San Blas Islands, Panama

The wonderful San Blas Islands at sunrise

Yacht trip from Cartagena (Colombia) to Panama
We had three options to get from South America to Central America, these were either by flying, overland through dangerous mosquito infested rainforest or by boat. We opted to go by a 43ft yacht owned by an excentric French/Brazillian man called Frederico. The trip was sold as a 6 day excursion via the beautiful San Blas islands which are home to the indigenous Kuna people.

We set sail late (around 6) on the first day, we all were desperate to get going alas our captain wasn't in a particular hurry. It did give us enough time to stock up on plenty of rum (well we were sailing on the Caribbean after all!) He cooked a simple meal of noodle soup on the first night, I felt a bit cheated until I realised that this was because we were sailing on the open ocean and there was a high risk of sea-sickness. Unfortunately Rich was the first person to puke but he was by no means the last!


El Capitan, Frederico. He has rules and you MUST obey.

The second day the sea seemed to calm down slightly although not by much, it was a struggle even walking around. Frederico informed me that we weren't experiencing rough seas, and it was infact quite calm! Rich was still feeling poorly so lay prone in bed nealy all day. I lazed around the boat, reading and trying not to feel sick and had an early night.


Spending days on the open sea meant lots of cards and beer.

Due to the late start, the lack of wind and strong current against us meant that it would be late evening until we would reach the first islands in the San Blas archipelago. We lazed around on the boat but felt slightly frustrated. At around 5pm Frederico stopped the engines and we jumped into the brilliant blue ocean for a refreshing swim.


Our first taste of the Caribbean.

As we got closer to the islands the sea became calmer, this however meant that everyone started drinking. One girl got pretty drunk and Frederico advised her to 'be careful' as she was swaying close to the edge of the yacht. Frederico had earlier told us that the chances of being found alive after falling off board were pretty slim, especially at night. This did not stop the girl and she continued to wind up Frederico...until he completely lost it with her and slammed his fist on the table in a rage. She was banished to her room (there was quite a bit of door slamming). At midnight we arrived, Frederico had calmed down and managed to carefully traverse through the dangerous coral reefs to our first island in the San Blas archipelago.

I was up at 8am and immediately put my snorkel gear on and headed out for an hour. The first reef I explored had a wide variety of fish, there were also loads of massive orange starfish about a foot each in width. After breakfast we all headed out again. I went off for two hours to a reef much further away, this time I saw big green turtles and huge rays (some had wingspans of about 2-3 metres, sometimes they were only a few metres away and it was quite scary, although Frederico had assured me that it was safe. The rest of the day was spent snorkelling, swimming and exploring the nearby islands. It was also our first chance to see some of the Kuna people, they live in three politically autonomous comarcas or reservations in Panama and Columbia. They make their own decisions with regards to their communities, ecomonies and political and social organisations. The women are highly noticeable as they wear a particular style of dress.


Lucy relaxing with her book at sunset


Local ladies of the Kuna islands

We had had a great day, Frederico said we could have a fire on a nearby island in the evening and everyone was in good spirits. This feeling however was short lived, as someone else on the yacht managed to upset Frederico (the reason cannot be mentioned here however)....it was completely understandable for him to get upset. We all went back to the boat feeling sad after such a fantastic day and worried that Frederico would end the trip short.

Thankfully the next day Frederico had forgiven the person in question and wanted to carry on the trip. We set sail to another set of islands, the snorkelling was incredible as the coral reefs were beautiful and there were hundreds of fish everywhere. After lunch we set sail again and stopped near some more islands. We snorkelled and relaxed watching the sunsetting. During our last meal some people from another boat invited us to join them and another group for a 'party' on the beach. Despite Frederico warning us for no more 'surprises' he still let us go...this was probably not a good idea. We partyed until the early hours.


The most beautiful sunsets in the world


View from the boat

The next day people emerged with sore heads, Frederico had set sailed and we were at our last stop El Pourvenir by 9am. It also transpired as the day went on the the people on the island last night were very angry at us for making such a racket...and also it seemed that the same 'girl' had been very angry and made a drunken fool of herself again. I was thankfully asleep at that point. Frederico had obviously had enough of us and couldn't wait for us to get off his boat. Despite this he still took us to a nearby Kuna community and made us lunch.

The last 6 days were an amazing and memorable experience for me and Rich despite some of the people on our boat upsetting Frederico. I find it hard to comprehend why he wants to take backpackers as it seems from his stories that a lot of these trips end up with him getting upset with people drinking and being completely unreasonable...most were either British or Australian.