A cruisers idea of tropical paradise is the San Blas islands with names that take a lot of practice to say such as Naguarchidup, Uchutupu Pipigua, and Ogoppukibdup. Many are white sandy beaches with coconut palms, crystal clear water and uninhabited. Some of the local Kuna Indians live in traditional thatched huts. We shop some days from dugout canoes of the local Kuna Yala. This group of local people has managed to maintain autonomy from many governments that have tried to control them. They live clustered on some islands and leave vacant islands to gather coconuts and fish. For the most part they were as they have lived for the last few hundred years. Some have the adornments of modern life such as cell phones and it was nothing to trade coconuts for charging a cell phone. Here we hung out some with our good friends Dagma and Matt from Matylda. We swan, ate lobster till we could eat no more and even got to BBQ on the beach. To ensure we were not too complacent, it is a reef-strewn area and navigation was by daylight only with the sun out. There are many sailboats that go aground on the reefs around here as they hurry along. We managed to meander into some idyllic spots and just hang out. We also had the advantage of some Bauhaus charts that we managed to download to the phone. These charts are the bible for navigating around here. Our regular Cmap and Navionics chart were just decoration for this trip. Waiting for the vege boat to come was a highlight as well as the fresh crayfish. Local Mola makers also approached us, cloth that had been intricately embroidered and appliqued in a technique unique to the area. The cloths were hard to resist but I got enough to pack a small shelf. I personally cannot resist a great piece of fabric that has been cut up and put back together again in a manor to show off creative craftsmanship. After a week, it was an easy transition to cruising life where civilizational as we know it doesn't exist. We met fellow cruisers, enjoyed some very pleasant evenings and making do with what we could find in our bilge till the next Kuna came by with fresh fruit and veges. But time moves on and so did we. We decided to go back to Linton to prepare for our next big part of our adventure - the Panama Canal on a sailboat. Just a mere transition from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.