Paradise Ne'er Found
Trip Start
Aug 09, 2009
1
3
28
Trip End
Mar 16, 2010
Where I stayed
Isla Diablo, San Blas Islands
San Blas Islands, Panama
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The archipelago is made up of about 370 islands, some only big enough to have one palm tree on its white sands, other large enough to have a small airstrip and stretches to the Columbian borders. You can either fly there for about $37 each way or take a 4x4 trip through the deepest jungle of Panama. We did the latter...
A 5am wake up call is only exciting if you are doing something like this, Alex, our driver collected us from Mamallena and then went to pick up others from Luna“s Castle. We then drove to the Super 99 store to buy snacks and water as these are very limited on the islands and met Judy, the lady that runs the transfers with her five brothers (shame!). After declaring that we were officially the first South Africans to travel with the transfer she gladly took our $50 each and bundled us into our 4x4“s ready to hit the road. We all promptly fell asleep and were wakened when we stopped at a police station to show our passports. The usual questions came our way, "if we are african why are we not black?" Eish.
Back in the car and we entered the jungle with a series of bumps, the road is as potholed as any in the Transkei! I did however get my first sighting of a toucan sitting way up high in the trees surveying the lay of the land. So excited!
Going to the San Blas is all about the hidden costs, first there is the $50 transfer, then there is the $6 tax you have to pay to the Kuna and the $2 port tax when you arrive at the river. Good business people these Kuna. We eventually arrived at the river port and only had to wait about 10 mins for our boat to take us to Carbanja Carti, or Nixia“s Place as mentioned in all the hostel posters. Nixia is apparently the only Kuna businesswoman and is the daughter of the Chief in the Carti island area. But more about her later. By this stage I was so excited to see the place we were going to stay at that I was really impatient at the pace that we were travelling in the boat, my impatience was jolted though when I saw that one of the other boats had gotten stuck on a sand bank and the tourists had to get out in waist high water to push... maybe slow is better!
We evetually arrived at Carti to find it an island with no beach, just houses on stilts and a myriad of winding passages through the little village, ending at a dock with a large trestle table were coffee was being served for us tourists. We then had the choice of which island to go to, we could stay at Carti for less money but then would have to take boats every day to the beach islands, or we could go straight to the beach islands and still have boats take us out to different ones.. we again went for the latter.
The boat ride out to Isla Diablo was pretty interesting. With the wind blowing against us we were riding into the waves and withing a few minutes were getting thoroughly soaked. In the beginning it was quite fun and refreshing, but 40 mins later and we were soaked to the skin, fearing that our passports and cameras and other electrical equipment wouldnt make the trip. Our arrival at Isla Diablo was thus slightly marred but not even our sodden appearance could keep us down for long once we took a look at the views.
White, white sand. Turquoise waters, gently blending into darker blues. Palm trees swaying in the breeze, coconuts strewing the beach. Hammocks. And two Israelis checking out the new folks. These guys had already been here five days before we arrived, and the day we were due to go back they decided to stay longer, I wonder if they are still there.
Lunch was our first taste of the islands speciality, fish and rice. We spent the rest of the day snorkelling, although having not snorkelled in about 17 years, I was quite surprised to find I had totally lost my nerve and panicked when I got near the edge of the sea shelf. That water just looks a little deep and I hope that by the time I do my open water PADI in Honduras I will have gotten over this fear. I did enjoy the coral and the colourful fish though, my favourites being the angle fish and the lettuce coral.
But more about the island itself. Isla Diablo is about an hours boat ride from Carti, and is situated right next to Isla Perro, which has a little shipwreck about 5m from the beach. Diablo has two families living there permanently, with a massive car battery providing electricity for lights and charging of the all time most important item on the island, the mobile phone. Amazing how the Kuna can be way out at sea but can still pick up signal and chat away on their phones. We were staying in a hut with four hammocks swaying in the breeze with a sand floor. And the toilet? Well this surely had the worlds best view, but sadly that was the only good thing about it. A hole in the ground with two planks providing feet rests for the squatting position. The island was probably only about a 1km in diameter probably even less than that.
Dinner was fish and rice again this time accompanied with salad. The Israelis had pre-ordered lobster and we watched with envy as they picked and sucked those suckers dry. The price? $5. Bargain.
Our second day started with a swim out to Isla Perro where Al and i snorkelled around the shipwreck. By this stage Al had totally gotten into his snorkelling flow but I was still struggling with my panic about the depth in certain areas and stayed a little behind while he snorkelled further off the reef. We swam back a while later and I spent the rest of the morning lying on the beach. By midday the clouds had rolled in and we scuttled into the hut to lie on our hammocks. I forgot to mention earlier that there is no running water on the island so we had not been able to shower. I decided to rectify this by standing in the rain washing my hair using the rainwater that had collected on the plastic sheeting outside our hut. As they say back home, "A boer maak “n plan!" The rest of the day was spent reading Marching Powder in my hammock with our usual fish and rice dinner later that evening. Our night“s entertainment was the lightning lighting up the sky and surrounding islands like a Vegas light show. I could think of worse things to watch.
Our third day dawned bright and sunny and just beautiful. With a friendly reminder from one of the elders to not sit directly under the palm trees (coconut loosened by wind landing on your head results in serious damage) we headed out to the water again and then spent the rest of the morning tanning. Life is tough eh? That afternoon we got what we had been waiting for since our arrival, lobsters! Dinnertime was still a while away but already our mouths were watering at the prospect of fresh lobster on our plates for only 3quid, the price of a Pret a Manger sandwhich or a Happy Meal back in London. We were also joined by some new arrivals, hailing from Panama City, these four were spending the weekend here at Diablo and had brought some fishing rods to entertain themselves. We chatted to them for a bit and the next morning found out that they had caught three white tip reef sharks later in the night, right at the spot where we had swum the day before. This did not help my fear of the waters...
Our fourth day brought our first boat outing. We had not been able to go thus far due to the boat needing a part that Nixia needed from Panama City. Nixia herself came out to the island to invite us to visit the Cayes, about an hour further out at sea than our island on the way to Columbia. Al had been getting a bit restless by this stage wanting to go to another island so we jumped at the chance to do the excursion. Another boat ride, this time a lot calmer than the first and we were at the Hollandse Cayes. The water was, as usual, crystal clear turqoise. There were palm trees. There was white sand. We ate our usual lunch of fish and rice and did some more snorkelling along the coral. Sadly though, the island did not live up to Isla Diablo and we were quite happy to return to our tropical paradise later that afternoon. Not sure why it didnt live up to our expectations. Maybe it was the debris from an overnight storm in the water that did it or the massive amounts of litter that was strews around the island. All I can say is that by the time we got back to Isla Diablo, I felt like I had come home. I sat chatting with Nixia and her boyfriend and the other girls for a bit (well, they were chatting in spanish, I was trying to follow but think I had a very quizzacle look on my face!). They explained to me that Nixia had met her boyfriend 3 years earlier, but he had to return to Canada. She then waited two years for him to return to Panama and they are now expecting a baby together, everybody, awwwwwww.
Whilst chilling, watching the sunset, we were interrupted by a big commotion from a boat docking on the island. They were shouting some excitedly from the boat and Nixia“s boyfriend translated that they had just caught a 100lb fish and that we must come take a look. We sprinted down to the waters edge and couldnt believe our eyes when we saw the sight of this thing. It was huge. Each scale was the size of my palm. It took three guys to hold the fish up and they were buckling under its weight. It must have been at least 2 meters long. I think, had I seen that fish swimming in the water I would probably have kakked myself. We all took the obligatory photos and the boat then headed toward Carti Island to give the fish up as an offering to the Chief. We heard the next day that they stopped at three other islands to show it off and it took them half the night to gut it.
Al and I had an early night as we were both tired from our boat trip, snorkelling and general sea air. At some point in the night I was woken with a flashlight in my face and a man standing over me. He was speaking rapidly in Spanish and I couldnt make head nor tail about what he was saying. I was trying not to show how freaked out I was and was trying to wake Alan up whilst trying not to show the guy what I was doing. Al woke up and the guy started speaking to him, but Al couldnt understand him either so with a meek No entiendo coming his way, the guy turned around and with a "Sorry guys" (in English!) he walked out. The rest of my night was spent tossing and turning dreaming of murders. When we told the girls what had happened the next morning Elizabeth recalled thinking someone was in the hut but thought she was dreaming. She says that from what she can remember him saying, they had caught a red snapper and he wanted to know if we wanted any!!!! Murderer indeed.
Our final day. We packed up and got back into the boat to head back to Carti Island where we would have breakfast before beginning the dance of payment. We were also lucky enough to be able to taste the big fish caught the night before, however after 4 days of fish and rice I really couldnt face it, especially that early in the morning, so Alan ate my share and I ordered eggs. We then went around looking at the various molas (embroidered cloth sewn by the Kuna) and decided on three different patterns of which two will be turned into cushions back home and one will be framed. The time came for payment and after a bit of umming and ahhing we managed to get a bit of a reduction. Success! Another boat ride back to the river mouth and before we knew it we were being squashed into a 4x4 and heading back to Panama City.
But wait. The adventure continues.
As I mentioned, we were squashed. Four people in a backseat meant for three. I was sitting on Al“s lap, my head touching the roof and an arm hooked around the headrest of the seat in front to prevent me flying through the windscreen. The driver stopped the car a few times to look at the car, the engine was smoking and we thought he was concerned about this. Turns out we were driving with only one nut holding the rear right hand tyre in place. God knows what happened to the others but we have a good feeling that the driver had started his journey with only the one nut. We drove like this for a while until eventually after a nasty bump the driver called one of the other drivers and asked him to bring a mechanic. We sat in the hot, humid jungle edge for about half an hour before the mechanics got to us. Another 40 mins and they had managed to fix the tyre. We got back into the 4x4 and cheerily set off, thinking about the drinks and food that we would get at the shop down the road when suddenly our driver swerved sharply to attempt avoiding hitting a pothole. We came to a stop with a bump and got out again, only to find that the front left wheel arch had now become dismantled. The engine was still smoking. We were then told to walk to the shop and as we started we couldnt help but notice that the rain that had been coming in from the distance had now edged its way to about 20m away from us. We stood watching it, marvelling at how dry we were and yet 20m down the road it was completely drenched. Next thing we knew, the rain was upon us and we were drenched. We ran down the road, bags flapping, shrieking when a good samaritan stopped his minivan and gave us a lift to the shop. The mechanics had stayed behind with the car and managed to drive it to the shop a little while later with only three wheels in use! The wheel had fallen off along the ride. An hour and a half later we eventually got another 4x4 back to Panama City. What had started out as a 2 hour journey, turned into 8 hours.
Funny story, the original driver that had started the trip had put a massive lobster on the roof of the 4x4, wrapped up in a black bag for his consumption. We had totally forgotten about this poor thing and assumed that it would have died along the way. However, after two hours of driving, a breakdown, 40 mins of mechanics, another breakdown, heavy rain showers, driving without a fourth wheel, the lobster was still alive! They pulled it down off the roof of the car and put it in a massive tractor tyre lying outside the shop in the rain whilst they fixed the car.
Neither the driver, nor the lobster returned to Panama City with us that day...
