Icarian in the San Blas!

Icarian spent Christmas 2007 in the lovely harbour of Portobello. This very protected bay is just loaded with history having been discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502. The Spanish soon claimed it and sent their galleons to load up on gold and silver from Central and South America. These galleons and Portobello became the target of pirates like Henry Morgan and Sir Francis Drake who died in Portobello. Forts surround the bay and we found ourselves anchored with many rusty old canons pointed our way. The forts have not been restored so they are just as they were way back when. Very cool! :) We had our Christmas lights up and although the weather was a little wet we managed an excellent feast with friends off Second Nature and Quinuituk.

After a brief stop at Islas Linton and Grande we set off for the San Blas Islands on New Years Eve. We had a great sail in sunny skies and winds in the 15 to 20 knot range with seas averaging in the 6 to 8' . We arrived in the San Blas at a little Island called Chichime (chee-chee-may) late in the afternoon. It is the first time in many years we welcomed in the New Year sound asleep! :)

The San Blas is a huge area of coral reefs with the odd small island thrown in. In fact there are over 300 of these little islands and the reefs give protection from the 6-10ft swell rolling in from the Caribbean. The weather since we arrived here has been fairly windy which is keeping us cool. Water temperature is about 84'F and the skies have been mostly sunny!!
The beach here has very white soft sand and palm trees galore with few native huts nestled under them.

The Kuna Indians govern the San Blas as an independent state within Panama. We have begun to see and buy some of their crafts. They are famous for needlework called Molas which are very colorful pictures usually depicting their history and lifestyle. These pictures take a long time to complete and are very beautiful. We plan to investigate many of the islands in the San Blas in the next three months before heading to Cartegena.

Pixs: A typical island in San Blas and an ulu used by most of the Kuna for fishing/transportation.