Kuna Yala or San Blas islands

After two full days and one night, we arrive at the San Blas islands. The locals prefer to call it Kuna Yala, so that's what we'll do from now 😌

Just as we see the islands, we catch a fish. Honestly, it couldn't be better, fresh tuna at Kuna Yala!!!

There are so many and as you get closer, you notice most of them are really small. We arrive at the Cocos Islands. Too tired to get to Porvenir for clearance, we decide to use the 72h "legend" before clearing in the country 😏 

 

And then, only happy faces!!!

 

 

By chance another catamaran with a very nice couple and two beautiful girls was anchored in the same bay. The world really is a small place! We saw them in the Canary islands and thought we would never see them again as they stayed a long time in the same bay we met them! 😅 Apparently they loved the Canary islands as much as we did!

 

 After completely absorbing this magnificent view, it's time to get the paddleboard out, explore the island in the front, ... and in the back and start cooking great tuna sushi's with a bit of honestly great Colombian rhum!

 

15th of March 2019. We decide to stay a day more at the Coco Bandero Cays! Time to explore a bit further. Snorkeling is wonderful, not so much for the fish, but for the great, enormous corals! 

The island itself has a beautiful beach, however as most islands of Kuna Yala, between the trees you have a thick layer of rubbish that washes on shore ... 😪

 

Quite a strong current, but the girls are happy to meet their friends again!

16th of March 2019. We really do have to deal with clearance now and get a cruising permit. So hup to El Porvenir. It's one of the most populated islands and appears to be the capital of the Kuna Yala islands.



We're 4 yachts to check in or out. One "mini"super yacht, actually the only one we saw in the Kuna Yala islands. And one catamaran that left together with us from La Rochelle and was across from us on the same pontoon in Las Palmas, Canary islands 😁

Small airplanes land just besides our masts on the island where Geoff and I quickly check in. It's not the most lovely place to be, nor the most sheltered bay...

  The girls have seen "Ballerina" again 😍

So we quickly try to get to a better shelter before dark. Not so far there's Guasirdup at the Lemon Cays.
As you can see on the satellite image, there's not really an easy access to the smooth inside bay.
And many before tried to avoid the reefs ...

 

 As hostile as it was to get in there, it wasn't a very good spot to snorkel either... So the next day we went a bit further into the Lemon Cays.

Beautiful anchorage! And we happened to meet a second Nautitech just next to us!

We have a great time exploring the tiny, now uninhabited, island. That is disappearing due to global warming, unfortunately ... 

 

And Geoffrey can finally take out his drone as there's a normal wind for once 😏

The next day we went for a wreck dive in the Lemon Cays, but to be honest the one in Antigua was more spectacular. We felt like the Kuna people really know how to play tourist here... 3 dollars per person to be on this wreck, nobody cared about, with plenty of stupid tourists putting their feet and palms everywhere 😡

 

After diving we are tempted by one of the local restaurants. Since they sell their langoustes for 5$ we were a bit surprised by the 15$ they charged us per plate, but I guess with no fixed prices, once again we paid the "tourist taxes" 😏 It was however a wonderful location and my fish was very tasty! 

 

 

A bit of a walk (5' to go all around 😆) on the island across where at the end they ask 2$ per person to set foot on the island! It's time to leave the Lemon Cays and look for a place we don't feel like cows... 😌

 Laundry after a wet ride back to LouiseAnna 😳

 Just before dark we decide to leave for Hollandes Cays: the swimming pool.

We saved the best place for last I guess. This is a very very beautiful spot! We didn't anchor in the swimming pool itself as there were too many boats, but we went to the island just under it: Bug island.

A look to the left ... and to the right ... 

Immediate mission to check it out!

 

And we were immediately checked out by a very nice Kuna family. As we didn't need fish or langoustes at this time, we gave them stuffed animals instead. They were quite surprised to have received a gift. The girls were very happy!

This then started a three day routine of trading rope for their speargun against fish, freshwater against a beautiful bracelet for Anna and Louise, clothes for lemmons and mangos ...

We also bought a Mola which was a very very good quality Mola and less expensive than what we bought at the Lemon Cays ... In return we were allowed to play at the beach at their end of the island as the other families would have asked us to pay 😲

The girls are having a great time. Adibeth (the local Kuna girl) really enjoyed herself, overwhelmed by the toys and gifts 😀 I tried to express myself in "Franish - Frenglish" with her mum 😳

And another boat joined us with their lovely girl, after warning us that on there was a crocodile on Bug Island! In fact, we found out that there were two crocodiles two years ago, but they had been killed after attacking a woman... 😱 No worries anymore, the Kunas are watching over us!

A good night sleep and we are ready to join a French couple with two great boys for a swim along the outer reef! Quite an experience. 
Already the trip with Bob over there was "special". So shallow and difficult to find the dive spot, that we had to carry Bob several times over sand bars 😂

 So where you see the waves break, that's where we went snorkeling 😋

The waves break over the reef and provide plenty of food for the beautiful corals to grow and fish to thrive. Nursing sharks were resting and the girls loved checking them out!

 

This boxfish was easily 70 cm long!

An amazing experience! Thanks Sonam!

Unfortunately it's time to leave as we have a Canal passage to plan and organise. Ciao Kuna Yala!!!

  
And as we leave we notice the first turtle since ... euh I guess since Antigua !  But the story of this turtle is very sad, because I learned later that the same day we left, it got caught and ... eaten by the Kunas 😭 I guess they do not know how few of them are left in the oceans... Bye bye sweet turtle ...