The San Blas Islands are a group of exquisite, largely
uninhabited islands. It’s easy to sound
trite when describing them, but they are picture-postcard perfect small coral
islands, with tall palm trees and white sandy beaches. The coconut trees are all owned by the native
Kuna people and are still used to barter for goods from mainland Panama. The islands are all fringed with reefs and
much care needs to be taken in navigating them. We found Eric Barhaus’ book
“The Panama Cruising Guide” to be invaluable – it is the only source of
accurate waypoints. The Admiralty charts
and your chart-plotter will have you on the coral at some point! We visited Coc Banderos Cays, purchased
lobster from a local fisherman, and enjoyed a wonderful lobster and steak
dinner aboard Sumore, in very convivial company.
The next day we intended to go to Green Cay but felt there
were too many boats anchored there so went to Coco Alto Cay, entered over the
sandbar and had this small quiet anchorage to ourselves. Unfortunately the mangroves on either end of
the island hosted swarms of no-see-ums which invaded Misto and made for an
itchy night!
On January 22 we went up to Holandes Cay to visit the famed
Swimming Pool anchorage. Being closest to the open Caribbean Sea, the water is
a clear, azure blue and it deserves its reputation. There is a small charge to
land on BBQ Island, but there is a tiny bar, a single Kuna family in residence
and some picnic facilities. We saw our
fist Molas – although they were very simple. Here we met the crew of Blue Dog
who told us about Venancio Restepo, Master Mola Maker from Isla Maquina. We decided to go to Isla Maquina and
investigate.
The small island of Isla Maquina is composed of largely
traditional thatched dwellings, with a few “modern” constructions and a fair
number of solar panels and satellite dishes!
We were met by Idelfonso, Vincencio’s brother. Idelfonso owns a boat with a 75hp engine and
is a tour guide. He boarded Misto and
directed us to anchor at Gaigar. He told
us about a traditional ritual or Chicha, the following day to be held on the
nearby island of Soledad Miria, and offered to take up there as well as on some
sight-seeing around the islands. We decided
we would go and shared the information with some other yachts – only Cesarina
took up the offer to join us the following day.