San Blas Adventures – Boat trip between Colombia & Panama

We showed up to our scheduled meeting in Capurgana at lunchtime the day before we were to set off on our San Blas adventure to Panama with the aptly named “San Blas Adventures.” Here we basically had a meet and greet with our head guide Marco, our assistant guides Anna & Dennis, and of course the rest of our awesome crew of fellow adventurers. After a half hour of info we were sent on our merry way to get passport stamps out of Colombia and tie up other loose ends before we jumped on a boat to Sapzuro with all of our stuff.

The group all got dinner together and had a few cheeky “get to know each other” bevvies in our Sapzuro hostel that night before having an early night.

Next morning we were up and ready by 7:30 with all our stuff and in the boats. We were warned the first 2 hour boat of the trip would suck, and although we all did get fairly wet, it luckily wasn’t nearly as bad as our boat from Turbo.

Halfway through the boat ride we made the compulsory stop to enter through Panama passport control and customs. Just slightly more annoying than normal here having to unpack all our gear from our waterproofed plastic bags buried on the boat for the sniffer dogs to go through. Old South American stereotypes die hard…

Not long after, we ended up on a deserted beach on quite a big island. Here we spent the afternoon before walking 15 minutes around the island to the local “Kuna” village, which was super cute and surprisingly large. The Kuna are the native people who inhabit the San Blas islands and have a fewsettlements on nearby mainland Panama. They were all super friendly and awesome hosts to us letting us sleep in hammocks in their town hall and cooking us a delicious dinner of fried fish with local sides.Communication was a bit tough at times as lots of older Kuna villagers only speak “Kuna” and have Spanish that is worse than ours, but plenty of smiles and handshakes were shared. The kids here were super cute too. They were unbelievably keen to play with the strange light skinned giants whilst showing off their acrobatic skills and practicing a few words in English and Spanish. One little girl however seemed to burst into fearful tears every time she saw us walk past, and despite our best efforts, could only be consoled by her 5 or so year older brother.

After a good night sleep in some big, comfy hammocks, we were off to the second island, where we offloaded our gear and spent the arvo playing in the sun with plenty of footballs, footys and frisbees. The water wasn’t super clear here but there were some nice areas to hang out in the sun and shade and it was still nice to go for a swim.

Another nights sleep in hammocks and cabins, and after breakkie we were off again.

The last full day began with a trip to a tiny island for lunch and some snorkelling, before moving on to one only slightly bigger to sleep the night in huts and hammocks. This last island was our personal favorite, with 3 other islands close by that we could easily swim between. We spent our afternoon swimming around between the islands before heading back for sunset and a big bucket of jungle juice rum punch.And then dinner. Which was the best thing I have ever seen, let alone eaten. Our boat captain showed up with 2 huge crates of lobster, which we proceeded to eat all of. There was enough lobster, rice, salad and octopus that people were getting full and there was still octopus and lobster left over. Now I’m not one to waste food, and
it’s a tough job to take up the responsibility of making sure no one else does, but someone has gotta do it. Honestly I think I ate at least 7 lobster but I lost count.

A night of rum and bonfire followed, and the next morning we woke up to shake off the cobwebs in the beautiful blue Caribbean. We had lunch on the island before jumping back on the boats for the last time followed by a 3 or so hour 4wd ride to a hostel in Panama City and an early night for me.

Whilst I know we’re quite spoilt being Australians, I was a little disappointed at the lack of coral and sea life in the water surrounding the islands, however the islands, the water itself and out Kuna hosts were absolutely beautiful. We had such an awesome time on our trip, thanks largely to our team of guides and also to our amazing fellow adventurers who were all great fun – you guys know who you are! If you’re heading from South to Central America (or vice versa) I would certainly recommend looking into a San Blas trip as a beautiful way of crossing the border.1 more day left in Panama City to relax, and next stop – Jamaica!