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Firefly - San Blas Islands at a leisurely pace



The pace of our trip around San Blas has remained quite slow but we are gradually working our way around the island groups at a rate of one a day. After leaving East Lemon Cays we headed for a rendez-vous on Chicheme Cay with all our fellow rally participants and exchange tales of our trip down from Saint Lucia. We drank a very novel cocktail- a coconut with a hole in it large enough for a straw and a splash of rum! We were also treated to a display of traditional Kuna dancing and great hospitality.

We have now moved on to West Lemon Cays, via Porvenir Island where we went through very 'traditional' immigration formalities- all carbon paper and neat handwriting (in Spanish) with not computer in sight. Bearing in mind that we have already been in the country for 5 days the whole process was very friendly and maybe the UK Boarders Agency could learn a few tips!

None of the islands thus far had accommodated a proper village or settlement, however later on in the day we took the dinghy to Wichubhuala where we stocked up with essentials- delicious fresh bread and reasonably priced beer. The whole island was tightly packed with bamboo framed ,and walled houses right up to the waters edge. In fact we landed in someone's back yard. The residents kindly welcomed us and showed us around. There are a few concrete framed buildings and some tin roofs but generally everything is traditional, around most corners of the complex pathways we found someone making a mola, a bracelet or other craft and the kids were playing basketball (very popular)

To get to our anchorage for the night we had to navigate through a few reefs, possibly the most challenging yet. When we finally dropped the anchor we looked back across the shallows and and wonder how we got here. It's worth the effort as we can now enjoy a peaceful and calm anchorage and time for a snorkel before sunset.

Paul, Susie, Peter and Grateful (no parrot sightings yet)

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