Day 4 - Panama (San Blas)

Change of plan for New Year. I had booked a hotel room on an island on the Pacific side of Panama. It looked like a great option and a nice place but in the end I took a chance, cancelled and followed my fellow travellers to THE place to go - apparently - the Atlantic island chain of San Blas. 350-odd small islands, of which less than 50 are inhabited. And I wasn't disappointed with my choice. 

I hope God cracked open a cold cerveza and congratulated himself on a decent days work when he came up with this. 

The photo is the beach at Ina's Place. I ate, slept and drank just a short spit away from where the photo was taken. 

San Blas is inhabited by the Kunas Indians. A protected and authentic culture, with a penchant for authentic fake Nike and tourist dollars. The island I found myself on was approx 25m by 100m, so really quite small. It took about five minutes to walk around. Maybe less. 

As soon as I jumped off the boat into the surf, I decided that whatever privations were in store, it would be worth it and it was. Facilities were basic and I say this just as a matter of fact rather than by way of complaint. It didn't bother me that that the loos were flushed with a bucket. It didn't bother me that the showers... well they weren't really showers. The sea was more than good enough to keep stay clean for a couple of days. The food was basic but provided you enjoy rice with whatever they've fished from the sea that morning, crab, lobster, urm.. fish, then it was uber-fresh and tasty. In my case, I rated just a hammock under a corrugated tin shelter with five other people. The cabanas were designed for two and to be honest, were basically the same as I had but with a few sticks of bamboo lashed together to denote them as private space. Board with three meals a day ran to fifteen bucks per night (Cabanas twice that). Not too shabby huh? The hammock was fine as it happens and I got a couple of snoozes in during the day to make up for a short nights sleep. 

If I were to pick any fault, it would be that they haven't got one single clue how to do tourism. Aside from not being able to add up (number of tourists compared to number of beds available for example) they ran out of food, beer, forgot when boats go to/from - the list goes on. If you could live with their general incompetence (and they've been doing this for a while now so there's no real excuse), everything was just about perfect. The setting and views were all I was there for and they in no way disappointed. 

The approach on an exciting ride in a small zippy motorised canoe thingy.

Just before landing the sea turned azure and calm. 

Beach from the other angle. The individual in shot was not a Kuna Indian. Chilean as I recall.