Blogs from Archipielago de San Blas, Kuna Yala, Panama, Central America Caribbean

The San Blas islands are an archipelago located in the Kuna Yala district in the Caribbean sea off Panama, however they do stretch all the way down to Colombia. Only around 15% are inhabited, with the rest comprising of a small piece of sand and some coconut trees, just above sea level. They represent to me the typical picture post card snapshot that you have in your head of the Caribbean, with aquamarine water, eye-burning bright white sand and the green of coconut palms. Underneath the water lies the world's third largest reef. On our first stay in Panama City a few months back, we had found a good company to do a trip with out to the islands, and it made it easy for us to arrange as we burnt our way down south from ... read more

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! We were sailing to Panama, albeit a day late due to a cockup by the captain of the boat we were supposed to be going on. But the Almande was a fairly large boat with two French seadogs, Loic and Franck, to keep her on the right path to the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama. There were 9 of us on the boat; Vicky and Ed were a couple from Essex doing a similar trip to ourselves (always a wonderful thing to meet likeminded people); Jo and Jade an Anglo-Australian couple who were both big characters (if you are an 18 stone, tattooed, ginger beared, Australian bloke with a girls name you are going to be an awesome person, you don't really have a say ... read more

Bonjour, Nous vous avons délaissé quelque temps. Nous étions en octobre retournés dans les Sanblas au Panama. Nous en avons profités pour visiter une rivière avec un ami Kuna, la rivière Sidra avec de belles petites chutes ainsi qu'un cimetière Kuna sur la route. Nous avons remontés la rivière à pied dans la forêt tropical pendant 4 heures. Par la suite nous l'avons redescendu en se faisant glisser dans les petites chutes et en marchant dans le peu profond de la rivière. Pour y parvenir nous avions été transportés par une chaloupe qui se nomme une lancha au Panama. C'était une belle journée pas trop chaude et magnifique, nous avons picniqué sur place devant les chutes. Bonne journée... read more

10 July 2012 began with a couple of unexpected challenges. First there was the heated argument over the phone with the hostel owner about the last minute hidden insurance and tax charges. These were not mentioned in the “balance to pay” email we received and so were a complete surprise when we were settling the bill. It ended with the arrogant owner admitting “this happens a lot and other people pay” then he declared that he had Leigh’s credit card number and so he could easily deduct the disputed amount. An unfortunate end to a lovely stay! The next challenge proved to be changing our Colombian dollars into US dollars in order to pay the balance of our yacht fare. Leigh walked for an hour in the heat and visited four banks to discover each had ... read more

Limited transportation choices from Panama City to Cartagena, Colombia has most travelers choosing between flying one hour(US $400) or sailing five days (US $500). Sailing is the more economical and romantic choice for sailboats include food, lodging, three days of island hopping and swimming amongst the 365 San Blas Islands, and two days of open sea sailing. There are lots of sailboats to choose from. We went a little higher end and paid $550 for a large 41 foot catamaran. Luckily or trip included only three other passengers so our trip departed with plenty of room for our five day passage to Cartagena. From Panama City it was a three hour drive to the coast through thick mountainous jungle. The road was rough, up, down and around which our driver could care less about slowing down. ... read more