The San Blas Islands, in the independent territory of Kuna Yala in Caribbean Panamá, was perhaps the most fascinating area we visited during our trip. Read our account of the San Blas Islands below. Pictures will be forthcoming.

SAN BLAS ISLANDS (Part 1)

The San Blas Islands, or Kuna Yala, is an independent region of Panamá, governed by the Kuna Indians. The Kuna are the last full-blooded strain of the fierce Carib Indians, who delighted in eating human flesh! They are the shortest people in the world, except for the Pygmies. San Blas is a 150-mile chain of 380 islands, over one a day. About 50 of them are permanently inhabited. Kuna income comes from coconuts and molas, reverse-applique fabric designs. San Blas is off the hurricane tracks, and that is good, because these are very low-lying islands. There are very limited supplies here, and provisioning is very limited. Most island names end in "dup", others are just as much fun to pronounce: Banadup, Tiadup, Wassaladup, Uchutupupippi, Chichime,...you get the idea. Kuna's are very friendly, simple people, who have strong feelings about their culture and way of life, which they strive to preserve with great effort.

So,...heading East from Portobelo, we caught up with two powerboats that we had been with, off and on, since El Salvador. They were slogging it too, but with our sails, we were able to make more comfortable progress than the powerboats. The three boats went through a mile-wide opening, the Canal de San Blas, that took us from the rough ocean, between many breaking reefs, into the quiet, protected Golfo de San Blas. Once inside, we headed west past the largest village of Porvenir, and anchored at Patibu, or Nalia (Bahia de Tiburón), as it is called in Zydler's Cruising Guide. We wanted a protected, easy to get to anchorage, since it was getting past 3pm, and one does not want to wonder around these islands and reefs without the visibility provided by the high sun. We were close to the mangrove and were visited by voracious no-seeums at dusk which wanted to give us a tropical island welcome!

The next day, we selected the Easter Holandes Cays as our first anchorage in the San Blas Islands, based on the number of anchoring possibilities there, and the easy entry. We had a wonderful sail across the Gulf of San Blas while the two motorboats followed along-side. We anchored west of Banedup Island, near an un-named little island on the NE, and the so-called "swimming pool" by the cruisers. About 10 boats in the various anchorages in the E. Holandes. We anchored at: LATITUDE: 09-35.24N, LONGITUDE: 078-40.61W. There are numerous dangerous reefs around, and we saw some sad evidence of what a navigation error can do to a boat or ship.

Finally sailing into these beautiful islands was one of the most memorable experiences of our trip. For Daisy and I, it was returning to a world of turquoise waters of all tonalities, beautiful sandy beaches, coral heads scattered around full of fish, and a tropical breeze that made us forget about the heat and the humidity. No bugs here! We were finally in waters we were familiar with: Cuba, the Bahamas, the Florida Keys...we were getting closer to home...although we are still 1,000 miles away!

We had been told to save time for the San Blas Islands, in our mad dash (two years) for Florida. Many cruisers we know had told us absolutely not to miss these islands and these wonderful Kuna Indians. One boat that made several circumnavigations, seeing everything there is to see in the tropics, including all of the Pacific, said to us in Balboa that the San Blas was the best tropical cruising area they had seen, bar none! We are just beginning to see why...Several boats we have met here have told us that they have spent a great deal of time here. One boat has been here since January, and is planning to stay until November. There are many islands to see, and places to explore, we have been told. We are just beginning to get the picture!

NOTE: Our two-year + journey has allowed to see the most beautiful anchorages and coastal towns and cities in the Pacific. We now understand why Balboa called it the Pacific Ocean. This has been an awesome experience for us. Now, this is a different ball game, on the Caribbean Sea side. In perspective, after our rewarding experiences in the Pacific, and now in the Caribbean, now we realize why we spent all this money and time to get SIESTA ready for a major trip. And we have many many digital quality pictures to remind us of this incredible journey.

As we write this, we are in an anchorage only a mile or so from the ocean's breaking waves on the reef. The water is some 82 degrees, we went swimming today, and we are anchored in clear water. You can see the anchor in the white sand, about 40 feet down, fish everywhere. About every 1/2 mile or so there is another island. Some are no bigger than 50 feet wide total and have 3 to 5 coconut palm trees. Others are 100 yards long or more, 100's of palm trees, and those often have a few huts of bamboo walls and tin roofs, no running water, no electricity, but the Kuna Indians live in these huts on these islands and live by fishing and selling molas (colorful stitching of birds and designs usually against black or dark background material). They are very pretty and Daisy so far has bought quite a few of them. The sunset last night was beautiful with the clouds and the water and the trees and the warm weather and Jimmy Buffet on the stereo.

Sometime through the day, the Kuna Indians showed up again. We talked with them for a long while in Spanish. The mother and father and 3 kids were in the dugout canoe. They asked for milk, gasoline for their outboard, and hooks to fish with. And we gave them some small bags of M&M's we picked up in Panama City. Good idea to bring small sealed bags of candy. Ricardo and his family responded by inviting us to dinner!

Around 5 PM, we cleaned up, brought our own bottled water and some cookies for the kids, and took off for their island, called Tiadup. We know we've already described the bamboo huts and primitive conditions, but it still amazes me. Literally 20 feet from the water's edge, they had made a very rough cut table and asked us to sit down. Ricardo had also invited another couple, Nick and Liz, from another boat (these two are from England on their 2nd world cruise - very nice people). Then the Kuna men brought out bowls of lobster, smoked barbequed fish, rice, fried plantains, avocado, and limes. It was delicious! The small children were around but the women kept to themselves in the huts. We had a great conversation with the couple from England. All in all, a great Saturday night in the San Blas Islands!

Ed and Daisy, with Hank, aboard the sailing vessel SIESTA

East Holandes Cays, San Blas Islands, Panama

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SAN BLAS ISLANDS (Part 2)

Dear Family and Friends,

SIESTA has just returned from a three week visit to the San Blas Islands, and is now provisioning and getting ready for moving north at flank speed on the Caribbean side. Flank speed, that is, until we get to Roatan, Honduras.

You can see some pictures of our Panama adventure by going to www.latitude38.com, then go to 'Lectronic Latitudes, and then go to April 16th. Let us know if you have difficulty finding the pictures and the story written by Richard Spindler, based on the SIESTA updates from Caribbean Panama.

Our two-year trip home from San Francisco has been a rich and wonderful experience for us thus far, full of interesting and beautiful stops, and enriched with new friendships, both of cruisers who have offered their help and advice, and of native nationals, who have opened their countries and homes to us. It will take a while to sort out all of the powerful experiences we have lived in the last two years.

And yet we know already that the San Blas Islands, from where we have just come from, were very different from any other place we have visited before. We had read quite a bit about the Kuna Yala, an archipelago of many islands, which are part of Panama. We knew that, since the Kuna revolt of 1925, the Kuna Indians enjoy a fairly independent status from Panama. But there was a lot yet to learn.

The first thing that hit us about the San Blas area was its natural beauty. For us who have cruised the Bahamas for many years, there were similarities...the range of cobalt blues and turquoise greens, and every shade in between, the many small islands, the beautiful beaches, the many live and dangerous reefs,...but then there were the many tall coconut trees on every square foot of practically every outlying island, the deep water separating each small group of islands, all protected by an outer barrier reef,... the next thing that impressed us, like an overlay, was the character of the colorful, obstinate and proud Kuna people... As is always the case, the topography is much easier to get to experience and appreciate than its people.

At first blush, and on a rushed visit of a few short days, a cruiser could easily get the impression that these islands, however beautiful, are filled with pushy, brash, yet colorfully dressed Kuna women peddling their "molas" (attractive square pieces of colorful cloth sewn together with intricate designs). Also part of the first impression is the thought of each small island having its own government, requiring a payment of $5 for the privilege of visiting each of them. Pushy, annoying, relentless people obsessed with living in the past while inhabiting a paradise of islands might be the summary impression taken away.

We reflected on this. It's easy for us cruisers to quickly take in the sights of the many nice San Blas anchorages, cut right out of the best cruising magazines' pictures of the most captivating destinations, and feel like we have arrived in paradise. After all, we have met, not one, but several world cruisers and circumnavigators in the Panama Canal area, who told us that they consider the San Blas one of the top two, if not the top, cruising ground in the world! That's quite a testimonial. Yet these islands offer much more than sheer beauty for the cruiser. They offer the opportunity to observe, first hand, the wonderful people who inhabit these islands, this curiously different Kuna people who refuse to adapt to a more modern way and remain, brave and obstinate, proud to live the way their forefathers lived many years ago, under conditions that are very primitive indeed.

It is not possible to share our impressions of San Blas and the Kunas in a short email update. Suffice it to say that those cruisers who want to take the time will be amply rewarded by the appreciation gained from this unique culture. We would have given anything to have the likes of the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead join us, to narrate and make observations as we walked, jaws open, among the palm frond huts in the many villages. Our three weeks were barely enough for us to get any kind of feel for what makes the Kunas live the way they do. An inquisitive cruiser can easily spend many weeks here, exploring hundreds of unique, beautiful islands, getting to know some of the people who live in them, and what drives them. We began to discover, as were concluding our brief visit, that the Kunas, albeit with their unique ways, can be quite friendly and very caring of the visitors who get to know them. It was a powerful experience for us to have been in San Blas.

Briefly, for the benefit of the cruisers who may be visiting the San Blas: we visited the mouth of a river near Porvenir, called Patibu, not a great place, but easy to get to in the late afternoon. From there, we visited the "swimming pool" in East Holandes Cays, near the barrier reef, beautiful and very popular with cruisers, where we were invited by Ricardo to dine lobster and fish on the beach. After a very pleasant stay there, we sailed in the protected waters inside the barrier reef to Nargana and Corazon de Jesus, two small islands joined by a primitive bridge, where one can get vegetables and fuel. These islands show the most change in the Kuna way of life. There, we met Federico, who guided us through the Rio Diablo and showed us the two towns, including the Good Friday procession and passion re-enactment. From there, we visited awesome Coco Banderas, near the barrier reef, where we had a pot luck with fellow cruisers and visited the large freighter rusting on the reef. We visited quaint Isla Verde, and crowded Rio Sidra Cay, where we met Lisa, one of the most well-known mola makers among the Kuna. In addition to showing us her molas in her display room, she gave us a day-long tour of a near-by river which provided amazing tropical forest views, and was quite a workout, as well. We also visited nearby Isla Raton, where albino Belisario, another well-known young master mola maker, showed his best mola wares, and Isla Maquina, also nearby, to see another true Kuna village. From there, we visited West Holandes, near the barrier reef, where we discovered good snorkeling to the east, and spent our last night at beautiful Chichime, where we bought bread made from salt water and coconut, smoked with palm frond leaves in an old oil drum used as an oven. Just before we hoisted anchor at Chichime, we picked up Lisa at the appointed six o'clock in the morning. She was brought by her panga "chauffer" to meet us as agreed, in her Yamaha-powered cayuco, so we could take her aboard SIESTA to Isla Linton, where she could take a bus to sell molas at the Panama Yacht Club in Colon the next day. During the trip, we spent hours talking about Kuna history and the Kuna way of life. All of this, while she was creating a mola with our sailboat SIESTA, complete with its beige and maroon CSY original colors, radar post and rattlins. What a treat!

There were many more places we wished to visit in the San Blas islands, but ran out of time. Fellow cruisers, save some quality time for the San Blas Islands and get to know as much of the Kunas as you can!

Fair winds, and as the Kuna say... NUEDI!  (used for an upbeat hello and goodbye)

Ed and Daisy aboard SIESTA, Isla Linton Panama