Achutupo Número Uno

Our visit to the San blas islands has been quite the adventure!

We were picked up from our hotel in Panama City at 5am to begin the 2 hour drive over the mountains to the port. There, we hopped on a boat and travelled a further 45 minutes until we reached an island called Aroma Island. Here, we were given a bottle of water and no additional information except that we were to stay here for the night. Our cabin was made from bamboo sticks, had a thatched roof and a sand floor. Luckily, the island was beautiful - crystal clear water and hammocks set up between the plentiful coconut trees. There was only one other couple on the island, who also had no idea what was going on! The island was run by an indigenous family who spoke very little English and were either very shy or just quite cold. We had heard that the Kuna people were not happy with the influx of tourists, which could explain it.

At midday a man walked around blowing a conk shell, signalling that it was time for lunch. Lunch was (and would be for the same for the next four days) a choice of chicken or fresh fish, with a side of salad and plantain or rice.

The next day we began our tours. I had asked if we could please go fishing as Alex was pretty keen. Our guides bought some nylon, hooks and cement slabs for anchors. After we dropped the others off at Pelican Island, we went fishing. I caught two small fish and Alex caught four. The local guides caught around 30 tiny reef fish which they said they would eat. We then went to Dog Island for lunch (chicken or fish; plantain or rice). After lunch we went snorkelling and saw lots of stingrays and eagle rays. We were trying to find a tiger shark which likes to hide in the coral but I was glad we never found him. Then we headed to the natural pools which was a huge a shallow area off the coast of a small island. The water would have been around 30 degrees - beautiful!
We finished the day at another island which had a cafe and shops and a nice area to swim.

On day three, we woke up to rain leaking through the roof (to be expected on account of the giant holes), but the boys climbed up and threw a tarp over it and it was fixed. Our first stop on the boat was a small, grassy island. Here we had a nice time relaxing in the water which was shaded by coconut trees. After lunch, we had the choice to stay on Dog Island for swimming or snorkelling or head back out to look for the tiger shark. So off we went on the hunt for the shark. Fortunately for me, we didn’t see him. But we did get to snorkel out to the wave break to see the huge coral structures with heaps of fish. In the afternoon, we headed back to the same island which we stopped at the previous day but I decided to snorkel offshore. I was super impressed with the coral and beautiful fish. This has been my favourite snorkelling in San Blas so far.

In the evenings, after dinner, Alex and I like to play cards (nothing else to do). The cabins have zero soundproofing and were very hot. But we still slept pretty well.

On our final day we visited a few more islands including Dog Island again, where we snorkelled on a sunken ship. It was very cool to see the variety of colourful coral and fish.

In the evening, we began the windy journey back to Panama City. Because we were short on time to see the canal, we decided on accomodation with a canal view. We could only just see some ships entering under the Bridge of the Americas but luckily, on our flight to Columbia we glimpsed a ship entering the locks.Read more