“San Blas, the Caribbean island paradise” or “San Blas Islands – a paradise in Panama” or “A tropical paradise awaits you, the San Blas Islands” or “This is how I imagine paradise, San Blas”.
That’s what you get on the internet when you try to find out about this archipelago of over 360 islands in the Caribbean Sea. I know, me with my eternal skepticism and nagging, but because it’s not so easy with paradise, then I want to write about it.
But let’s start at the beginning and find out how we made it around the Darien Gap from Colombia to Panama. A fearful opponent for me on our trip around the world.
Necocli to Capurgana – Colombia
So we are still in Colombia. We took the boat from Necocli to Capurgana. A small passenger ferry for tourists. 1.5 hours, $20 per person. We were expecting an extra charge for our bikes, but despite all the assurances that it would be no problem to transport the bikes, we were told at the port that they would have to come on another boat. The ship here would be full.
They don’t know us yet. Of course we don’t leave our bicycles somewhere and then wait for them to come after. We discussed, thought, discussed again. Then we were told that there might be another boat later. That could take us and the bicycles. “Maybe” again.
I was a bit annoyed because I had already offered a couple of days ago to come by via WhatsApp to clarify whether it would work with our bicycles and luggage. The answer wasn’t very friendly. After all, he had already said that it wasn’t a problem. And now it was a problem. We simply ended up buying more tickets. Somehow that seemed strange to me. After all, he said the boat was full.
Capurgana Border town
Anyway, we were now on our way to Capurgana. The border town where we would get our exit stamp from Colombia in a few days. Knowing that we had no way of getting any further on our own for a long time made me nervous. There are no more roads out of the Darien jungle.
Oh, what a horror! Not only did Klaus have to conduct these tough negotiations, a storm also came up. The boat shot over the waves of the Caribbean, the water lashing not only against the hull but also against the passengers. The 4 engines roared while the spray sprayed in all directions.
We arrive in Capurgana and from here we will be on our way to Obaldia, Panama, on the next boat in a few days. There we get the entry stamp for Panama.
Lucky, we met Carlos and Paula
Carlos and Paula take charge of organizing our onward journey. They know that a German woman who speaks Spanish is visiting the island. We meet her and she translates for us. We can also make it clear that we won’t be taking the bicycles apart. After 2 years and 4 months on the road, our bicycles are badly worn. Every screw we have to loosen is a risk. It’s not certain that we’ll ever get them back together again.
Carlos is great. With a good dose of calm and composure, which I don’t have at the moment, he calms us down. And indeed. Everything works out. We have our onward journey. And we know in advance what it will cost us.
Of course, I’m still expecting a “catastrophe”, but it’s simply out of our hands. So for now it’s time to relax and take a vacation. Remove the salt water from the bicycles and wait and see. I can’t say that Capurgana is a dream place, but we don’t have much planned. We just wait 5 days for the day of departure.
Plans always change
This one was just a very small one. Alex, who is supposed to take us to Carti, the port in Panama from where we can cycle again, doesn’t pick us up in Capurgana but in Sapzurro. But Carlos organizes that for us too.
We are almost there, in Panama
Sapzurro – Obaldia – Paradise
And so it goes. From Capurgana 30 minutes by boat to Sapzurro. There we meet Alex, who takes us to Obaldia which takes about 1 hour. There he and his two other helpers start to unload everything. Here the luggage is checked for drugs with a dog. There are mountains of contraband piled up at the small harbor. They help us with the immigration formalities and we are in Panama. Now we continue for 3 hours and it’s pouring again. The boat is small, but I think to myself that as long as Alex is relaxed, I might as well be. Just in case: we’ve packed our passports, a bit of money and a credit card in waterproof bags and kept them right next to us. Just in case we capsize. That’s German, isn’t it?
Is this the paradise?
We arrive at one of these small islands, called San Blas, “Paradise”. 190m x70m. It belongs to Alex’s parents. We stay here for one night and then tomorrow we have this long stretch ahead of us. 5 or 6 hours on the boat. During the night, Alex comes and says that we have to stay another night. There is no boat.
Some people would probably be happy now to stay one more night in this paradise. But I’m not the Robinson Cruso type. There’s only salt water here. No electricity and therefore no fan. I’m really exposed on an almost deserted island. We have plenty of drinking water with us and we get good food. The island is really sweet. Just as you would imagine paradise to be. Palm trees, warm turquoise water, coral all around. Unfortunately, everything is very colorless, the corals are dead. A bit of garbage here and there. And watching the stars in a hammock at night? Well, the mosquito problem doesn’t make that easy.
I’m not the island paradise type of person
As you can see, I’m not the island paradise type. But I relax, go back to sleep and then Alex comes again, there is a boat after all. The next morning at 5 o’clock we continue. And sure enough, a boat arrives at 6am. We are pretty happy and 5 hours later we are in Carti on the way to Panama City. We have made it. We’ve been around the Darien Gap and even survived the paradise of San Blas. We spent a total of 11 hours traveling by boat, linear distance 270km.
Now I’ve said a lot about how tricky it was to plan the tour with boats around the Darién Gap. Especially with all our luggage and the bikes. Emotionally at least, it was an extreme stage for me. But in the end, we met some wonderful people who encouraged, helped and reassured us all. And it was also a really exciting section.
And let’s be honest, who can say they can see the moon setting in the caribbean and the sun rising on the other side at the same time?
What will I remember about it later? What feelings will stick with me?
It was so much of everything. Even a bit of Caribbean lifestyle. The water was clear and warm, the coconuts, the sandy beach, the sunrises, the incredibly delicious sweet fruit. It was hot, we were literally leaking, the salt water stung our skin, there were no showers, sand everywhere, storms, indigenous people whose small island villages had mutated into a zoo for the tourists, and the countless refugees.
San Blas Paradise
San Blas is the name of this group of islands. There are said to be 365 islands off the coast of Panama. The San Blas Islands are inhabited and self-governed by around 25,000 Kuna, an indigenous ethnic group in Panama. In the south, towards Colombia, the islands are even less developed for tourism. The situation is different further north.
This is probably the most famous song about San Blas.
I guess this is what you will find
“Next, the thick clouds, from which buckets of rain poured down just a moment ago, now let a few rays of sunshine through the gray and conjure up a glitter on the waves. Almost kitschy here in San Blás.”
You can book such San Blas tours. Then you are taken to different islands. Some Kuna themselves have also decided to make money from tourism.
But I actually think that most of them simply long to be left alone. You see them fishing in their simple wooden boats, enjoying the day, living a simple life.
A peace and quiet that we tourists don’t have. There is loud music, karaoke and alcohol are an important feel-good factor and, of course, the obligatory pictures have to be taken with the indigenous people.
There is a group of young people with us on the small island who are looking for exactly that and are finding it. I find it shameful how we treat these friendly people.
They sunbathe, swim and snorkel, sometimes half-naked (these bikinis are just narrow pieces of fabric). Then they go on a big exploration tour. And they tell us about it later. By boat to the larger neighboring island, where visitors are shown the traditional colorful dresses of the women for which the tribe is known. Small children ask for a dollar in exchange for a photo of them. In a traditional hut with a thatched roof, handicrafts are displayed … and sold.
Incidentally, none of the islands may be sold to a non-Kuna. Only, with what we see on the northern island groups, I am sure that investors have found ways.
The freshly harvested coconuts are skillfully beheaded with a machete and offered to visitors with a straw to drink the coconut water. This is how paradise is enjoyed.
Paradise or not
The landscape is pristine, almost untouched. The autonomy is good for the area, far removed from mass tourism and hotel complexes. You can sense that not all Kuna are really that enthusiastic about tourism and I am glad that we can simply keep a low profile. San Blas, the Caribbean island paradise, can remain a paradise if mass tourism stays away and those who want to experience it can and want to cope with the lack of comfort.
We are in Panama City now. I like cities.
Paradise meaning
Our word “paradise” has its origins in Persia, where particularly fertile gardens of the king were called “paradises”. The gardens, where animals were also kept, were apparently so beautiful that to this day they give their name to the most beautiful place we can imagine: Paradise, the Garden of Eden. Well, at least there weren’t any apples in our paradise San Blas.
Sorry for the bad quality of most of the pictures in this blog post. We had to use the phone inside of some plastic bag because of the salty water.