As part of our Spanish school we got to spend two nights on the San Blas islands. There are around 365 islands in the San Blas archipelago of which around 50 are inhabited and they are owned by the Kuna people, who also own the forest along the coast here. They are celebrating 100 years of independence from Panama this year. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming.
Isla Franklin where we stayed is tiny, with around 25 tourist cabañas and a few for locals who only stay here when it’s tourist season. It’s by far the smallest island we’ve stayed on taking only a couple of minutes to walk the length of and less than 5 minutes for a complete circuit. Everything is very simple, we stayed in a small cabaña made from coconut palms with a sand floor. There are shared showers and toilets, and the power (two noisy diesel generators) is only on for a few hours in the evening. It’s a mini paradise.
The journey here was long and tiring. We left Panama City around 5am and drove for about 3 hours in total, half on normal roads and the rest on incredibly steep and twisting roads through the forest. Although it was all paved and smooth, the constant turning and close forest made me feel really sick. It didn’t help that, as one of the shortest, I had to sit right in the back of the SUV with tiny windows. About 15 minutes from the end Chris asked the driver to pull over as I was feeling awful! I swapped to the front seat with windows open for the rest of the way. After arriving at the coast we had a few minutes to rest before climbing onto a large rustic boat with a motor at the back. I managed to get a middle back seat so it was a little less bumpy for me,but still a lot of noise and crashing across the sea, getting sprayed by the waves for 45 minutes! Our first view of the island was worth it though, it’s so tiny yet it didn’t feel overcrowded.
We spent the first day relaxing by the sea swimming and reading. Chris and Laura swam all around the island with snorkels and saw lots of brightly coloured fish on the corals.
The food has been plentiful and delicious, fish for me, and egg curry or spiced scrambled eggs for Chris, served with rice or plantain. Fresh fruit, pancakes, and eggs for breakfast. We bought some rum and cokes from the bar and had the evening on the beach, after a quick game of beach volleyball. There don’t seem to be any mosquitos on this island luckily! We slept well, and I awoke early to the sound of the sea and the wind in the trees.
On our second day we had a boat tour in the afternoon. We went to two islands and a natural swimming pool in the middle of the sea. The first island was really green and there was an amazing shelf where the sand dropped away immediately and you could dive into the sea. The next stop was a natural swimming pool, a sort of underwater sand island which left the water about a metre deep, perfect for swimming in. We spotted a few huge starfish! The last stop was another island, the guide had brought snorkels and we swam to a sunken boat covered in coral and busy with an amazing variety of fish.
Back on the island we had dinner (getting a bit bored of fried fish by this point!) and joined the locals and other visitors for a party around the main hut, large speakers blasting out music and lots of singing and salsa, a bit of limbo and a bottle of rum being passed around. Then we all went to the beach for a large bonfire with more music and dancing.
It was such a great trip, we don’t normally do beach holidays (I usually get bored and don’t like to lie in the sun for too long), but this was a perfect escape and time to relax after our first few days of Spanish lessons.
We’re off to the hills next, still in Panama with a week of Spanish and exploring in Boquete.
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