San Blas Info for Other Cruisers
12 October 2013 | San Blas Islands of Panama
John
I thought it would be a good idea to do one blog post that summarizes what we learned about the the San Blas for other cruisers.
The San Blas Islands are OK but certainly not the best cruising ground we have seen in our limited sampling of tropical locals around the world. Vanuatu and Australia were both better for snorkeling, and weather. The west coast of Mexico is still one of our favorite places and we are really looking forward to getting back there in a month or so.
At this time of year the weather in the San Blas Islands is very hot and humid and there are lots of lightening storms. On the morning cruisers net on 8107 khz (8:30 AM) there were many conversations about diagnosing the amount of damage from a lightening strike. We saw some storms where 5 or 6 bolts shot to the ground from the same cloud at the same time. The only place I have ever been with worse lightening is the gulf coast of Florida in the summer.
Provisioning opportunities are limited in the San Blas. We bought beer and small amounts of groceries at Nargana and had a couple of visits by vegetable vendors in anchorages we visited.
At the East Holandes cays we got hit for two fees for anchoring. I think both were legitimate because the people collecting the fees had printed receipt books indicating the local authority extracting the fee. One was $5 (for East Holandes) and the other was $35 for a San Blas Cruising Permit. ($25 for the boat and $5 per person). Both were good for a month
We bought lobsters from kuna fisherman for $5 a pound. Some had scales. Some guessed but I think they were pretty good at guessing the weight of the lobsters. The lobsters were yummy. We also bought some nice fresh fish from Kuna fishermen.
We were offered conch and squid but took a pass. I knew what to do with conch from my Florida upbringing but we don't have a meat grinder on board which is what you need to make conch fritters. Any other preparation I am familiar with results in a product that is very much like eating rubber bands. The famous Bahamian conch salad is not that great.
Most of the Kuna people are friendly but we did run into a few who were pissed when we did not buy their crappy molas. There were also a lot of beggars. At most places they sent the kids out to do the begging. There were a lot of albino kids. Kunas inbreed.
Nargana was the best provisioning place we stopped at and it was very marginal. We were able to buy gasoline and diesel from Paco at the dock marked gasoline in the Bauhaus guide. He allowed us to leave our dink at his dock while we went into town. We ran into a man named Federico in Nargana. His house is pointed out on the map in the Bauhause book. He speaks English and was very helpful. He used his cell phone to call the owner of the liquor store so we could buy beer. Both times we were in Nargana we had to get the store owner to open for us. The store is a run down building near the basketball court that says something (in Spanish) about being a sports center on the wall. Their inventory consisted of lots of beer, a few bottles of rum and case or two of cheap box wine. Balboa beer was $19 a case. Its $12 in supermarkets.
The grocery stores on Nargana make wonderful Kuna bread that is definitely worth trying. We we also able to buy Kuna bread from one of the vegetable vendors who cruised the anchroages. It freezes well and makes great garlic bread when a little stale.
We went to Isla Sidra with the intention of visiting ashore but the floating garbage and general filth turned us off and we just went elsewhere to anchor for the night. We did not want to spend the night anchored in a pace that smelled that bad.
Another thing that is worth trying is a stalk of little sweet bananas. They are 3 inch long bananas so they are only about two bites each We bought a stalk with about 60 bananas on it and had to wait three days before they started to ripen.. Once the process started the ripened over 4-6 days (from the bottom of the stalk up). They were very good when ripe and we ate almost all of them . Toward the end they were ripening faster than we wanted. If there were four people on a boat it would be easy to finish them off within the period of ripening.
All the waypoints and advice in the Bauhuaus book were correct. The book was totally worth the investment although he does have an overly romantic view of the Kuna, in my opinion.
Molas are the hand craft that is unique to the San Blas and by far the best we saw were sold by Lisa Harris (Mola Lisa) and Venancio. There were also other women who pestered us but a quick look at their offerings caused us to dismiss them as resellers of low quality tourist molas. Lisa is from Isla Sidras and Venanacio from the nearby Isla Maquina. The both visited us in the Chichime anchorage soon after our initial arrival in the San Blas. They seem to know that is the best place to catch visitors before they blow their mola moola on poorer quality molas.
I would advise cruiser to avoid buying molas until after seeing the molas of Venancio and Lisa. If you blow your mola budget before you see their stuff you are probably going to regret it.
Chichime Anchorage is deep and was crowded. There were several boats that seem to live there and have a lot of chain out so you may think you are anchoring far enough away but when the wind shifts they end up too close for comfort. We had a hard time getting out of there because of other boats over our rode.
The Swimming pool anchorage in the East Holandes is shallow and sandy. Its an anchorage that is welll protected from seas but exposed to winds. There is a place on one island where you can burn your trash. We were told by other cruisers that if you pay the Kuna to get rid of your trash they just throw it in the ocean.
East Lemon Cays was a nice anchorage and is supposed to be well protected from the strong winds that occasionally blow from the SW. We did not experience these winds. Others told us that they blow up to 50 kts at times.
One of the most beautiful photos in the Bauhaus cruising guide is of Cayos Coco Bandero which we found to be sub mediocre and only stayed one night. There was enough exposure to the swell that it was rolly and the holding was not all that good. We noticed that a lot of the other boats there had disappeared before us in the morning so I dont think any were that impressed with the place. There are a lot of places in the Florida Keys that are prettier.
There were a few cruiser boats in the San Blas that had been there for a long time. One boat had been there for 10 years and another for 7 years. There were others checking in on the net that had obviously been there a long time, too. A month was more than enough for us.
On our way back to Shelter Bay we stopped at green turtle bay marina to get fuel. They let us stay on the end tie of their fuel dock for free but we did not have electricity. We did have potable water. The docks are not floating docks which is not a big problem with their small tidal range on the Caribbean coast of Panama. We did have to keep our eye on our fenders so our cap rail did not end up under the concrete dock on a rising tide that would have pinned us under the dock.
Fuel was $1.35 a liter. They also had gasoline at the dock. The receipt we had included check boxes for beer, ice, soda, and bottled water so I assume those were available too.
The fuel dock lets you fill up and then pay so you are not forced to guess how much fuel you need. At shelter Bay you have to guess how much your need and prepay.
There is a little palapa style restaurant near the entrance of the marina. Shawn went over there to find out what they had to offer. They had chicken and fish. The chicken was $10 and the fish was $15. We took a pass.
The entrance is easy. Its marked on both sides with buoys although the first buoy was not where the Bauhaus book said. By the time we reached the first buoy all the rest of the channel was obvious. We never saw less than 17 feet.
After GTB we stopped for a couple of days at Isla Linton which is nothing to write home about. There is a spider monkey colony on the island that is apparently initially friendly to visitors and then bites them when they start to leave. One blog Shawn read mentioned a woman with 6 bites on her arms and legs and her husband had a bite on his face. We skipped psycho monkey island (Isla Linton).
We also skipped Isla Grande which we motored past on our way to the Isla Linton anchorage. it looks very low class touristy, sort of a redneck riviera.
The anchorage area was crowded. A lot of the boats were on moorings and many appeared to have been anchored for a long time without much TLC. Most had foreign flags and haling ports and many had the cabin top covered with tarps, lots of bird poop and were generally in poor condition. It was pretty obvious that a lot of the Isla Linton fleet was not going anywhere else in the foreseeable future.
There is a fish farm in the entrance to the anchorage but in daylight it was easy to work your way around the moored fish farming equipment. I would not try this anchorage at night without having previously recorded a track around the fish farm.
It was 27 miles from the Isla Linton anchorage to Shelter Bay. For much of the trip we were motoring into a 1-2 kt current but we got up early and were able to get back to Shelter Bay early enough to get an internet password before the office closed for the day.
We were determined to skip Portobello on our way back. See my previous blog posts for info on what a dump that place is.