how to sell safari
voyager Safari V oyager is an old ship,
but what it lacks in creature comforts, it makes up for in exceptional service. The quality of the guides, the experiences ashore and the fact that everything – even a massage and the services of the ship’s doctor – is included, justifies the price. The food is healthy, with local influences; expect lots of salads, local fish, tropical fruit and homemade bread, alongside more international dishes. All drinks are included, even a decent choice of wines. The clientele is mainly made up of North Americans, Australians and New Zealanders, with a few Brits. The open bar means the booze and conversation flow – this is not a cruise for people who don’t like to mix. In the tropics, there
are few airs and graces. Everybody hangs their soggy wetsuits and clothing on the sunny top deck – otherwise, nothing dries. Casual is the order of the day.
I stayed out of the water for a few days, nursing my stings, and focused on kayaking, which was no hardship. At Golfito, we paddled deep into a labyrinth of channels lined by mangroves, watching kingfishers and herons, listening to howler monkeys hooting in the distant forest. As we clambered back onto the ship, a pod of dolphins put on a spectacularly acrobatic display, leaping right out of the water.
GRANITO DE ORO Each location seemed more ridiculously beautiful than the last. After three days in Costa Rica, Safari Voyager slipped across the border into Panama, dropping anchor off Granito de Oro, which translates as ‘grain of gold’, a speck of pale sand tufted with three coconut palms and surrounded by a reef. Sea turtles popped their heads out of the aquamarine water. Protected by a wetsuit borrowed from lost property, I swam, marvelling at brilliant- orange and electric-blue fish and a large moray eel.
COIBA ISLAND Coiba island – the largest in Central America, at 194 square miles – is entirely protected as a national
Protected by a wetsuit borrowed
from lost property, I swam, marvelling at brilliant-orange and electric-blue fish and a large moray eel
park, smothered in dense rainforest and circled by a necklace of white, sandy beaches. From 1919 until 2004, though, Coiba was a high-security penal colony, housing 3,000 prisoners in horrific conditions. Hundreds ‘disappeared’ and locals believe the island is haunted. We hiked up the Gambute Trail, a steep and sweaty
scramble, with a reward of uninterrupted views from the top over the forest canopy, toward distant islands – places to which one-time prisoners dreamed of escaping.
DARIEN JUNGLE The main reason I’d chosen this expedition was for the chance to explore the Darién jungle, one of the most inhospitable forests on Earth. At its heart is the Darién Gap, a ridge of misty hills that form the road-less
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17 OCTOBER 2019
travelweekly.co.uk
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