After some not-so-interesting time in San Jose and in the skyscraper-heavy obviously-undergoing-explosive-growth and very large Panama City, we’re in the airport (after an early morning — 4:30 — rise) waiting for a flight to the San Blas islands to stay with the Kuna Yala Indians — the airport is full of people with heavy beadwork and large gold septum jewelry. From the photos it looks like we should expect Polynesian-style stick buildings perched on stilts on the ends of docks off tiny islands, a level of quiet defined only by our neighbors, all under a rich star-filled sky. There are 365 of them in all in the San Blas group, and if I’m to believe what I read online, they’re among the top ten snorkeling destinations in the world. Many of the islands are off-grid, with solar power and little to no communication, so I doubt I’ll be posting until I’m back in Toronto at week’s end unless plans change. After we land at the small regional airport, using a Dash-8 prop plane, we’ll travel by boat to our final destination. Wish us luck, as we’ve had some trouble getting these plans confirmed in advance and are hoping we won’t just be sleeping on the beach — not that such a fate would be all that bad!
Picture notes: These are my getting into Panama city pictures… The first photo is a creepy dude that was at the hotel with three VERY young prostitutes, one young boy and two young girls. Icky. I’d say 75% of the guys at the hotel were there for sex tourism.
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In reference te the last paragraph of two posts previous….if you haven’t already checked it out, take a look at the comments on the “Crazy Llamas” post on MoBl. we all pray that something can be worked out and we can get you back. things are in a bad way….
Visit ‘em while you can. They’re going to be not-so shallow shoals in a few decades:
cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/10/oceans-are-coming.html
Yeah, what a kooky fiasco the “crazy llamas” post became. Looks like a bunch of the comments got deleted because there are some I remember from before I left for the Kuna Yala islands that have been removed.
DIYer — I’m not surprised. They were very very shallow islands, only a few feet over sea level. They will certainly be one of the first island chains to disappear once the oceans rise. Too bad, they’re very beautiful. I also saw some coral bleaching while I was there, but thankfully not too much. My camera was misbehaving at that point, so I won’t know until I get home whether I got any pictures thereof.
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