We're happy to be in the San Blas islands now. We got here on Sunday morning after a beautiful, two day passage from San Andres. Steady winds, no squalls, full moon, somewhat larger seas than we like but relatively speaking, smooth sailing. Jon had me in hysterics the next morning though, as we discussed the passage over coffee and compared it to what our friends on Erin Brie (they just completed their circumnavigation a few days ago) have been doing for weeks on end crossing the South Atlantic.
He was walking through the cabin, with his body at a slant, bracing himself the whole way with exaggerated stances to keep his balance, hanging on to anything he could and the whole thing was so funny because it's perfectly accurate! In the middle of the night when underway, stumbling around in this manner in the dark, we do sometimes wonder why people are so drawn to this lifestyle. But then, when you pull into a new anchorage, after having experienced all the challenges of a passage, it is exhilarating
to say the least. Anyway, this little trip was short and easy; it's just that we haven't had to do many multi-day trips in a while.

Along the way, we saw a big turtle lounging on the surface and we also had a brown noddy (in the tern family) land on our BBQ the first night. Another living soul! It took him awhile to figure out how to land since the boat was bumping along so much, but he finally did and settled in for 10 hours. It was humorous to watch him trying to keep his balance and groom himself at the same time. It was nice to have some company in the cockpit since one or the other of us is always down below sleeping at
night so it gets lonely. Mostly we read, listen to music or books on tape for which I have very few, eat, or look at the stars and oh, that's right, keep a watch for ships and monitor the instruments. It was busy with shipping as we passed the Panama canal, but then it quieted down again. My goal is to get through that Panama canal one day- what in the world has happened to the world economy? It is messing up our plans!

We anchored in the Lemmon Cays in the San Blas when we arrived and were surprised at how many other cruising boats are here. Everywhere you look in the distance, you see the masts of sailboats tucked behind little cays. We don't know anyone yet. For the next few weeks, we just plan to move from island group to island group, meeting new people, checking out the diving and observing the Kuna lifestyle. I really didn't know much about the San Blas islands until recently. Basically, they are about 340
relatively tiny islands that sit on the continental shelf off the coast of Panama, much of which are protected by a barrier reef. The archipelago is called Kuna Yala and they are inhabited solely by the Kuna Indians who fought to obtain and maintain a place for themselves that would enable them to practice their culture and traditions undisturbed. While they are a part of Panama, they are also their own "Kuna nation" and they effectively govern themselves. They have many interesting traditions not
the least of which is that they are a matrilineal society where the women own the homes and they pick their husbands and the husband then moves in with them! They are famous for their molas (the intricate reverse applique fabric panels) that they make themselves and sell. While the men dress in western style clothes, the women maintain their native dress which is brightly colored blouses made of the molas- one on the front and another on the back, plus lots of bead jewelry on their legs and neck,
face paint, and a nose ring. With the amount of cruisers that frequent their islands, it's pretty clear to me that even though they are living simply, they are being exposed to more modern ways and the money and generosity that cruisers bring to the area. Cruise ships come to some islands too.

No sooner had we anchored, then the Kunas began rowing over in their ulus (dug out canoes that they sometimes have a small sail on) selling their famous molas that they store in 5 gallon buckets, seafood, and asking for whatever you may be willing to give them. A famous Kuna master mola maker visited us yesterday- Venancio (usually mola making is passed down from mother to daughter, but if there is no daughter in the family a son is chosen who then leads a feminine life). We invited him into the
cockpit as is customary and he had about 100 molas for us to view. The system is that he spreads out the molas one on top of the other and you look at them all one by one. Then you go through the pile again picking out the ones you like and giving him back the rest. Then you narrow it down to what you really want and find out the price. There doesn't seem to be much negotiating but since we bought four, he did take a little off and when you see the enormous amount of detail that goes into making
these molas, they are worth it. You just can't buy this stuff anywhere else. It has been fun to travel to these different countries and get a souvenir or two of what they make that is unique to them.

Yesterday we moved to another tiny palm tree covered island that has one Kuna family living on it. As we were anchoring, I could see that we were being viewed through binoculars by the family. Within about 2 minutes, out came the 5 gallon buckets, and the whole family piled into the ulu and headed out to our boat. They asked us our names, then asked if we would charge their cell phone, handed us a 5 gallon jug for us to fill with fresh water and went about pulling out the molas. We asked if we could
view them later since we wanted to go swimming and they said OK. We did some snorkeling, that like yesterday, was just OK. There is some bright blue "Star Encrusting Sponge" here that is new to us and we saw tons of Christmas tree worms- more than we've ever seen and in more variety of colors than ever. Supposedly there are lots of sharks here but we haven't seen any yet. Then we headed ashore, phone and water in hand along with 20 bucks for another mola purchase and some paper and crayons for the
kids. We didn't get to really see much of anything ashore except molas and I guess we can't communicate as well as we usually can with our broken Spanish since Kuna is their first language. Anyway, I haven't gotten a real feeling of connecting with anyone yet. Wonder if I will. But, it is interesting to see these colorful people and their exquisite molas and I suspect I will come to understand more about their ways once I've been here longer. In the meantime, the colorful molas we've purchased are
gracing some of the cushions on our boat and we are pretty excited to have made it to these islands after so many years of wondering what they were all about. Mainland Panama is in the distance too and it is intriguing me.

Today we moved again to another island group that is very popular with cruisers and is said to have the most beauty and clear water. The cays are uninhabited- this is good! As we pulled in, we could totally see what the cruising guide meant. It is knock your socks off beautiful here! Multiple colors of crystal clear water (we are anchored in what is called the swimming pool which is right in front of BBQ island), plenty of reefs to dive, perfect palm tree covered sandy islands and good protection
from the barrier reef. We took a long snorkel and found zillions of great shells, saw lots of nurse sharks, 2 eagle rays, one reef shark, conch, just not much for spearable fish. We even got to do a great drift dive which we never get to do down here since there's never any current. We plan to stay here for a bit now. The water is so warm down here and crystal clear. This is more what we were hoping the San Blas would be. On the way over today we were joking that so far we thought the San Blas should
be called San Blase' but now we've changed our thinking.

Charlie is my blog poster for now since there's no internet here. Thanks Chaz!