We're really enjoying the San Blas islands now. We got our molas and scurried over to the Holandes Cays, a few miles East. Both they and the adjacent Coco Banderos Cays are purported to be the best in the San Blas- and wow, we think they are. There are no ulu's selling anything here, just other cruising boats, stunningly beautiful water, palm tree covered islands and great swimming. The anchorages are calm for a change and the bottom pure sand so the anchor sets snugly. The clarity of the water is the closest to the Bahamas we've seen. We're finally seeing reef sharks again after so many years. Not that I want to be seeing tons of sharks but we have wondered why we don't see them in most of the Caribbean. It seems that they do have their place on the reef.

We've been spending hours in the water, snorkeling on reefs but also swimming in the shallows, floating over the many sand flats looking for shells. The water is super warm and the color so blue, so much sea life and variety of shells. The San Blas are full of sand spits, surrounded by colorful little reefs and then steep drop offs. Yesterday we snorkeled around one and it was almost like a scuba dive. We were swimming along a wall that had similar stuff that we see scuba diving. The deep water was such a dark blue in the background that we got some great pictures. I really think we should try to enter some of these underwater pics into a dive magazine contest or something since we do have some impressive shots, if you're in to diving. I was thinking about it and really, great underwater pictures come from high tech cameras, but they also come from being underwater for long periods of time so that you can be there to spot things and have encounters with the creatures down there. Most of them are so curious they just have to come over and see what you are. Two eagle rays did this a couple of days ago and they were so close I could almost reach out and touch one of them.

We've tried hunting here but it seems like the area is just fished out. Maybe it's just these popular island groups, but we haven't seen much of anything to spear. So, we've been gathering instead- sea beans and shells that is. There are many beautiful shells and lots of sea beans on the beaches. We got in to collecting sea beans from a little book that Dean had. It describes the seeds from tropical trees and plants that travel many miles by sea to wash up on beaches all over the world. Turns out, many of the ones found on US East coast shores come from Central & South America. We found our first one in Belize last season- called a "hamburger bean" because it looks exactly like a hamburger in a bun. Then we found some in Guanaja and got our collector's desire reinforced by Carolyn on Pendragon since she'd been collecting them and had some really beautiful, rare ones. So.... we've hit the jackpot here and now have a couple hundred I think. Jon says "I think it's becoming a sickness!" and I sort of agree. I just don't want to run in to anyone in the dinghy who might see us hauling all these beans back to the boat. But we want to have enough to fill a big vase with them for when we have a house someday- which the new goal is before we hit 50! Too bad the world's beaches are filled with plastic. If there was no plastic, there would be practically no trash on the beach, just driftwood, coconuts and sea beans.

Yesterday, we sailed over to the Coco Banderos and anchored in another beautiful spot but we didn't get to do anything fun since Jon needed to work on our SSB radio. We've been having trouble transmitting and discovered that corrosion had gotten to our ground plane. He seems to have fixed it for now. I polished a bunch of stainless on deck since everything is rusting these days. We don't get any rain to speak of since this is the dry season. The tropical sun and salt really take their toll on the varnish, stainless and fiberglass.

So we still have to get to an island with a traditional Kuna village on it. Plus, I've recovered from the mola overload and am now ready to look at more of them again. We plan to play around here for a day or two and then head out to find the Kunas. Unfortunately, it seems like we're rushing through the islands since the season is running out. We've been catching a little bit of NPR on the SSB lately, trying to stay up on the news. But it's all bad news so what's the point? So we've been doing some drawing. Much better for the spirit I think. Jon has been making bread pretty regularly but we're both really tired of the flour here. It has this smell and taste that we can't stand. Ditto for most of the cheese too. Some things are really a compromise here and these are some of them. It will be good to get back to the fancy grocery stores this summer and eat the very best once again.

Well, that's what's happening with us. We'll put some pictures on Picasa as soon as we get some internet.