There is a place still little known where the sea is transparent and full of fish and scattered with white atolls sometimes a little wider than a house. I have traveled a lot in my life but I have never seen a sea as spectacular as that of the San Blas Archipelago in Panama.
Do you know an island with white sand with only one palm in the middle and totally uninhabited? Here at the San Blas, you will see a lot of them. There are more islands than the days of the year tell amused the Kuna, the local population.
The San Blas is in the hands of the local community, the Kuna, now Europeanized Indians who run and are masters of the islands since they won, a long time ago, the battle of independence from Panama.
The choices for sleeping are varied, depending on what a person is looking for. I love the contact with the local population and so I decided to sleep at home, a very hard solution for those who are used to mass tourism but that has left a beautiful memory in my heart (but ahime needs a spirit of adaptation).
With 30 dollars you can sleep, eat and carry you around with their boat! As a food, the fish you directly from the sea lobster and king crab... But if you prefer there are also more luxurious solutions with independent cabanas and a built-in bathroom.
How to get to the San Blas:
We had entrusted ourselves to the "fortune of the traveler" that always accompanies us in the trips and, as other travelers had advised us, once arrived in Panama City we let ourselves be accompanied by a taxi driver in the part of the Malecon in which the Kuna sell their handicrafts. Speaking Spanish, we asked a Kuna woman to tell us how to get to the islands. She had given us a phone number that we called and she arranged an appointment for us the next day. The islands can be reached in two ways: by plane (to be bought on-site or via the internet with air Panama) or by land with a jeep. On the way, we used the jeep, from 11 in ups and downs and crossing rivers long enough, tiring but no doubt adventurous. The trip has a separate cost compared to the stay. The same person who organized the trip also organized our stay on the islands asking for our preferences, we preferred to live directly with the kuna.
Panama is extended so if you have little time you can buy directly on the internet internal flights with Air Panama. It 'an unforgettable journey that I highly recommend because outside the circuits of mass tourism.
update: many of you ask us how to visit the San Blas, we were lucky enough to know Jurin, skypper who visits the San Blas by sailboat, here you can read the details of the trip and if interested contact us at our email.