Bungalows Marbo San Blas

... was living right on an isolated beautiful long stretch of coconut plantation lined sand - the turtles picked well!!

The camp was at one end of a 7km sand bar, defined by pretty estuaries with mangroves & crocs(not many!) at each end. Across the closest one, about 1/2k to the north, you could swim or kayak, at slack water, to the tiny village of Platanitos - a pricey weekend beach getaway for the locals. It was about 15k by road back ...

... somehow have managed to preserve traditions and customs in a constantly progressing country is quite extraordinary. Brightly colored clothes, intricate beaded jewelry and ancient fishing techniques make these people unforgettable to those that have the good fortune of meeting them. If the San Blas islands are an introduction of things to come... then I can not wait to see more of Central America!!!

Santiago Ixc ths closest town to the island of Mexicalitlan, reputedly the original home of the Aztecs, which formed the blueprint for the selection/layout of Tenochtitlan in Mexico City. Few combis go & little else to do in town, so left at 7am hoping to get back to hotel in time to check out at 1pm. Pleasant boat ride there - saw my first roseate ...

... by river(sandflies - jejenes!) The beach was disappointing - fine dark sand meant water not clear & too shallow for swimming. Surf beaches out of town but wrong season, so dead. Should no longer be surprised about room prices in surfer towns being high - guess they all camp on the beach!

Nebylo to v mem planu, nicmene jsem hodne rad, ze jsem svuj plan mohl zmenit. Ostatne od toho plany jsou. ;) Ostrovy San Blas jsou unikatnim mistem na teto planete. Jedna se o ostrovy, kde ziji mistni domorodi obyvatele a pronajimaji sve jednoduche chyse turistum. Maji svou vlastni autonomii v ramci Panamy a nenajdete zde zadne hotely, jak to znate z nejakych ...

... 10.30 am. The first island is where some of the Kuna live and is covered with their houses, the lifestyle is completely different here, there are no showers, when you go to the toilet it goes straight into the sea, the fish seem to love it !! We really like it here, its so nice to getaway from the city for a while. On the same day we are taken to one of the other islands by boat, the island was ...

... t actually a line we didnīt save any time. Barneyīs style of driving is fast and furious, rather resembling someone who is fully insured. We stopped for gas, tolls, accidents but nothing else. Barney had a contact, Heinrich, in San Blas whom we were supposed to meet at km21 but that didnīt work out. After that fell through, the backup plan was to drive to San Blas and just meet him here. We arrived in San Blas around ...

... building and be better known as the Aztecs, was restricted to half an hour (although I could rant on about what we later discovered to be an erroneous decision to actually believe mexican timetables but I think I may have already mentioned it a couple of times. So must resist urge to be boring transport obsessed nerd). Luckily the island is teeny weeny and it only took ...

... through the traffic. We pass a parade of caged circus animals and try to get pics from the van's windows but the Circus is in town and we are leaving. Soon we're back in the countryside and getting on to Mazatlan. We arrive around 5 pm and go on tour checking out all the possible campsites and eventually settling on the Mar Rosa RV Park and only one on the beach pretty much "downtown" Mazatlan. Good, we are now hangin' here for a few days to relax and prepare for more driving. We ...

... my stomach was behaving okay considering some horrific story I have heard from other travellers about Mexican food. As the load speakers of the Jeep blasting "Californiacation" by the Red Hot Chilly Peppers, I enjoy the scenery of the Mexican Pacific Coast. First stop was San Blas, a fishing village, we stayed overnight. Then on to Sayulita, which is full of ...