought a sandwich for lunch.  Kendra and Paul had previously sailed on a boat in Halong Bay Vietnam where the boat had a bar, so Paul expected the same.  It wasn’t until he reached the sailboat he realized he should have picked more up at the grocery store.  There was no bar and the only liquid to drink on the boat was water.  Thankfully there was a small convince store at the harbour selling overpriced 6 packs.

The boat was 60ft long which seems big until you realize that it had to host 20 people, 4 crew and 2 dogs, (Rupert’s friend Leki that he met in Panama was also on our boat).  We were assigned rooms, took some seasickness medication and started sailing to the San Blas Islands.

It was an interesting experience for Kendra to have this break from our Pan-American road trip because she got to talk with her extended family and friends about how things have been going and some of the highlights. The general consensus is that most people are impressed with the trip and feel like it’s something they wouldn’t be able to do, but really once you start it’s not as scary as it seems. Only a few people voiced their concerns about how selfish we are doing this trip or how our priorities are messed up but we understand why they may feel this way and maybe one day they will recognize that we are both healthy and able (and our families are healthy) so there is no better time to start living your life than the present.  Plus, life is too short to hold off doing something when you can do it right now (physically, mentally, and financially). There is a song that is probably in our top 10 songs played on this trip by Donovan Woods called Next Year, and it just highlights why we are doing this trip now because “we’ll do it next year…when is it next year?... it’s never quite next year.” If you’re related to Kendra’s mom’s side of the family you may want to have a tissue ready while you listen to that song. Life is short, as we and many of our friends and family have experienced, and we were getting to the point that we felt like we needed to start living our lives before it’s too late. We have had to make many sacrifices on this trip with missing births and birthdays, funerals, family gatherings, weddings, and holidays, but in the end we hope all of the people back home realize that we think about you all quite often and we hope you understand why we are doing this trip at this time of our lives.

 

A gaggle of red-heads

June 2^nd – The hottest ocean ever

Our first stop was “immigration island” where we were stamped out of Panama and paid $20 to the local indigenous community that controlled the islands.   Next stop was our first island in the San Blas archipelago.  It, like so many islands we passed, looked like the very definition of paradise. 

We spent our time on the island playing volleyball, talking and getting to know each other, and enjoying the ocean.  The south side of the island had a natural pool for people to sit in, but with the hot sun and shallow water the natural pool was HOT.  Uncomfortably so.  Even though there was no reason to stay in the hot water we did find ways to cool down by going to deeper sections and latterly pulling cool water up.

The trip included snorkels so a good part of the day was also spent snorkelling around the island.  Humorously a couple people heard that you could buy some goods on an island right beside the island we were exploring.  Paul almost wished he had gone to explore it as the two people that did go ended up buying “stuff” from a guy that facilitated the purchase through a monkey.

The day ended with a massive bonfire and dance on the island.  It was surreal.

 

June 3^rd – Finishing the 6-packs

Our second island was probably Paul’s favourite as the water was clear and turquoise filled with white sand.  The crew of the sailboat had mentioned that the nicest part of the island was the other side of it, so Paul ventured to the other side and was blown away.  He got out his book and some music and spent the morning relaxing with Rupert. 

The afternoon was spent stand up paddleboarding something that Paul had never done before.  He even tried to get Rupert to join him on the board, but Rupert had none of it and jumped off almost immediately. 

The evening was spent back on the boat where we had a delicious lobster dinner.  The boat broke into two main groups, one more chill down on the main area of the boat and another playing drinking games and listening to music on the roof of the wheelhouse.  Paul was on the wheelhouse and stayed up there until very late.  It was only the end of day 3 and he was out of his 6-packs. 

Luckily for Kendra there has been no shortage of drinks (or food for that matter). She survived the wedding rehearsal (somehow the water in her sippy cup turned into wine when it entered the church…weird), hung out with more family, met Courtney’s future in-laws family and friends and got dressed up to look presentable for the wedding, which is easier said than done. She definitely has been missing Paul, but someone had to do the tough work of getting Rupert from Panama to Colombia and getting paperwork for the vehicle sorted out to import it into Colombia.  The wedding was fun with lots of socializing, laughter and dancing
. 

Congrats Courtney and Sean, not sure if the correct saying is “You’re f^(%ing a Helstein” or “You’re a f^(%ing Helstein” but cheers!

June 4^th – The final day in paradise

We stopped in at another beautiful island and spent the day relaxing and talking.  The crew did bring the dingy and the standup paddleboard to the island and we did some water boarding.  Not to sure what to call it, but they tied the paddleboard to the dingy which allowed us to surf on the water.  Because of the type of Standup paddleboard, it was (very buoyant) it was surprisingly easy but made you feel awesome.  It was super fun! 

The island was also know for sharks, but not scary sharks, rather Lemon sharks and nurse sharks.  Paul did see some from the surface but he decided not to go into the water as his ear was starting to bother him again.

Sadly, the remaining journey to Colombia was 40 hours so by 4pm we started our journey to South America.

Paul had plans to stay awake and socialize but the waves were getting too much for him so he took some seasickness medication and by 7 pm he was asleep.

While Paul had trouble staying awake late, he didn’t have a hard time messaging Kendra at 6:30 am (after she had been at the wedding until 2 am) or calling her at 9:00 am to say hi. Luckily this wake up call was after everyone left the house to go to the hall to finish packing up centerpieces so Kendra didn’t have to help with that. Luckily she was able to spend the day relaxing in the kitchen with her Aunt Carol, Aunt Barb and cousin Annette and her mom while she drank her wine and watched her mom and Aunts stress about whether there would be enough food to feed the Kerrigan’s and Duquette’s who were still in Alberta (there were around 60+ people). 

For those who have never had the pleasure of meeting Kendra’s extended family, there are a few things you should know: 1. There is always enough food, 2. There is enough food that there are leftovers for days!  It was nice catching up with Aunts and Uncles that Kendra hadn’t seen since December of 2019 and seeing cousins and second cousins, but to be honest it was
definitely exhausting!

June 5^th – Sailing

Paul woke up with his ear completely swollen and in lots of pain.  His ear infection had returned with a vengeance so he promised himself that as soon as he was in Colombia he would go to the doctor.  Once again he was super antisocial, staying in bed all day due to the pain in his ear.

Kendra said good bye to a few more family members flying back after the wedding today, and enjoyed spending the day with her mom and nieces and nephews (with an impromptu stop with Carrie and Aunt Barb at A&W for some frozen Rootbeers). After dinner with her family and the remaining relatives she was able to enjoy a glass of wine with her Aunt Barb (just like Uncle John would want, since Kendra will have to miss Drinks on the Deck in the summer). It was another busy day/evening/late night hanging out with family but Kendra wouldn’t have it any other way.

June 6^th – Arriving in Colombia

Paul and Rupert arrived into Cartagena at 4am but immigration wasn’t open until 6am.  This didn’t really bother anyone as most people, including Paul were still asleep.

At 6 am the captain took our passports to immigration and by 8am Paul and Rupert were cleared to enter the country.  Paul wasted no time to get a SIM card for his phone and start the process to find a doctor for his ear.  He had hoped to find one in the historic centre but didn’t find any.  Thankfully the hotel Paul had booked allowed him to check in early so Paul checked in, dropped off Rupert and once again continued his search.  Thankfully he found a (private) hospital where he paid $93 CAD to get checked out by a doctor and another $40 CAD for some antibiotics and painkillers.

Most people from his sailboat were meeting in the old town for drinks to celebrate their arrival but once again Paul decided to be antisocial and enjoy being comfortably numb on painkillers.

Kendra arrived at the airport for her 10:00 am flight to discover that her credit card was no longer working! Thank goodness for courtesy phones because they had stopped purchases on Kendra’s card due to what was suspected fraudulent activity.  Luckily the charge from pdfgenerator.com was a legitimate transaction and they were able to allow future transactions to go through on her card. The reason Kendra made a suspicious purchase from pdfgenerator was because she needed a fake plane ticket to show onward travel in case the customs and immigration people in Colombia were suspicious of her only having a ticket to enter Colombia (and a fake ticket for $6 is easier than buying a real plane ticket, cancelling it, then waiting up to 10 business days to have the charge reimbursed). So after getting that settled she flew/travelled for 23 hours to reach Cartagena, Colombia.