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Published: October 31st 2005
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The trip to the San Blas is pretty uneventful. Most of the time we have light SW winds, yup right on the bow. Everyone swears this is unusual for this area, but I'm starting to think its just me. We did get about 6 hours of really fun sailing in about 15-20 knots winds on a close reach (I'm sure that term means something to someone) Of course all of this happens while I'm not on watch and am trying to sleep on the left side of the boat while its heeled over on its right side...(read, I keep falling out of bed). Bing I hope you appreciate the incorrect use of right and left, that is just for you.
So what are the San Blas islands. They are an archipelago of islands off the SE coast of Panama. They stretch from almost Colombia to just East of the Canal. Yes, Panama seems to run more East/West than North/South. This archipelago is not a true state of Panama, I think its sort of like Puerto Rico. Its owned and operated by the Kuna Indians, personas indigenous. They are Panamanian but they aren't. I don't know.
Anyway the islands are reef islands so you have to be very careful around all of them and even in the channels. Lots of reefs to run aground on. The San Blas are advertised as your stereotypical Carri bean island, deserted islands of palm trees. That is exactly what many of them are. The islands that are inhabited are inhabited by small villages of Kuna Indians. These guys fish from dug out canoes for lobster, crab and fish. They are more than happy to sell these things to the cruisers. We bought 2 huge crabs for $5. These things were amazing. The claws were almost the size of my hand and the shell was probably 1/4” thick. Coconuts and lobsters are there big cash crop. Well that and selling Molas to tourists. Molas are swatches of the traditional clothing that they wore/make. They are complex patters made by reverse applica. That is where they put like 4 layers of different color cloth together. To make red they cut out the top black cloth and reveal the red cloth under the black. To make blue designs they cut the red and black cloths to reveal the blue.
Our first stop in the San Blas was in an area called the Swimming pool. Its in the Holundais area. There is a guy there with his wife that has been in this place for 6 years. He says he doesn't go anywhere anymore. He was cultivated enough connections that he has everything he needs brought out to him. Nearby is Potluck island that this guy takes care of. Every Monday he throws a happy hour on the island with a big bomb fire of palm fronds that he collects around the island over the week. Very interesting to say the least.
We spent 3 days in this anchorage. There was swimming, snorkeling, trips to the local Indian village and sea kayaking out to the barrie r reef to watch the surf break. Because of the strange SW winds that had been blowing for weeks the visibility in the water was only about 15ft. Not great abundant sea life on the corals but its always cool to see what is there. Most of the people in this anchorage had been there for awhile and they all had their favorite fishing spots. We weren't actually there long enough to do any fishing.
Tuesday we had to leave the “uninhabited” swimming pool for the island of Porvenir. We headed to Porvenir because it had an “airport” and it was where they could check in the boat and we could get the right immigration stamps. The trip was a short 4 hour motor.. of course there was no wind.
When we got there we went in to see the port captain and buy my airline ticket. It was lunch time but we were told we could get the airline ticket at the hotel. Just walk across the runway. This runway was cracked concrete, probably only a small street width. It extended from one end of the island to the other and beyond. You could see where they had had to expand the island to accommodate the runway. The airline ticket to Panama City was $34 and the plane left at 6:30AM on Thursday morning.
Next step was to check in the boat and get through immigration. Well we got the boat checked in but Immigration wasn't in today. They should be in mannana. No problem I don't leave until Thursday.
The Porvenir area is more known for its Indian villages than anything else. So that is what we did, we explored Indian villages. At lunch we met a guy that runs tours out of Panama City and he was out here inspecting hotels and other resources that he was using. In the afternoon Mike and I went exploring to some farther islands. The people on this island were as intrigued to see us as we were them. I don't think many of the cruisers really come that far. As we pulled up in the dinghy people would run to the shore to watch us. We met a very nice Kuna man who was visiting his son on the island and we talked to him for awhile. We also ran into the tour guy and his Indian liaison again, they were staying on this island and were guests of the Indian liaison. The Indian (man I wish I remembered his name) promptly invited Mike and I to join them for food. So we did. It was pretty cool to feel like the guest of one of the locals. The plan then was to return to the boat, eat dinner again because Tina was expecting us for dinner and then join everyone for billiards later on. Mike and I chickened out of the billiards because as it got dark we lost all of our landmarks for getting the dinghy around the reefs to the pool hall.
Just as well we just sat on the boat and toasted my last night in Panama.
Oh yeah, I never got my immigration stamp, the immigration official never showed up.
I wasn't to worried, I was just leaving the country. I figured I could explain it at the airport.
5:30 came early on Thursday morning, its barely light. Its funny but this tiny airport has 2 different airlines that each have 1 flight a day to it. The airport terminal is a small thatched hut with picnic tables. The plane is bigger than you would expect, it seats about 30 people. Its a small turbo-prop similar to what I flew in and out of Pullman. And it just pulls up in the grass next to the hut and you get on.
We stopped at 2 other island airports before arriving in Panama City.
Click for the pics
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Jennifer Smith
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It sounds Terrific!
I am looking forward to go there this coming summer!