San Blas Islands Panama

Barbara and Paul San Blas 2013 slideshow It is hard to know where to begin describing the magnificence of the San Blas islands and the fragile beauty of the coral reefs there.  Our five week exploration began fairly dramatically with a stiff sail out of the protection of Shelter bay near Colon Panama to open ocean and 15 knot winds “hard on the nose”.  After a brief moment of “Hove to” in rather confused seas we continued eastward and near the end of our first day of sailing were gifted by bottlenose dolphins riding our bow wave which we took as a blessing for the coming weeks.  After two days of sailing we finally reached the San Blas islands archipelago which number over 340 small islands on the North East coast of Panama along the Caribbean Sea.  The islands are largely uninhabited and range in size from a few kilometers to ones that support a single palm tree bent over by the prevailing winds.  These are the ancestral lands of the Kuna Indians who still maintain some autonomy over the “Kuna Yala” territories as they are known locally.   They are a hardy seagoing people who still travel the length of the San Blas in their hand hewn dugout canoes many powered by only paddle and makeshift sail.  They frequent the more popular anchorages selling anything from fresh caught fish to vegetables, coconuts  and the traditional “Mola” fabric art.  Fortunately it still seems that most live a traditional life with only a few western world additions. In the small town of Nargana with its neighbor town Corazon de Jezus it is not unusual to see grass huts with cell phone reception dishes placed outside. During our time in the San Blas we enjoyed incredible weather for the most part and spent a great deal of time exploring the vast coral reefs by snorkel and by kayak.  The underwater world here is absolutely stunning.  Vast forests of sea plants and grasses and the largest offering of “Brain “coral we have ever seen.  The waters were crystal clear and supported an endless variety of corals, sea plants and small fish.  The one thing we noticed was that there were very few larger fish and in the whole time of sailing we only caught four fish. Only one of which was an eating fish and one sucker fish that found our hook twice. The other side of this tropical paradise presented us with a true picture of mans plastic waste as it piled up on the windward side of every island we visited.  Endless heaps of plastic drink bottles, plastic cutlery, oil containers, syringes, shoes and anything else plastic or buoyant enough that it could float in on the tide.  The other shocking event we witnessed was the black rain that fell on us.  After taking a few days on boat prep and repainting the decks with “anti skid” for our later journey north we had a few days of fairly hard rain.  At first it was a joy to have this fresh water gift from the sky so we greedily collected as much as we could to ease our use of the water we carried.  Once the rain let up we noticed a dark sludge in all our collection containers and on the freshly painted parts of the deck we now had black water spots that would smudge if we wiped them.   This was repeated again over the next few days as the weather became more unsettled.  The saddest thing is that there is no industry within hundreds of miles of the Kuna Yala and the winds that brought the rain came in from the open ocean with the nearest landfall being Africa.  Our time in the San Blas was a true blessing with the joy brought by Kuna Indians who visited us and the magnificent crystal clear azure blue waters and the coral gardens we played in. Now after five weeks of cruising the San Blas we are now about to shift into prep for our 1400 nm journey north to Key West Florida.  Our provisioning will be extensive as we do not expect to make landfall until Key West after approximately two and a half weeks of straight sailing in Open Ocean. We hope you enjoy our collection of images of our visit here to the San Blas islands of Panama.   Wishing you  fair winds and following seas Barbara Ann and Paul

The Other Side of Paradise
 slideshow