Sunny skies, snorkeling, stingrays, sharks and sunsets in the scintillating San Blas Islands
Yes, we’re back in the San Blas islands for another few days – this time with beautiful sunshine and so far, (fingers crossed) no lightning.
First stop was the Chichime Cays where we enjoyed a wonderful swim from Salanjo to Uchutupu Dummat island. A pretty little place with multi-coloured hand-painted little huts for overnight stays, some depicting the stunning marine life surrounding them. Unfortunately because we swam in I had no phone to take photos to show you!
Yesterday we anchored off Dog Island, and its next-door neighbour Niadup Island, located in the Lemmon Cays where we were able to snorkel around the wreck of an old cargo ship which sunk in the 1950’s. The ship supposedly got a leak while passing San Blas which was too big to fix or pump against, so the captain beached the ship with full power to at least salvage the cargo (which included rum!) into small freighters. It is totally encrusted with multi-coloured coral, and we were able to poke our heads inside to see all the brightly-coloured fish swimming in and out of the engine room.
We then motored back to the Coco Bandero Cays as there was a wonderful reef to snorkel around that I had missed last time. Geoff took me out there – I must firstly say now how grateful I am that Geoff taught me how to overcome my fears and patiently showed me how to snorkel on my first holiday on Salanjo. I never realized the incredible wonders that lay beneath the ocean, and I would have missed out on so much stunning beauty. We swam over endless pretty coral of all shapes and sizes, at some points the water was so shallow that we needed to be very careful we didn’t scrape ourselves on it.
On the return to the boat, I noticed a couple of grey fish that kept swimming around me – they were about one metre in length (and getting bigger by the minute!). We surfaced and I asked Geoff what they were, and he said he would tell me when we got back to the boat! Ever the gentleman, he kept swimming behind me. It was only when we were back on deck, he told me they were sharks and he had noticed that they kept nipping my flippers which is why he swam behind me, so he could keep kicking the sharks away from me with his flippers! What a guy!
Wednesday 4 May – another beautiful day, another beautiful anchorage in the Holandes Cays next to Tiadup Island. And a fun evening – a trip over to Banedup Island in the dinghy to the Bar Kaibir Nega, built on stilts over the water, for a few rum and cokes. What a nice end to our San Blas cruise.
Thursday 5 May – Back to Shelter Marina today to prepare for our Panama Canal passage tomorrow.
NOTE: If you want to try and see us going through the Canal, you can watch by clicking here. We will sailing through the Gatun Locks on Saturday morning at 10.15 am (NZST).