San Blas and Portobello

12th January 2009

09.33 N 079.39 W

We left Curacao on 19th December to be in the San Blas Islands for Christmas. We had a pretty good sail apart from meeting ‘green monsters’ as we passed the coast of Cartagena in Columbia, noted for its terrible weather conditions, always at least 10 knots more wind than anywhere else in the Caribbean, and horrible seas. It was a bit uncomfortable but at least it picked up our boat speed and got us into the islands a day earlier than expected, just. We had a mad dash for the last few miles trying to make it in before nightfall. It was looking good and we arrived with an hour to spare, except that at that point the sun disappeared behind cloud and didn’t come out again that evening! We had to anchor quite cautiously in deep water rather than risk the reefs in the half light, but at least we were tied up safely for the night.

As we were rushing to get in we saw dozens of dolphins leaping in from all directions, making their way towards a boiling sea just ahead of us, where hundreds of sea birds were screeching and swooping as they feasted on a bounty of fish. Whilst we watched this feeding frenzy a large fin appeared ominously amidst the melee, moving slowly through the pack, taking his share of the spoils at his leisure. We looked on in awe and when he had had his fill this 20ft whale shark slid elegantly away, passing down the side of the boat within 10ft!!!! The patterns on him were stunning.

The San Blas islands are gorgeous; small, coral islands with palm trees, surrounded in reefs teeming with lobster and crabs. Sadly it was overcast the whole time we were there, but that couldn’t spoil the experience and we had some great snorkelling, meeting several stingrays and nurse sharks on the way.

The local population are the Kuna Indians who tend the islands and fish the reefs. Many of them travel around in small dugout sail boats. It takes several hours for them to cross the archipelago and so they have small camps on some of the island where they can spend the night. The women make beautiful ‘molas,’ which are hand stitched, reverse appliqués, depicting their history and the creatures of their land. They are very beautiful and irresistible!!! From time to time they came around to the boats to show them to us. We were also surprised to find that the Kunas come round twice a week selling fresh fruit and vegetables and wine!! Amazing!

Our first stop on the mainland was at Portobello, where the privateer Francis Drake is said to be buried. They have a slightly different view of him here! Portobello is a lovely little town surrounded in forts which protected the bay and the gold warehouses which, in days of old, held huge amounts of gold and silver from Peru. I really enjoyed scrambling around the ruins here and would have liked to spend more time exploring the area.

With Colon and the canal transit waiting for us we have rushed this part of the journey a bit but, nevertheless, it will remain a special place in our memory.