Paradise in the Carribean
Trip Start
Oct 17, 2006
1
27
58
Trip End
Jul 08, 2007
San Blas Islands,
Panama
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Now, alot of people dream of tropical desserted islands, including myself, and Im sure peoples images all differ slightly. But these islands were as picture perfect as u can imagine -we were practically equidistant from 5 incredibly lush, palmtree laden islands, nearly all within a 30m swim from the boat. Although there were about 4 other sailing boats moored nearby, it was a scene of perfect tranquility. Granted, the water wasnt perfectly sparkling blue (and only had visibility of about 10m when snorkelling), a fair amount of the coral was dead, and quite a few of the bigger fish seemed to be mysteriously absent. And to be perfectly honest, it can get incredibly boring (which is the whole idea really) - there are no shops, no people, no food, no nothing....just white sand and a few coconut trees.
But along with a nice boat that no longer felt like a washingmachine in slow-motion, the settings prooved to be a perfect place for relaxing and chilling out. The most stressful thought any of us had seemed to be ¨will we run out of beer?¨, but that was solved when a small canoe-like boat with an outboard rocked up with some Kunese entrepreneurs and took our orders...and returned with fresh fish and more beers.
(For those wanting to know what the ¨Kunese¨ are, they are actually the indigenous population in that region...and since 1910 or so, have been able to run the islands autonomously, without any real interference from the Panamanian government.)
That night we all went to the island for one of the best barbecues Ive ever had - not only was the fish some of the best Ive ever tasted, but the location and surroundings were exemplary. Guido even had some wacky tabacky hidden on the island for anyone wanting to partake in such activities, and we spent most of the night eating and drinking to our hearts content.
The next day was more of the same, except we all suffered from sunburnt backs, hangovers, and the start of boredom. By lunchtime however, we were off again, and about 3 hours later (of which I mainly slept) we were at another island with a small airstrip, where u register your entry into Panama. Not much to do here, so I had a quick swim to the island myself, before enjoying some time on my own aboard the boat when everyone else went by dingey to the island for some beers....
Finally, it was time to leave. We were told the boat to Miramar left at 6am, so we got up at the crack of dawn, ate some more ham n cheese sandwhiches for breakfast (we were all getting pretty sick of em by now), and were ceremoniously dumped on the island.....only to find that the boat wasnt arriving at 6am, and may not actually arrive all day.
Now heres the strange part - I quite enjoy being on a tropical island when Im all nice and comfortable (ie I have accomodation, money, access to food etc), but we had to wait for over 6 hours before we were able to get a boat outta there......and all of us were getting quite restless and dying to get outta there. It just goes to show that paradise is more a state of mind than a place.
One interesting thing happened though - 3 tiny planes landed on the island, and one of em (a tiny, tiny 4 seater) landed a bit short....which resulted in the front wheel falling off, and the plane grinding to a halt on the concrete runway with a completely twisted propeller and 2 very scared Japanese tourists in the back. We all thought it was quite lucky the plane didnt nosedive or crash more seriously, although the pilot was distraught enough as it was. All this about 15 metres from where we were sitting!! That was the end of our fantasies about planing it over to Panama city.
Eventually, a small, dodgily made speed boat came, and whisked us away to Miramar over the ocean....it was quite surprising the boat didnt break up, and is certainly the fastest Ive ever been in a boat.
We then had a 3 hour bus trip in an old American school bus, before catching another ¨express¨ bus thru heavy traffic to Panama city....unfortunately there was no room, and we had to stand the whole way. Oh well, I suppose paradise has to come at a cost!
EDIT: Kev and Amanda have done a much better blog on it all than me...complete with photos. Check it
http://www.bugbitten.com/blogs/South_America/aoconnor/sf1/Sa iling_the_Caribbean_and_the_San_Blas_Islands.html
