Remember that great song by Van Halen called Panama? It's now our new anthem on Vanish played daily on sunset as loud as possible with not a soul in sight for miles. Maynard and I never thought in a million years that we'd be in Panama on our own vessel, yet here we are. The overnight passage from Puerto Velero to the eastern end of the San Blas Islands went extremely well with less than a meter of swell and storms behind us, in front of us, to the side of us, but never on top of us. We're now anchored in 15 meters of water in a harbour with protection from almost all weather and we are the only vessel here. The native Kuna Indians who live here are unique in that they have preserved their culture and traditions the best out of all the tribes in the Americas. The area is reachable by sea and air with a few airstrips built by North Americans during WWII. The Kunas are the second smallest in stature in the world next to pygmies and are very healthy and energetic. They have very little crime, they cannot intermarry and do not allow foreigners to buy their land. The cruising grounds here are incredibly beautiful with white beaches which the Kuna people sweep every few days. Coconut palms and weird tropical fruit such as lonnie grow abundantly. We were given four lonnie fruit by Kuna Munoz and told it is a natural remedy when rubbed on the skin used for aches and pains and can also be taken with water to increase one's energy.

On our first day, we were visited by at least 5 dugout canoes called ulus selling lobsters (5 for $US5), large crabs, snapper, pineapples, yucca, bananas, coconuts, cucumbers, potatoes and their famous embroidery work called molas. The Kuna speak broken Spanish and a little English mixed with the Kuna language so we are able to communicate quite well. Kunas marry when they are considered mature and often the women choose their husbands. They also control the money and the husbands move into the women's family compound. Their currency is US Dollars but the charges are minimal. An "Anchor Man" came by in his ulu and handed me a receipt book which he wanted me to fill out and I saw that he wanted me to write the name of our yacht, date, country etc. The $US10 fee allows us to stay for a period of time, but I could not figure out how long. When I looked through the book, I noticed that we are only the 7th boat to visit this year. Another Kuna named Dyon sold us a few of his wife's molas . Each mola takes 6 months to embroider using unique patterns of birds, crabs, and chickens in colourful block stitching. The women wear them as part of their blouses and when they are tired of them, they sell them to passing vessels. Dyon's village has some electricity generated from solar panels and they actually have limited internet and a few cell phones with the data transmitted via microwave link to repeater stations in Punta San Blas and Isla Pinos. As long as those solar panels are exposed to the sun, they can make their phone calls but we wonder, who are they calling? Yesterday, Dyon brought us fresh baked Kuna bread which his wife had baked at 7 am. It was soft, hot and absolutely delicious when he delivered it in his ulu at 8.30. Our mission is to find Dyon again and order more bread as we love it.

Until recently, coconuts were the official means of exchange and every coconut palm is owned by a tribal member on all of their islands. For this reason, we are not allowed to take any coconuts, nor are we allowed to do any diving. These wonderful friendly people experience very little stress. They are blessed with a perfect climate, abundant rain, good soil, rainforest fruits and wood and a sea rich with many varieties of crustaceans and fish.
We have travelled the Pacific, North America and the Caribbean and this is without doubt the most beautiful, idyllic place we have ever seen even though Palmyra Island is a close second. The storm clouds are spectacular and the temperature is 10 deg cooler than anywhere else in the Caribbean. The water is the kind of temperature where you can just slide in and enjoy it even though we were inspected by a 6 ft crocodile sneaking past our swim platform.

Every Kuna has assured us they are harmless so we swim, paddle board and kayak, something we would never do in Australia with crocodiles. There are other yachts here and we love the isolation. The cruising is fantastic; the list of positives is endless. Would someone please tell me what day it is as we've lost track of time already and if we're still on planet Earth. We can't believe our luck. We've hit the jackpot and can now see why cruisers come to the San Blas and never leave.

p.s. If you have access to Google Earth, enter our Latitude and Longitude
9 19.257'N:78 deg 15.340'W
and you will see our exact anchored location and see where the San Blas Islands are located.