San Blas Islands

I had a restless night kept awake by my cough. At 5am I gave up and went up on deck to watch the lightning storm followed by sunrise. I managed to get back to sleep for a short while before pancakes with maple syrup and fruit were served for breakfast.

Shortly after, we anchored at our first stop - just off 2 islands (Acuakargana & Waisaladup) which were about 200m long and 50m wide. We assumed they were uninhabited but later found out that they weren't. We all jumped in the water to cool off and stretch our unused limbs. We grabbed some snorkel gear and swam to the beach. I didn't see much on the way, it was mostly seagrass. Others saw a huge ray and some squid.

Once at the shore, we wandered around the tropical island paradise. The boys then tried to knock down some coconuts and we swam back to the boat. This time I saw lots more nice corals but not much else.

Back on the boat we were told we're not allowed to take the coconuts as they are harvested by the local people but the boys continued to hack into them (a long process with a swiss army knife) and will give some money for them later.

We had a lunch of a ginormous veggie burger with yucca chips which left us completely stuffed. I fell asleep and we missed the boat to shore to see the tiny Kuna village so swam instead. Once there, flies were biting me and my cough was hurting so I swam back and 'found' the huge reef we'd missed earlier, which had loads of beautiful corals. Just as everyone got back via the dinghy the heavens opened and it poured down. Anna brought me back a coconut which was small but delicious.

Dinner was spag bol, but tomato pasta for me, despite me saying I didn't want anything special - very sweet! Followed by a 4 litre tub of ice cream with papaya cake. We sat and watched a huge thunder and lightning storm and swapped travellers tales before heading to bed just after 10pm.

I slept really well with not a cough in sight until 3:30am when I woke up roasting - the hatches to our rooms had been closed due to the rain. I went up on deck and lay on one of the benches under the canvas cover. Goeran warned me it was wet but it was blissfully cool in comparison to down below. I lay there with my sarong for a blanket and listened to the amazing pouring rain and loud thunder whilst watching lightning light up the skies every few seconds. Goeran was up pacing all night despite being shattered from the crossing - it was one of the worst storms in a while and he was worried about the anchor coming loose and us ending up on the nearby reefs. After an hour, I was a bit too wet for comfort and went back down to bed. We opened the door to the sweat box and it was more bearable and I slept through until 9am which felt blissful.Read more