2nd week in san blas

Ripple2
Wed 15 Mar 2006 18:45
 
G'day blog fans,
we have been in the San Blas islands for 2 weeks now. We've moved twice. Our philosophy is "if it's beautiful, why move?".
    Our friends at Lemon Cays all moved toward the Canal. So on Sunday 12th March we sailed a pleasant 17 miles East to the Coco Bandero Cays. There is a big reef (complete with shipwreck) and several tiny (you can walk around them in 5 minutes) flat coconut covered islands. This is a stunning area.
    The day we arrived there was a birthday party and 15 boats. We know a couple (boat "Sunflower") from Trinidad. The island was set up with a few benches that you could sit on and a huge piece of cut lumber as a table. A big fire with lots of coals for barbequing - not surprisingly most people had brought fish to cook.  We had a pleasant evening of eating, drinking and chatting to other cruisers who were friendly and interesting.
    The next morning we woke to a beautiful view. 50m to our left is a gorgeous little island. It is 50m by 20m and rimmed with fine white sand and of course covered in coconut trees.
    It is 2 months since our last day at The Moorings. It seems a very long time ago already. Nowadays our days are taken up with boat projects. We are not "retired", we work more days than not, but now we don't get paid.
    By Tuesday a few boats had left and it was less crowded. So we went exploring. We dinghyed to 3 islands, all gorgeous, had a snorkel and took some great photos. The coconut trees are so photogenic. The way they lean out over the clear water, the tall straight ones, their shadows on the sand or water. And the different colour blues beyond the beach........are we making you sick yet?
    We have heard that the wait to get through the canal is now 30 days! I think we'll stay in the San Blas another week.