Leg 2: Santa Marta to Panama via the San Blas Islands - 23rd-30th January 2025.
It’s the end of an awesome off-grid week spent laxin’ n’ limin’ round the San Blas Islands but sadly if we stayed much longer we’d probably contract scurvy. The contents of our fridge consist of half an elderly butternut and 3 squidgy onions plus one defiant solitary tomato in the fruit net. We did also have camembert, sour cream and yoghurt but discovered that for some completely unfathomable reason the Colombians, where we provisioned, make all their dairy products “extra salado” and it is so very salty it’s completely inedible ….. so that all went overboard to feed the fishes (which were probably actually the ones we subsequently barbecued. Ah - the circle of life!)
We were in fact inundated with offers of fresh seafood for sale from the Kuna Indians who regularly visited Aqualuna in their dugout canoes selling fish, lobster and the traditional molas which are colourful squares of embroidered fabric. The Kunas - or Guna Yalas - are totally charming and on one particularly memorable afternoon we had a visit from an entire family including about 8 children who all wanted to come on the boat to have a look. It’s extremely hard to say no when you can see that they live such basic lives in island beach shacks and sell so exuberantly. So consequently we’ve eaten our entire combined body weight in barbecued lobster and fish this week, but are still trying to figure out what on earth to do with the enormous number of molas and Guna Yala flags that we felt compelled to purchase.
What’s been somewhat more of an issue is that it transpired that the boatyard in Santa Marta managed to completely screw up not just one but both of our watermaker pumps so we’ve had to eke out the final litres in our water tanks. Not helped by the fact that the Kunas are desperate for water and come to the boat with their water containers pleading with you to fill them up. Again - very hard to say no. So the boat is filthy and so are we, but at least the locals are well hydrated!
So we’re currently enjoying a rather spicy sail down to Colon in Panama where we can re-stock and get our watermaker fixed with a part that’s coming out from the UK with one of the boat crews. Then it’s full-steam ahead to prepare for our Panama Canal transit in a few days’ time and get the boat fumigated and hull cleaned ready for the Galapagos.
Now what shall we have for lunch??
Posted by Claire