The San Blas islands are a group of around 300 small islands not far off shore in the Caribbean Sea at the western end of Panama close to Costa Rica, and today was our island day, with no town or excursions on the itinerary.
Woke up to hear the anchor going down near an island that we later earned was Kuanidup Island. The day’s activities were listed as a beach day and a BBQ lunch, so we had planned to spend the day walking around the island on the beach before enjoying lunch. However, that plan went out the porthole as we peered out. The island was no bigger than a football pitch.
So, we had a late breakfast and caught the tender over to the island later in the morning when our room steward turned up with two new mattresses. Said that the old ones weren’t good enough. OK, felt lovely to me, but perhaps there was a pea inside somewhere.
The walk around the island took a full 5 minutes, and even then we stopped to watch the local dancers. Seems that we weren’t the only tourists on the island, so they must have been out of their minds with delight. A number of thatched beach shacks stood around the island with hammocks strung up inside and numbers on the doorway, so we are guessing that backpackers could enjoy the lush palm trees, the crystal clear water and the quiet seclusion, whilst praying that a large boat of loud tourists didn’t drop anchor. Sorry.
After circumnavigating the island twice in case we missed anything, inspecting the stalls of the 50 locals all displaying the same embroidery, watching the dozen dancers, and having a swim, we joined the long line of loud, hungry tourists for a BBQ lunch.
By the time there were 312 passengers, 100 crew, deckchairs for all, tables and chairs, 50 local craftswomen, a troupe of dancers, and an assortment of unimpressed backpackers, it was almost standing room only on the island. But then the mood improved radically – they played Sweet Caroline over the PA.
Following lunch and a third circumnavigation, we paused for another swim and made our way back to the awaiting tender.
We cast off around afternoon tea time as the skies clouded over and the wind came up, and headed east, back towards the canal zone. The wind kicked up once we were out of the islands, blowing steadily between 50 and 60 km/h, so we did a lot of rolling. After watching a movie in the afternoon, we weren’t quite sure how we would manage dinner, so eventually we just headed to bed around 6:30pm! to ride it out.
Slept quite well despite all the rolling, finally getting up around sunrise with still 3 hours to go until reaching port.
Fancy a swim?
Kuanidup Island
Local crafts