A Week in the San Blas Islands
Sunday 24 April – We said goodbye to Shelter Bay Marina after breakfast and headed off on a new adventure to the San Blas Islands.
Located on Panama’s Caribbean coast it is a vast archipelago made up of 340 islands. The San Blas islands, and associated territories, are called Guna Yala by the indigenous Guna Indians who have preserved their culture and traditions. They have one of the most untouched stretches of virgin rainforest and they are a cruising ground of incredible beauty. The land is not divided into individual properties and there are no fences - the landscape still looks much the same as when Spanish Conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa first arrived in 1513.
The Gunas are welcoming to visitors but prohibit any non-Guna from permanently settling or intermarrying and foreigners cannot buy land or invest in Guna Yala. They are physically small, but well proportioned, healthy, and have a lot of energy. They are peaceful, non-aggressive and crime in any form is very rare. Their population is around 55,000, about 10% of what they were before the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors.
They have a strict hierarchy of tribal leaders. Each village has three “Sailas” (chiefs) who hold the highest authority. Three “Caciques” (high chiefs) rule the nation as a whole with each one representing a different part of the land, and one of these will be elected the Supreme leader of the Guna Nation. The Sailas are much more than political leaders, they are also holders of the Guna spiritualism, poesy, medicinal knowledge and history.
The mainstay of their economy is coconuts. Every coconut palm is owned by a tribal member, even on the offshore islands and you must never help yourself to one, even one lying on the ground, they get very upset! The coconuts are bought by the colourful, crudely assembled Colombian trading boats whose wood is cut by chainsaw and finished off in brightly coloured paint. These traders also bring in most of the supplies, vegetables, fuel, oil, glass beads for jewellery making and machetes!
The women make money selling “molas”, beautiful, appliqued shirts and cloths for framing, all unique showing birds, marine life and animals. Indeed, as soon as we arrived after our 7-hour sail, we were visited by ladies in two dugout “ulus” to show us their wares. We anchored off Isla Porvenir and took the dinghy in.
Isla Porvenir has a tiny airstrip connecting it to a small airport on the outskirts of Panama City and is also the place for immigration papers and to buy a cruising permit. There is no village, just a shack selling water and a few groceries. The afternoon was spent swimming and snorkeling and generally just enjoying the warm water and lazing around.
Monday 25 April – After a swim we set off for Lemmon Cays, about a 4-hour sail, the water was calm and looked like silk rippling behind the boat. We passed island after non-inhabited island, all containing beautiful, lush green coconut palm trees with fronds swaying in the breeze. It’s a sea full of Robinson Crusoe islands surrounding us!!!!
We anchored at the Cays and got in the dinghy to explore the one inhabited island we could see. It consisted of locals, mainly men, one basic bar and a couple of Guna huts, one of which contained a “kitchen” with 4 locals preparing a dinner of lobster, octopus and salads for a visiting group of tourists.
Tuesday 26 April– we all got in the dinghy and headed for the reef where we spent a fabulous morning snorkeling. So many beautiful colours of fish – my favourite was a little fish of a sort of purply-blue colour with what looked like a coating of glitter – I called it my “twinkle twinkle little star-fish”. A well-deserved breakfast of poached eggs on toast all round and, anchor up, we headed for the Coco Bandero Cays.
These are very scenic islands located behind a four-mile-long protective outer reef barrier. White sandy beaches, palm trees and crystal-clear waters. We’re currently anchored off Olosicuidup and Jo and her family have decided to swim/kayak across to the island. No need to worry about shopping here - we have had a succession of visitors in dug-out canoes providing us with avocados, papayas, plantains, locally baked bread and lobster, five of which are currently flailing around in a bucket on the deck waiting to be boiled for tonight’s dinner!
Wednesday 27 April – Well, we had quite the night last night. A few days ago, Geoff made the decision that we would not be visiting Costa Rica. Because we got so delayed having repairs done on the boat in Cartagena, we got behind on our schedule and if we go to Costa Rica we would be entering what they call “lightning alley”. Far too risky for the boat. Geoff has already experienced the boat being hit by lightning in Phuket with a huge amount of damage caused to all the electrical equipment, so was anxious not to go through this again.
Anyway, Monday night we had a bit of lightning, but last night it was a real lightshow. Some thunder in the distance, but plenty of flashing lights. The evidence shows that catamarans are more prone to be hit by lightning and that is because they don’t have keels and keel bolts which can be attached to the bottom of the mast to dispense the lightning into the sea (earthing it) The catamaran mast is stepped on the deck and on Salanjo there is no metal fittings extending below the deck to get anywhere near the water which would act as a good earth, so any lightning tends to travel through wiring and machinery and then through the ship’s earthing plates. This route destroys all electronic chips and devices connected to that wiring. Geoff turned everything off, dead switched all the instruments that had fuses and dead switches and we sat in the middle of the boat with our rosary beads from 2.30am to 4.00am watching the lights streaking across the sky. Fortunately, we lived to fight another day!
Today’s programme included some snorkeling on the reef and then a picnic lunch on our own private island – bliss! We’ve now left the Coco Bandero Cays and have anchored in the Western Holandes Cays between Acuakargana and Waisaladup islands. By 6.00pm we were keeping a good eye on the darkening sky! Unfortunately, that sky just got darker – or maybe I should say lighter with the lightning flashes – my word, never seen lightning like it, worse than the night before and for hours on end and plenty of thunder which eventually was overhead. Thankfully we survived another night with no damage except our lack of sleep!
Thursday 28 April – We had quite the morning – we took the dinghy to Waisaladup island to a lovely sandy beach. We had plans to explore the island and then snorkel by the reef. This delightful Guna man came out to talk to us, along with his three roosters, a cat, a dog – and wait for it – a monkey!
We walked further along, noting all the palm trees with burnt trunks that had been struck by lightning and fallen coconuts, until we met up and had a chat with Julio who had lived on this little island for 24 years. There were also a few other boats anchored and Matteo from one of them came over to say hello and tell us to be careful because there were crocodiles in the reef! Suffice to say, our snorkeling plan quickly went out the window and we went back to Salanjo, pulled up the anchor and sailed to Chichime Cays. Today’s lunch consisted of fresh calamari purchased from the locals that Jo cooked to perfection. We have now anchored between Kuna House Island and Yansaladup (by the way, we found out today that the “up” in all the names means Island!).
Friday 29 April – Jo’s family’s last day. We decided to take the dinghy over to Kuna House Island – it was so shallow when we got near it that we all got out and walked in pulling the dinghy with us. So much fun taking photos of ourselves on a private island. Then it was off to Yanasaladup for a tasty chicken and rice lunch and a few glass bead necklace and mola purchases from the resident Guna family.
Saturday 30 April – And we’re off. An early start to Linton Marina where we will be saying goodbye to Jo’s family who are flying back to Colombia and welcoming Ian, Geoff’s cousin, who is joining us for a week and Mike and Sheryl who are sailing all the way back to Tahiti with us. And doing some more repairs to the boat………!!!