We made landfall in Porvenir, western area of San Blas islands, on Saturday 25th May, at midday, after 303 nm  COG / 393 logged.   We received a spectacular welcome from Nestor in his dugout boat, and his wife Noami...he firstly guided us to a good anchoring-spot, and gave us a lot of his time explaining where to go, brought us to immigration in his dugout canoe, and organised for the cook in the hotel beside the runway to feed us lunch.  In the meantime, after anchoring, another dugout canoe arrived alongside Luna Quest, with three older Guna/Kuna Yala ladies, dressed as they do in their traditional, very colourful outfits, with "wini" beads covering their arms and legs, and selling their Molas...beautiful pieces of embroidery work, which they sew onto their blouses, and also sell to us cruisers in order to make a living.  We had a great "chat", and shared refreshments.  Porvenir is home to the immigration office, but also the Kuna Yala government or congresso.  It is a tiny island, with idyllic, sandy beaches, warm turquoise sea, palm trees, and the aforementioned short runway and small hotel.  The San Blas islands are a vast archipelago on Panama's Caribbbean coast composed of over 340 islands.  They are unique in many ways, worldwide, and are home to the indigenous Guna Indians, who have best preserved their culture and traditions out of all the tribes in the Americas.  The islands are called Guna Yala by the autonomous Guna Indians who control this area of Panama.   They welcome visitors, but don't allow non-Guna Yala people to live there or to own land, or invest/exploit the area.   Coconuts are the mainstay of the Guna economy, as are the Molas for the women.

Sunday 26th May 2019 was Luna Quest's 2nd anniversary of her maiden voyage with us, having left Fox's Boatyard Marina, Ipswich on 26th May 2017 for Dingle Marina, accompanied by the great John Munns.  We've come a long way since then!

We woke up in beautiful Porvenir to find a loaf of bread kindly left by Nestor.  We weighed anchor, and headed back East in the direction of East Holandes Cays, arriving there at around 3pm, with much thunder and lightening on the way, and heavy rain too.  We anchored off an island there called Ogoppiriadup...an incredibly beautiful place, in a lagoon surrounded by little tropical islands, and the reef visible beyond towards the North/North East, with the constant soundtrack in the background of the waves breaking there.  We had never before experienced anywhere like it...the sandflies were a pain in the bundún, but apart from that, it was paradise!  A very peaceful place!

We set sail then for Shelter Bay marina in Cristobal, Panama, which is at the entrance to the Panama Canal, accompanied once again by amazing thunder and lightening around us, but luckily no rain/showers/squalls.  During the night, we had to motorsail NW to make any headway, and arrived in the Portobello area on the morning of 28th May, very excited to see all the tankers and cargo-ships lined up, anchored, waiting for their slot to go through the canal.  We arrived at Shelter Bay marina, and were greeted by the very friendly and helpful Eddie.