Sunday, August 4, 2013

Dreams Come True

The day after I was born, my dad drove me home in his beige 1974 VW pickup truck. Since then, I have been around cars my entire life. After Earthling's departure from Cartagena, Colombia, we didn't encounter a single motor driven vehicle for more than six weeks throughout the Colombian Islands and Kuna Yala (San Blas). This is the longest period of time I have not seen a car. In the entire region of San Blas, there is only one road. The road comes through the Darien forest to Carti Islands, where we sailed. As soon as the anchor was set, we see a silver Honda Element with Illinois plates honking and waving at us!
 Three months old in front of Freedom Square, Tehran, 1974, VW pickup in the background

A few years ago I was sailing with Johnny Wanda and first mate Kelly outside Chicago on Lake Michigan. I was telling Johnny about the dream of taking off and cruising around the world within the next couple of years. Consequently, he was telling me about his dream to drive to Alaska from Chicago and further through Americas all the way down to Argentina to Brazil. Our dreams sounded too good to be true,  we decided to meet somewhere along the path.

Rowing to shore excitedly
Earthling on the left and Wanda Honda on the right  

Dreams come true, and out of all the places in the world we met in the middle of the two America, far from civilization, at the dead end Pan-Am highway in Kuna Yala, Panama. It wasn't easy to arrange this meeting, and it almost didn't happen. However, Johnny and I were highly motivated to make this happen.
Katherine, Patrica, Johnny, and Eartling in Carti Tupile 

Earthling anchored in between the Carti Islands
Patricia contemplating between molas
Playing with the starfish
That mola dress looks good on Johnny :-)
Fresh Lobster for dinner
Kuna Women
Johnny joined the locals for some fun
Playing "Flip the Ulu"

Women offering their Molas for sale

Johnny and Patricia Wanda joined Katherine and I on Earthling for seven days. We cruised some of the beautiful islands of San Blas and the memories will remain forever.

Love from Dreams Come True 

Check out Wanda's blog: www.wandaroundtheworld.com
View the entire Panama photo album here