San Blas, it's what we've been looking for
Moxie - Beck Family Adventure
Mike, Denise, Asia and Aranya Beck
Fri 14 Mar 2014 00:08
Only two days but we love it here. Have been snorkelling today in a school of small fish so huge that it made the water dark, fish in every direction and about 4feet visibility because of it. On the outskirts were larger predator fish, they happily swam right by. Managed to catch a slipper lobster and 3large conch which are all being cooked up for dinner. A Nice sunfish hanging around too about a metre top to bottom. There's lots of dead coral but plenty of life. Any live creature that comes aboard is instantly adopted by my desperate for a pet kids, so 'Flipper', the pet slipper lobster had quite a short term.
The locals come by in dugout canoes to sell fish, bread and 'molas' which are appliqués 'fabric panels'. They only speak Spanish but are very quiet, polite and friendly, often with young children in the boat. All the dugouts leak so there is constant bailing going on. The. Small island a hundred metres or so away hosts the 'harbour master', he paddled out in his dugout to collect anchoring fees of usd10 for a month. The tiny island they live on is 300 metres long and has a fresh water well! We hope to go ashore there tomorrow for a look around. It will be very interesting for the girls to see the primitive living conditions, thatched huts, no electric etc.
Early days but In hindsight I'd pretty much skip the Caribbean islands head south then spend the season doing the Colombian coast and panama.
Met some Australians yesterday that are also going through the canal soon. We have been a bit concerned about the hassle and waiting involved in the canal process but they said just go to Shelter Bay marina, get an agent and wait for your spot. Waiting for your spot basically means finding a catamaran because the boats get rafted in threes with a cat in the middle. I hope they are right as that means we are a priority vessel.