Back in the San Blas Islands

Just a scene to remind our friends in the Pacific Northwest that it isn’t all snow and ice. In the Kuna Yala, winter means trade winds and clear waters.

A Gobi hanging low on the reef edge.

A bug eyed lobster trying to stay out of the dinner pot.

A helmut gurnard running away from me while trying to imitate a I’m big fish, don’t eat me.

Hard nosed brain coral next to hard nosed sweet thing. You pick.

Anemone and corals still life. It’s sunny, no rain, water temperature 81*F.

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Our good friends in Southern Cal, Seung and Zahra, just had twins. So we invited master mola maker Venancio to come onboard and show us his wares, as we wanted to buy a mola for gift for the new girls. Something with a twin theme… Here is Venacio showing the mola of twin parrots we finally bought. His stash of molas are kept in the bucket with the yellow top on the right. If you blow the picture up you can see his ‘signature’ on the embroidered thread work.

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The Kunas cover many miles on these dugout ulus, sometimes by paddle sometimes sail. Greg and Deb on Lions Paw had an old headsail that they didn’t want. They gave it to these guys, who promptly fashioned into a well cut sail for their ride. Here they are in a good breeze a few days later passing us anchored in the East Lemon Cays.

There are a lot of cruisers who never seem to make it out of Kuna Yala. They come for a few weeks and end up staying five years or more. Here’s an older couple, I think off a Canadian boat, who have been here what seems like their whole life – fighting over the banana that Chris left on the dock for them.

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We’ve got another couple of weeks here in Kuna Yala till we meet Meghan and Tyler down in Cuzco, Peru for some cold, wet high altitude tourism.
Paul