But that plan seems to have been well and truly derailed!
... Which is to say that I find myself still in Colombia and with no known boat leaving for Panama any time soon.
And "How did this happen ?" I hear you ask.
Well, Its a bit of a tale...
Last time I wrote, the plan had only partially been derailed and I had ridden down to the rough little coastal town of Turbo to meet a yacht.
After that, things got worse.
Firstly, and most importantly, the other motorbike guy I was with came down with Dengue Fever !
Dengue is a virus that is transmitted by mosquitoes (any mosquito I think) and it seems that its endemic to all the Caribbean coasts. It has a 5-8 day gestation period and there is neither a vaccination against it or a treatment for it once you have it... Other than to wait for your body to deal with it. I believe it attacks the blood but whatever the case, in some few cases, it can be fatal because the body runs out of red blood cells and unless you have a transfusion your toast! For most cases though, its not fatal but very debilitating with the patient suffering from extreme exhaustion for up to a month after symptoms show.
Back to the story...
Now, on the ride down to Turbo, the other rider I was with was complaining about general tiredness and pain behind the eyes but these things happen from time to time, (eg from a few drinks and not enough water the night before etc) and neither of us thought more about it...
But, that evening while we were trying to get in touch with the yacht captain (email and phone), my friend noticed that he had a skin rash appearing on his chest.
To me it looked like an allergic reaction to either sweat (heat rash) or more likely to washing detergent (poorly rinsed clothes). And both these things happen down here quite a bit too, so there was no undue concern as yet.
Now to distract us from health issues, we managed to contact the captain of the yacht... And it seemed that he was having more problems with the authorities! It seems that he had asked the authorities if he "could just quickly drop in and pick up a couple of passengers" despite having been ordered to leave the country (and its waters) more than two days before!!!
Needless to say, the authorities "didnt think that was a good idea" and so the captain had to "LEAVE" immediately.
Undeterred, the new plan was that he would anchor just over the boarder in Panamanian waters and we were to load our bikes onto a small launch and take a three hour ride in the open ocean (albeit very calm) to get to him where we would load the bikes from the launch to his yacht using the yachts mast/boom as a crane...
Sounds quite dubious I know, but actually Im sure it was all quite possible having done the crossing a couple of times before and messed about with bikes and boats and such...
But, it would mean that we would have to do all the immigration and customs run-around, and organise the launch and helpers and then head out in the ocean for three hours to a destination that I didnt know exactly where it was... and Oh yeah, we no longer had contact with the captain because he had to go immediately to Panama (out of range of Colombian cell phones etc...
But that was for tomorrow... Tonight we would just rest up and see about organising launches etc in the morning.
But, in the morning when I got up early went to check emails, my friend awoke and realised that his condition was much worse... The rash now covered his entire torso and he had a really nasty headache... Needless to say he set out to find a doctor immediately! He did that but had to get money to pay for the blood tests and I ran into him in the street just as I came back from internetting and he was going to the bank...
He was in a bit of a panic (and I dont blame him at all) and I didnt help when he showed me his rash and I had a bit of a laugh! But I realised he was really worried after a couple of seconds and then I switched immediately to helping him solve his problem - much better plan :)
So, the priority for the day changed completely from "how do we get to Panama" to " How do we make sure my friend doesnt die here in back-water Colombia" !
So, all in all, we decided that it was not a "good idea" to try getting on a boat for five days and we decided to "bail" on the crossing plan. It was also, "just not an option" for me to leave the other guy in that condition anywhere let alone in that particular little "rat-hole" of a town with no-one speaking english, and him speaking really minimal Spanish etc.
So, we sent an email to the yacht captain and then spent the rest of the day getting some blood tests done (inconclusive) and basically researching Dengue on the internet (we were pretty sure what it was by now), and waiting to see how my friends condition would develop.
And develop it did... By that evening, he was completely covered in a dense coating of little red spots (he looked like one of those german sausages with all red and white spots), had the usual splitting headache, was running a high fever and was completely exhausted!
By next morning it seemed that the rash had maxed out but the hot and cold flushes were still building and the exhaustion was worse.
We considered "staying put" but that made my friend feel even more worried, so the decision was made to ride back to Cartegena... He popped a 1000mg of acetamenophen to combat the fever, some hydration salts and some fruit juice, waited for an hour to see that he felt better, and then "rode out of town"...
And seven hours later we were back in Cartegena without further incident.
And now after another night, my friend is feeling much better... The fever broke during the night, and his skin is no longer irritated and is starting to resume normal colour. We still have to watch for blood infections while his body dissipates all the blood pooled in the skin, but its looking pretty good :)
... And so, here I am again, in exactly the same place I was two weeks ago...
Looking for a boat to Panama :))
