Welcome to Panama! Charlie’s last country in Central America.

Charlie had to visit Panama’s most famous attraction, its huge man-made canal. The Panama Canal, was built by the United States and it joins the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The canal was built by 75,000 workers between 1904 and 1914, these workers dug through the country of panama to create this huge canal. The reason it was built was to allow boats to sail between the two oceans without having to go all the way around the South American continent.

Panama is also famous for a strip of jungle at the end of the country called the Darién Gap. It’s called the Darién Gap because it is made up of 12 million acres of dense Rainforests and swamps. There are no roads running through it which means it is unsafe for people to try cross to Colombia through here.

This created a little problem for Charlie. When you look at a map, it looks like Panama is connected to Colombia. However, this land (Darién Gap) is far too dangerous for us to enter because the land is so unexplored, and home to some dangerous animals. We could easily get hurt or lost. But Charlie really wanted to continue on our journey to the next continent, South America.

After doing some research he came up with two options:

1. Fly on an airplane to Colombia
2. Sail on a sailboat across the Caribbean Sea to Colombia

Charlie has been on a plane before but he has never been on a sailboat. So he decided to meet with a sailboat captain, who was offering this trip, to ask him some questions about the crossing.

The captains name was also Charlie and his boat was called the ‘Wildcard’. The captain showed Charlie photographs of the islands the sailboat would visit on its way to Colombia. These islands were called the San Blas. After seeing these photos, Charlie’s mind was made up. The Islands were paradise, white sandy beaches, covered in coconut palm trees. The waters were warm and crystal clear, so Charlie would be able to do some snorkelling. The Captain also promised BBQ’s on the beach and a pirate fancy dress party!  There was just one problem… what about the Motorbike? Where was it going to go?

Luckily, the Captain had an idea. The Motorbike could be tied down to the front of the sailboat next to the emergency lifeboat.

That was it! Charlie’s mind was made up. So he signed himself, Mrs and Mr Broadway and, of course, the motorbike up for crossing the Caribbean Sea on a sailboat called the Wildcard to Colombia!

The adventure did not disappoint! Charlie loved spending 5 days in paradise sailing to a new continent, South America.