20/12/2016 Isla Diablo, Guna Yala
I’m staying on Isla Diablo in the San Blas archipelago for the next two nights. San Blas, or more correctly known as Guna Yala, is an autonomous region of Panama governed by the Guna people.
I arrived yesterday by boat which was the roughest hour of seafaring I’ve ever experienced. I had water in my ears, eyes, nose and mouth (I’m not exaggerating). Latinas on the boat full-on screamed for about half the journey, and it wasn’t the happy sort of screaming you hear on rollercoasters.
The cabins on the island are basic but alright (sandy floors and single beds). I’m alone in my 12-person cabin but there seem to be a few other people on the island. It’s very small and I can see the sea on all sides – it’s aquamarine. There are a lot of Guna people on the island who run the daily affairs for the tourists, led by a matriarchal figure who picked us up back on the coast. In the evening they return to their own Guna islands, reserved for the local people.
I just returned from a boat trip to the piscina (a sand bar in the middle of the sea with giant starfish) and Chichime Island where I originally had planned on staying. They were fully booked as I had only organised my Guna Yala visit the day before, when my old passport had turned up in the middle of the night, allowing me to use it to travel to the autonomous region. Chichime is a really nice island though, I walked around it in about 20 minutes. They have a poor little monkey, Lopito, tied up on a very short string whose purpose is to collect extra dollars from hapless tourists.
We saw massive orange starfish in the piscina but it was so windy that it was difficult to swim. I had fried fish and rice for lunch, freshly caught daily, which was ok but not incredible.
The two nights cost me $200 ($108 for food and lodging, $20 tax and $70 to El Machico Hostel for transport fees). It’s so peaceful and relaxing though.
21/12/2016 Isla Diablo, Guna Yala
Today we went to Isla de Perros next door (about 200m away) and snorkelled around the shipwreck. I saw loads of amazing tropical fish, starfish and brightly-coloured coral. There is another Panamian family (two older couples) and a French family with young children so I’ve been hanging out with a new friend from Paris. Last night we had rum and played cards/games with 3 girls from New Zealand who had also stayed at El Machico, which was fun. Surprisingly there were no mosquitoes at night, although it was there was so much wind blowing through the night, it sounded like torrential rain. I slept well though. Clement, the guy from Paris, and the NZ girls all left this morning so it’s just me on the island. I’d recommend to friends not to bother staying a second night as there really isn’t anything to do. It would have been better just to leave in the afternoon of the second day.
The Guna are really interesting people and some are very friendly (the guys are more talkative than the girls). For lunch we had fried fish and rice again, no surprises there. For dinner yesterday we were served prawns and potatoes, a welcome change. Egg and fried dough for breakfast.
I cut my foot so many times today whilst swimming around the shipwreck.
23/12/2016 Guayaquil, Ecuador
On my final night in the Guna Yala islands, I watched two fishermen brothers push their canoe out to catch fish at night. They canoe around the three nearby islands at 11pm and sell their catch to everyone on the islands. In the morning I had breakfast and left to go back to Panama. The driver taking us back to Panama City was the same one who took us there. He recognised me and let me sit in the front again, so nice (the back seemed very squished but I wouldn’t know… hee hee). Being the driver’s pet, I had some good chats with him and he offered me cookies from the supermarket on the way back.
NB: There is a side to tourism in the Guna Yala peninsula that isn’t so often seen by visitors. I thought this article articulated the issues well and I would encourage you to give it a read if you’re interested in visiting the islands.
