We spent four nights in Bahia de Mantanchen which is outside of the city of San Blas. A large, shallow, sandy bay, it is a good anchorage with the exception of the many jejenees (pronounced hay-hay-nays) or in good ole English no-see-ems. I got quite a few pinprickly bites to prove that you don't see them as they chow down on you.

San Blas is noted for its great surfing. The longest distance ever surfed on one wave was done right here. The anchorage remained calm during our stay but we hear that March is a good time of the year for the big waves so maybe we'll stop in on our way back up north.

San Blas is also known for their jungle tours. Now, when I envision a jungle it is with all sorts of scary animals and snakes so I wasn't sure I wanted to go being the non critter lover that I am. But since I've found a few of my brave genes , and no one we'd talked with mentioned snakes, we set off in a panga with a few of our cruiser friends. It was a great trip! The mangrove vegetation is really interesting with the way the roots grow out of water and is incredibly dense. We saw a number of crocodiles and some very showy birds as well as turtles and iguanas. This time, the birds were not so close or numbered in the thousands so I left my boat hook at home.

The boat operator did a good job pointing out various things, slowing down to allow us to take pictures and even nudged up to a large crocodile so we could get up close and personal. The crocodile made some kind of a hissing noise and then moved lightening fast when we got too close. Leah, who was in front of the boat, let out a squeal and moved almost as quickly as the croc! I was glad we were in the back of the boat.

At the end of the tour is a swimming area which is a fenced off portion of the crystal clear waters. After checking to make sure I didn't see anything scary I joined everyone else swinging from the rope swing and...letting go. I felt like a kid. It was fun and the water was wonderful!

The Jungle Tour gang; Jeff, Dori (Journey), Kevin, Bonnie (KIST), John, Leah (Brio)