Canoes and Cucumbers in San Blas

This blog covers the last few days since we were in the San Blas Islands...

At 4:40am on Wednesday we woke up to meet the guy driving the jeep to the islands outside of our hostel. We were told the ride would take about 4 hours, which was great because we would still get to the islands in time for a full day of sun! What we weren't told is that the reason it took so long to get there was because we stopped at a fruit stand, a supermercado, and a little road-side restaurant for breakfast on the way. So the eight of us (four guys from Argentina, a couple from Wyoming, and Amanda and I) crowded into a sweet jeep for the long haul. I was comfortable in the front seat (bonus!) while Amanda smushed into the first of two bench seats with three of the Argentinian boys... She was asleep within a few minutes (of course!) so I don't think the crowded quarters bothered her too much. Our driver made a quick turn to get on an unpaved road and head into the jungle and Amanda's head literally ricocheted off the window and onto the shoulder of one of the boys! Needless to say, that was all the ice breaker the rest of us needed.

The next time Amanda opened her eyes we were driving through a river! I had been looking forward to this part of the drive, and when I saw the size of the river I wasn't disappointed. We continued to drive through the jungle (sometimes upwards of at least 70mph), stopped at a passport checkpoint or two where we had to pay an entrance fee into the Kuna Yala region, and finally arrived at the "port". Amanda used every minute while we waited for our boat to recover from the ride (she slept to keep herself from getting too car sick). I was fine though and happy that our transportation adventure was almost over for the day... Little did I know!

A half hour or so later a little motor boat came down the river to pick us up. Twelve of us crowded into this boat (the 4 Argentinian boys, 3 Argentinian girls that had come in another car, the 2 kids from Wyoming, a guy from Israel, and us) ready for what we expected to be about a 40-50 minute boat ride to the islands (or so we were told). Once the river emptied out into the ocean we were greeted by strong head wings and waves that continuously crashed over the sides of our little boat. The water was so salty it burned our faces every time it splashed over the boat! After 45 minutes we were at an island with a Kuna village, where we stopped to pick up some gas and yet another passenger, a Swiss guy named Matias. Another hour later of crashing waves, salt water burns, and low moral, we actually began approaching one of the islands instead of cruising past as we had with the last 50 or so islands along the way. This was Isla Robinson, the main island in the group where we were headed. We dropped of Matias and the WY couple, and then began drifting out to sea once more. Only this time, our engine wouldn't start. Doh!

A guy in a little dugout canoe came to our rescue and towed us back to Robinson, where some minor engine alterations were performed, and then we were off to Isla Pelicano- our final destination! 20 minutes or so later we finally arrived at Pelicano (about 6 hours of traveling in total)... And let me just say, it was worth the wait!


Our entire island consisted of about 10 thatched roof bungalows with bamboo walls, about a dozen hammocks, and a hundred or so palm trees. You could walk around the entire perimeter of the island in less than two minutes, and from the very center you could see ocean in every direction. There were mountains off in the distance in one direction, and in every other direction the horizon was speckled with islands. It was absolute paradise.

We "checked in" with the guy who ran the island, an albino Kuna named Namacio. The Kuna people have the second highest rate of albinism in the world, and when an albino baby is born they are said to have special powers. In Namacio's case I believe he was given Isla Pelicano because of his special ranking in the community. He showed us to our hut, which had a sand floor and an incredible view of the ocean from the space where there would have been a door. Then we had the rest of the day to explore the island (that didn't take too long!), go snorkeling and swimming, and lounge in hammocks. While exploring the island we met up with the rest of the Israeli guys (Hov, the guy on our boat, had gone back to the mainland to get supplies for their Passover dinner), who were in the process of cracking open a coconut. We made friends over shared coconut milk, and then another guy who worked on the island showed us how he could use a machete to delicately shave off the last pieces of shell so we could eat the inside as well. Yum!

Later we went snorkeling and almost immediately found huge red and orange starfish- they were incredible! We snorkeled around the entire island and saw tons of colorful coral, tropical fish, anemones, a sand dollar (which I broke when I tried to pick up... whoops), sea cucumbers (gross!) and even a couple sea urchins. We later discovered that the area we found the sea cucumber was right around the same area as where the island's only bathroom emptied into the ocean... We had a good laugh about that, all the while hoping that what we snorkeled past was actually a sea cucumber (see picture above if you're still confused).

Our two meals on Pelicano consisted of rice, lentils, and fried chicken (for lunch) and a fish tail (?) for dinner. By this time we knew almost everyone on the island, and decided we could recruit them to create our very own Panama picture (credit due to Sam for coming up with the idea!). Everyone looked at us like we were a little crazy at first, but went along with the crazy Americans anyway. The picture was a great success, and I promised everyone I would sent it along to them as soon as we got back to the states on Friday. After an incredible sunset and two huge island bonfires, Amanda and I introduced the card game Mojo to our new friends, which we all played well into the darkness (it must have been at least 10pm by then!). Finally Amanda and I had to get to sleep since we had a flight to catch in the morning, which meant we had to leave our island at 4am on yet another boat ride.


In the morning we woke up and loaded into a little dugout canoe (not like the "luxury" motor boat we had the day before). The guy driving us to the airport unhooked the boat from whatever had been keeping it at the shore, and we began drifting into the pitch black. To our surprise, and as a repeat from yesterday, the motor wouldn't start. For the next 5 or 10 minutes we continued drifting, listening to the repetitive attempts at our boatman trying to start the engine... Finally one attempt sounded a little more promising, and the next pull was a success! Amanda and I exchanged relieved glances, and laughed about how this had barely phased us after our transportation mishaps the last few days. For the next hour we followed the moon towards the Carti Islands, which was fine until the moon completely disappeared behind the clouds. It was at that exact moment I thought a compass would have been nice! I turned around to see what was going on, and saw our boatman turning back and forth, straining to see anything in any direction. Quite promising indeed. Finally the moon came back out and we were off again following the light.

We arrived at the Carti airport at around 6:20am, and watched the beautiful sunrise over the ocean. We walked down a dirt path to the airport, which consisted of one 10x15' room which apparently was currently under construction. They asked us which flight we were on, and when we told them they asked us to write our names on a list of passengers for that flight (the only documentation saying which flight we would be on). Then they checked our passports with flashlights (there was no electricity in the room) against the names we had written down... And voila! We were through airport security.

Outside the room was an "al fresco" waiting area which consisted of cinder block benches on a concrete slab. While making our way outside we were stopped by another airport worker, who asked us to write our names on yet another list, and include our weight this time around. While Amanda worked her way through motion sickness (again!), I watched the sunrise and observed the endless variety of people that were loitering around the outside of the airport. Suddenly a jeep came speeding down the runway with military guys hanging off of each side, complete with machine guns on their backs. There was lots of commotion as they pulled up to the airport, but it ended up that they were just delivering some boxes of "goods" and then they hung around chatting and laughing with the people waiting for their flights.

Our Aeroperlas plane was the first to come (there were two flights arriving at the airport that day). They opened the emergency exit door (which had steps on the inside of it), and everyone that had arrived with the plane hopped off. It was our turn to take the 30 minute flight back to Panama City. We jumped on the plane with our backpacks, picked our seats right by the exit doors, and watched as the airport worker outside the plane repeatedly tried to slam the exit door shut behind us. After about five good slams the door finally stayed closed, and we were off! We figured the flight was short enough that even if the door flew open we could just hold on for the rest of the way... We made it to Panama City without a hitch, and had the rest of the day to explore downtown and the Canal.

To be continued!

Locked out in Bocas, Homeless patrons in Panama City, and planning for San Blas... Can we have that "to go"?

Today's adventure started before last night's even ended... Around 6am Amanda went to bed, leaving Sam and I to stay up chatting in our hammocks at Mondo. A little while later we thought it would be best to get to bed as well before the Mondo staff started getting the place ready for the day, so Sam went to bed, and I headed to my room as well only to find a locked door... After knocking on the door for a solid 20 minutes I went to Sam and Dov's room to see if I could at least wake one of them up. Dov woke up after a few knocks (Sam was already out cold of course!) and decided to give me his key to use to open up my room... I couldn't give him too much of a hard time for this since I think he was pretty much sleep walking at this point, so I just entertained the idea and watched as he tried to key into my room with his room key.

When that didn't work he had a genius idea of using his snorkel to shout Amanda's name through the crack in the bottom of the door. Imagine the sight: me standing there behind Dov watching him on his hands and knees, butt up in the air, shouting "Amandaaaaaa!" into a snorkel. At this point I was so amused I didn't even really mind anymore that I was still locked out of my room. We went back outside to get to his room and I watched as he sat on his bed brainstorming, noticing big fat raindrops starting to fall from the sky. I was about two seconds away from asking Dov if I could just crash in his and Sam's room for the night (that would be a cozy double bed with the three of us!) when he had yet another brilliant idea. He said "My alarm wakes me up, maybe it'll wake Amanda up too!" So we proceeded to set his alarm for a minute later, and went back to my room and slid his alarm under the door (this is the same door that had enough room underneath it for an actual crab to crawl in as well). A few seconds later his alarm went off and voila! Amanda woke up! Dazed and confused, she opened the door and Dov and I went our separate ways to get a few hours of sleep.

Two and a half hours later I woke up to the sound of heavy rain, which was refreshing after days of about 100 degree heat, but also surprising and slightly confusing since we had had absolutely perfect weather up until that point. I drifted back to sleep for a little while until Amanda and I woke up and started to get our stuff together and check out of Mondo Taitu. Dov had woken up early and had done some yoga in the morning (I was thoroughly impressed!), but I had to go wake up Sam to see if we could keep our stuff in their room for the day until we flew out later... We finally got everyone rallied to go and Dov, Sam, Haley, Amanda, and I headed to Lili's Cafe for an excellent brunch on the water.

On our way back from brunch we walked down Calle 3, the main drag, on the look out for hammocks for Amanda. We found her a fabulous Panamanian hammock for only $15, picked up our stuff back at Mondo's, and then walked behind the boys who rode a tandem bike (with a flat tire) all the way to the airport. Sam and Dov were, of course, singing their much practiced rendition of "Ain't No Sunshine" the entire way to the airport, attracting attention from locals as they swerved all over the road in their tandem bike (Dov has a video I took of this feat, which I'll have to upload at a later date). As we came around the corner on the unpaved road Amanda and I caught our first glimpse of our airplane; a toy, twin engine plane that looks like one you'd find under a Christmas tree because it was so small. We exchanged nervous glances which had become commonplace during our transportation adventures from a few days before, and kept trucking towards the airport. We said our goodbyes to the boys who waited outside to (hopefully) see our plane take off, and then proceeded into the airport to check in and pick up our heavy plastic boarding passes. While hanging out in the waiting room which consisted of a total of about 30 seats, we were pleasantly surprised to see the tiny plane take off to another destination, meaning we wouldn't be boarding that one... We would have to wait to see what would come for us! A few minutes later a slightly larger (and more reassuring) plane came, and we made our way out to the runway with our passports and unfamiliar chunks of plastic that would hopefully get us on the plane back to Panama City.

We arrived at the regional airport in Panama City about an hour later, and were happy to quickly find a taxi and be on our way back to Luna's Castle. As we made our way down the street the taxi driver and I chatted in Spanish, and I told him how we were planning on going to the San Blas Islands tomorrow. He asked if we had purchased our tickets already and that's when it hit us... Our original plan was to buy our tickets at the airport as soon as we had landed, but I guess we were so excited that we made it back to Panama City without any glitches we completely forgot to stop at the Air Panama or Aeroperlas counters. Our taxi driver brought us back to the airport, only for us to find that both airlines were already closed... Bummer for us! We got back into the taxi and made our way to Luna's.

By the time we got to Luna's we only had a few hours to figure out how we were going to get to San Blas tomorrow, unpack from Bocas and pack for San Blas, find dinner, and get some sleep. Thankfully the staff at Luna's is incredible in accommodating confused travelers, and arranged for a jeep to come pick us up at 5am tomorrow morning. We booked a flight to come back to the city on Thursday so we can have one full day in the city to explore the Canal and any other attractions we haven't visited so far. Then it was time to find dinner... We had heard about a place called Cafe Coca-Cola's which was down Avenida Central, which apparently had to die for fried rice, so we thought we would check it out. We made our way to the cafe which was only a few blocks away, but then had to find an ATM as well since we were clean out of cash and the cafe didn't take credit cards. We mistakenly walked right past the ATM that was next to the cafe, and continued to walk way too far into old city looking for a bank. We started to get some bad vibes about the part of town where we were walking and gave ourselves to the end of that block to find an ATM. If not, we would have to turn around and get food somewhere else that took cards. Well we were in luck! There was not one, but TWO cash machines at the end of this block. We got our cash and hi tailed it out of that part of town.

We rushed back to Cafe Coca-Cola excited for the food that awaited us. As we ordered our food we realized this was a popular hang out for locals... Particularly older, disheveled, homeless locals. We had been planning on eating there instead of taking our food back to Luna's, but the final straw was when a decrepit old man with a diseased and droopy, bloody eye sat down next to us. I had been too busy darting the never ending stare of an obese patron sitting behind Amanda to notice the newcomer that had sat down next to us until Amanda pointed him out... We immediately changed our order "Para llevar" (To go!), and only controlled our laughter at how ridiculous this scene was by the sobering realization that this wasn't the safest dinner option we could have chosen for the night. We got our food and made it back to Luna's in record time, where we were still so grossed out it was hard to enjoy our food.

Now we're heading to bed to wake up at 4:40am, to take a 4-hour jeep ride through the jungle to the San Blas Islands! This whole waking up early thing is getting easier and easier every day... Especially with the promise of this at the end of our adventure tomorrow!