islands | Flashpacker's Guide

Our short Panamanian encounter started after 26 hours of bus from San Juan del Sur (or actually Rivas) and we were pretty beat up when we got to Panama City. We had 4 goals with our stay here:

Visit Tuva’s friend, Maria, in Panama City
See the Panama Canal
Buy everything we have dreamed about the last months at a real, big, American-style mall
Chillax at the San Blas islands

We managed to reach all goals with the six days we had, and then some. It must be said that if we’d had some more time we would have visited the cloud forest in Boquete and the beaches in Bocas del Toro, but because of our limited time we had to prioritize!

Tuva studied together with Maria from Venezuela in Lyon, France, 2007-2008 and lucky for us she now lives in Panama City, together with her husband, Fernando (also from Venezuela). We had two great evenings with them in Panama City. The first evening we went to restaurant La Mar, where we tasted some fine Peruvian cuisine (ceviche!), and the day after we got served a homemade Venezuelan dish, Arepas, together with some dangerously refreshing cold red-wine with 7-Up (try it!). Arepas is a dish based on a Maiz-flour patty, which you can find variations of all over Venezuela and Colombia, so we’re already looking forward to tasting the different varieties on our journey south!

Apart from the mandatory visit to the Panama Canal at Miraflores and the Casco Viejo (old town), we also checked out the Causeway, where we got a nice view of the Panama City skyline, and spent a lot of time in the cool air-conditioned malls (it’s very hot and humid here!). It’s worth noting that we took a lot of taxis around town in order to not have to wait too long for buses, and that the taxi-drivers always will try to get you to pay the tourist price (= 3-4x normal price) if you are/look like a ignorant tourist. We talked to people at the hostel to get the real prices and ended up only paying a little more than the locals. Mathias really honed his haggling skills here and even managed to get one of the taxi trips under local fare (we think)!

Our next stop was a 2-night trip to San Blas, where we booked a private cabaña at Isla Iguana (Kuna name Aridup), one of the nicer islands on the archipelago. We left 6 in the morning in a 4×4 “shuttle” and the trip to the dock took about 2,5 hours: 1 hour on regular roads and 1,5 hour on what can best be described as a paved roller-coaster. The jeep takes you up 45 degree steep hills before you dive down into a just as steep descent with a sharp S-turn or two, in less than safe speeds and driving-profiles, making you glad you didn’t have a big breakfast before you left. If you are lucky enough to get the middle seat without neck-rest you will get a really good 1,5 hour core-workout.

We entered Kuna-territory and had to show our passports several times and pay miscellaneous taxes before coming to the place where the boats would pick us up to go to the islands (after an hour-long wait). Luckily our island wasn’t too far from shore, so we had a short boat-ride out. Arriving at the island was just as in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, apart from the crazy pirates, with just a couple of palms sticking up from an otherwise desert island. When we looked closer we could also find some people there and some small cabanas.

We paid $50 per person per night for a veeery basic cabaña without bathroom and including 3 (basic) meals. Everything on the islands is basic, not surprisingly, as they lie quite remote in the Caribbean and are run by the local Kuna tribe. We found 2 nights to be quite enough and apart from just relaxing at the beach we also had a trip to nearby Perro island, where we snorkeled around a shipwreck and saw starfish (estrellas de mar).

All in all San Blas was a nice experience and could possibly have been better if we hadn’t had such great beach times just recently in Nicaragua.

If you want to go to San Blas you need to know the following:

It costs a lot to get there:
- $60 in 4×4 both ways (you can probably do it cheaper by bus, but after having seen the roads we recommend the 4×4)
- $12 in various taxes (keep your receipt! You need it to get out again.)
- $20-$30 in boat, depending on the distance to your island
Everything is basic and the prices are pretty high (at least $26 for dorm and almost double for private, but it includes meals)
You should bring enough water to last you the days (we brought a gallon each) and some snacks for in between meals, as there isn’t too much to buy there
Bring your liner, mosquito repellent, sun-screen/after-sun, basic toiletries, beachwear, some cards/books, flashlight, camera, passport and some money – not much else
Some islands are more inhabited than others, resulting in more garbage and sewage and less idyllic beach paradise – check your island before you go!

Panama was short and sweet, now it’s off to Colombia for a 3 week adventure starting on the Caribbean coast and ending in Bogota. More pictures from our travels in Panama can be found here.

One of the tips we’ve heard a lot of times is the 3-day sailing trip from Caye Caulker to Placencia with Raggamuffin tours. It is in reality a 3-day snorkeling trip where you stop at some small islands to sleep, eat a lot of fresh seafood and drink a lot of rum, just like the Pirates of the Caribbean, apart from the snorkeling.

The weather at Caye Caulker was really disappointing the days we were there with rain 3 out of 5 days (there’s really nothing to do here while it’s raining), so we were a bit hesitant to splash out the $350 per person for the trip. Luckily we decided to do it anyway as the forecasts were pretty good.

We started out in Ragga Queen from Caye Caulker with grey clouds, but as 5 dolphins came up to the boat after only 20 minutes of sailing and guided us on our way, all 19 of us seemed to forget about the so-so weather and just enjoy the trip. The crew on the boat, Captain Kevin, Jacob and Chris did their best to take care of us and there was always some food (mostly very delicious), snacks and fruit, or rum cocktails being served from the galley.

We stopped to eat lunch and snorkel in the crystal clear waters, and we even hunted fish and lobsters for dinner with spear-gun. There was also fishing from the boat, where one of the Swedish girls managed to catch a nice Barracuda. After the snorkeling an orange Rum punch started to pour out by the gallon and everybody had a good time, despite some rain and chilly weather.

Our first night was at the tiny Rendezvous Caye (they say its name comes from the pirates who used to rendezvous here), where we set up tents that nearly blew away in the tropical storm the same night. We got served a lovely lobster and shrimp ceviche and a lot of fresh fish.

The next day we woke up to rain and stormy weather and our departure was a little delayed. We set course for Tobacco Caye (where the pirates got their tobacco), a bigger island with 20 local inhabitants. There were a lot of grey clouds, some small showers, but we also got some sun, which instantly took the trip from good to great! We stopped for lunch and snorkeling, and the snorkeling was even better this day, as the sun really brought out the colors in the sea. We saw a big Sting Ray and some spotted Eagle Rays among thousands of other fish. It was like swimming in a giant fish bowl.

Later that evening another tropical storm came over us, but everyone forgot as we got served some delicious mustard glazed lobster that the crew managed to cook up in their minimal kitchen. The seemingly free flow of rum punch also helped on the mood. Luckily we got some nice, dry beach bungalows to sleep in as all of our tents were soaking wet from the other night.

On the last day we finally got the good weather and everybody was frolicking on deck between snorkel stops. The last leg to Placencia was a pure pleasure and was a really good ending to the trip.

In retrospect we have to say that the weather is very important for such a trip, and had we known that the first couple of days would be rainy and a bit cold, we might have reconsidered. Luckily we met some great people on the boat, which is another very important part of such a trip, and everybody seemed to get along really well. The youngest were in their early twenties, and the oldest was an Austrian couple in their sixties. The crew was also very good and did their best to keep the spirits high and serve us any way they could.

All in all it was a great experience and we would recommend it to anyone traveling in Belize and wanting an adventure! (But beware of the weather!)