San Blas, Saturday, May 3.

Jarek
Mon 5 May 2003 22:38

I am smitten. To fall in love at my old age is rather comical but there is
no way I can deny it: I love San Blas! These are the islands from a fairy
tale. I have heard it before and one can probably read it in some guides.
And that was my first impression when I looked at them in the morning sun.
When the awe somewhat subsided, and I had seen more of them, I realized
why: they are very tiny, just like the islands in fair tale book drawings
everybody remembers form childhood. There are three islands in Chichime
group (atoll?). We leisurely walked around the biggest one in fifteen
minutes. The smallest one boasts of five palm trees which cover some fifty
percent of its area! Sand is golden or white here and the beaches are
(almost) clean. It would take a poet to describe San Blas and I will stop
right here to avoid being clumsy and laughable.
Bogdan, by now our good friend, was our guide here. We arrived to
Porvernir Island to clear in. The procedure was quick and easy and cost us
$8. (San Blas is an autonomous territory of Kuna Indians and one has to
clear in even when having Panama Cruising Permit.)
We had a cold beer at the hotel(?), tried some papagenos and had a long
swim to cool down. It was very hot every day between 10 am and 4 pm and it
takes skill and patience to last through these hours. Our hard working
fridge helped a lot.
After lunch we dinghy to a neighboring island to see an authentic Kuna
village. A basketball court was the only paved surface there. Wooden huts
were very small and so was San Blas Hotel (another cold beer). Kuna
Indians are rather short and sometimes squat, but their children are
charming indeed: smiling, laughing and seemingly always at play.
The next day we went to Chichime and had an excellent dinner of lobsters
bought inexpensively from Kunas. Their women try to sell molas but they
are not pushy in any way. Then, we went to Caobos, Cayos Holandes, and got
hopelessly grounded there. It took us two hours and a kedge anchor to get
free. Bogdan has to be in Panama City on Sunday morning so we are motor
sailing back.

Cristobal, Sunday, May 4.
My asthma has flared up with vengeance in spite of a course of an
antibiotic and steroid started a few days ago. Perhaps it is the badly
polluted Cristobal air? There is no way I can transit the Canal at this
state of health so it has been rescheduled for end of May. Tomorrow will
do some provisioning and go back to San Blas ASAP. Hopefully, a couple of
weeks on anchor there will help. If not, the whole trip is under a big
question mark.