After a fun family reunion with Saz’s siblings in Panama City, Nicola and her boyfriend Chad sadly had to head back to Canada. Adam was staying on with us for a few more weeks though, and we were super looking forward to our next excursion – a 4 day 3 night island hopping adventure from Panama to Colombia via the San Blas Islands. These islands were home to the indigenous Kuna people, and we would get to learn about their beautiful culture while staying on some of the most pristine islands!
We kicked off our last morning in Panama City with a relaxed vibe – we were staying at the Mamallena Hostel, partners of the company we would be doing our boat trip with, San Blas Adventures.
We had a mandatory pre-trip briefing at our hostel that morning where we got to meet our guides and fellow guests. Our lead guide, Mac, was a British guy from the Isle of Man. He gave us the details for the trip – documents to bring, how much cash was needed, and how to prepare our bags to prevent them from getting soaked. The boats that we would be taking were tiny little speed boats with low sides, and Mac warned us that it was going to be wet. He instructed us to pack up most of our things into our main luggage and completely wrap it with garbage bags inside and out to protect our things, and only keep a day bag for daily uses. Our main luggage would be wrapped up for the entire trip so we wouldn’t be able to access it until we arrived in Colombia 4 days later.
With a list of errands to run in hand, we swung by a nearby Panacell to make copies of our passports, then hit up the supermarket for trip essentials like garbage bags, shampoo, conditioner, rum, snacks, and water.
We spent the afternoon packing. Adam had packed so annoyingly light that he only had one half filled backpack of stuff, a feat only a man could pull off. It took him approximately 45 seconds to finish packing, but Saz and I did not have that luxury. We spent the better part of the afternoon deciding what to pack in our main luggage vs day bags, and using trash bags to keep wrap our belongings to keep our bigger bags dry. We had an early night in preparation for our early morning start the next day.
We kicked off the morning incredibly early, waking up at 3:45 to do our last-minute packing. Everything was nicely wrapped up in garbage bags to keep it dry, and we made sure to bring our water jugs for the journey. The lobby was already buzzing with fellow travelers waiting to start the adventure. Around 5:20 am, the vans arrived, and off we went.
The first stop was a grocery store that opened at 6 am, where we were able to pick up some extra snacks and water for the trip. Once back in the vans, the real journey began – our driver went full speed racer, flying through winding roads and even making “zoom zoom” noises. Saz was sitting in the front, while Adam and I braced ourselves in the back seats. The ride was full of sharp turns, and our driver was seriously throwing caution to the wind. At first we thought he was driving so insanely because it was a one way road and it didn’t matter if he whipped around the corner…but we very soon realized it most definitely was not a one way road.
We finally reached the docks, feeling grateful that we had survived that insane drive. The dock was super chaotic and we needed to wait to be assigned a boat. We waited around for about an hour before our boats finally arrived. Although we had tried to sit at the back for a smoother ride, the only spots left were near the front, so we took what we could get. We very soon realized that Mac was not exaggerating, the little wooden boats were zipping over the waves and absolutely shooting water into the boat. Although the front was bumpier, the people in the back definitely got much more drenched. But every wave caused the boat to slam down hard, and the boat had absolutely no shock system. It was going to be a very painful (for our butts) few days on the water.
After what felt like ages, we arrived at our first island. The beach was stunning with soft white sand and clear turquoise water. We had time to relax and explore, but there wasn’t much to see while snorkeling. Instead, we floated in the water and struck up a conversation with Shirley and Daniel, a fun Australian couple doing a similar world trip to ours. Adam joined in a beach volleyball game, and the indigenous Kuna people had a little bar selling beers and coco locos (rum and coconuts), so we posted up under the palm trees, soaking in the island vibes.
When lunch was called, we met JoHa, the chef for the trip. The meal was simple: rice, chicken drumsticks, and lentils, served in pretty small portions. The food was delicious, but Saz and I were still hungry after our lunch so we couldn’t imagine what the bigger guys on the trip were feeling.
Mac told us that we had about an hour-and-forty-five-minute boat ride to our home for the night, Orrin (Gold Island). The ride was much bumpier and rougher than it had even been in the morning. We were soon realising that the island portion of the trip would be amazing…. But the boat portion not so much.
We were all so relieved when we finally pulled up to Orrin island, a tiny spec covered in coconut trees, small enough to walk around in five minutes. There was a single bucket toilet and main hut in the middle of it with support beams to hang up hammocks. The Kuna people almost exclusively slept in hammocks instead of beds, so we would be living the Kuna way for the next few days.
The sun was setting into a beautiful golden glow, so Adam threw up the drone and got some absolutely gorgeous shots of the island at sunset.
We then joined our group to chat over rum and cokes, getting to know each other as the sun dipped below the horizon. Dinner was a mix of curry shrimp, ceviche, rice, and mashed potatoes.
After dinner, Mac introduced us to a game that would last the rest of the trip – a murder game where we were each assigned someone to “kill” with specific items and in specific situations. Basically, you were assigned a “weapon” and a location, and had to trick your victim into receiving it from you at that location. For example, a scenario would be handing your victim a beer while standing in the boat, and they would be dead.
My target was another American girl on our trip, Marisa, while Saz had to “kill” our new Aussie friend Shirley with a pen next to a boat. We rinsed our dishes and continued chatting with different people from the group, all of whom were around our age and fun to be around.
We didn’t stay up too late, though, as we had a 6:30 a.m. wake-up call the next morning. Since the shower was just a bucket, we decided to skip it, especially since Saz had already changed into her PJs after getting splashed earlier. We brushed our teeth and climbed into our hammocks, winding down with some reading before finally drifting off to sleep.
My night started rough – I was stuck in a tiny hammock, constantly shifting around to find a comfortable position but failing miserably. I kept waking up thinking I was going to fall out if I shifted my weight. Adam also spent the night freezing, resorting to using Saz’s towel as a makeshift blanket.
At dawn, we were woken up by Mac playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow on a speaker, announcing that breakfast was ready. Spoiler: it wasn’t ready. While we waited, we made coffee and tea, trying to shake off our grogginess. When breakfast did arrive, it was simple but satisfying – watermelon, pineapple, and fried dough that reminded me of Taiwanese shao bing without sesame seeds.
After eating, we re-packed our bags, loaded them onto the boat, and set off for our next destination. The boat ride was absolutely gruelling – the sea was rough, and we spent the entire 2+ hour ride being assaulted by big swells and tsunamis of water hitting our faces. The boat was so loud and the ride so uncomfortable that it was impossible to even chat to kill the time, we all just locked in, put our snorkels on, and suffered through the journey in silence.
We were all so relieved when we arrived, soaking wet with very sore butts. The weather was overcast, which wasn’t ideal for swimming. Half of this tiny island was a coconut farm, and the other half was our playground for the day. I wasted no time claiming a full-sized hammock (never again with the tiny one) and settled in with my book, relishing the chance to finally relax.
Later, I asked Saz if she’d toss a frisbee with me by the water. One of our boat mates, Joe, walked up to me and said “you ever play frisbee with a flip flop?” Before I had time to react, he took off his shoe and tossed it to me. As I caught it, he declared dramatically, “You’re dead!” Turns out he was my assassin and his assigned weapon was a flip flop. HE GOT ME. It was such a goofy, perfect moment that I had to respect the hustle.
Shortly after, Mac gathered us for a group activity – a photo challenge. We split into teams and were tasked with taking creative photos in categories like “best photo with a Kuna,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and “best sandcastle.”. Our group worked well together and created some hilarious pictures, but we narrowly lost 1st place in the judging phase. Settling for 2nd, we were still happy that the experience bonded our team and gave us plenty of laughs.
Lunch was a bit of a letdown – it was just a small portion of salads with some ceviche and bread, which wasn’t nearly enough for everyone. I couldn’t eat most of it because of my lactose intolerance, and I was already battling acid reflux (probably from last night’s rum and Coke on an empty stomach).
Everyone was hungry and frustrated, especially being stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean with no access to additional food. We reluctantly stomached a few Oreos (that did NOT hit the spot) and went back to relaxing by the beach.
In the afternoon, we visited a nearby Kuna village to witness a cultural ceremony called a Chica Fuerte. Mac had told us that it was a super special and sacred tradition, that only happened very rarely. The fact that we were even invited to participate seemed like a huge deal. Mac laid out some of the ground rules – we couldn’t be shirtless/in our swim suits, and we were strictly forbidden to bring alcohol and cameras to the Kuna communities, so we left our belongings behind.
We all boarded the boat to go to the nearby island, and were led through the local village. There were tons of adorable local kids running around that directed us to the Chicha Fuerte.
The venue looked like a big hut made of mud and tree leaves. It was very overwhelming entering the hut as our eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness. The whole room was smoky and filled to the brim with people dancing and singing, lit candles everywhere, and an elder reclining in a central hammock, smoking a pipe. It felt solemn at first, but suddenly the elders started handing us coconut bowls filled with Chicha, a local sugarcane wine, and miming for us to drink. As we started to get our bearings and looked around at the group of people in the room, it became clear that the “sacred” ceremony was more of a raucous drinking fest.
Elderly Kuna men and women were stumbling around, cheering, and eagerly refilling our bowls, demanding we chug the Chicha. It tasted like vinegar mixed with dirt, but we could not escape the elder after elder handing us bowls and not being satisfied until we drank it all. Talk about peer pressure!
It was our boat mate Joe’s birthday, and the Kuna were not about to let that slip by quietly – they plied him with vodka shots and an endless stream of wine while serenading him with a lively trilingual (English, Spanish, Kuna) rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
The whole scene flipped from reverent to absurd, and we couldn’t stop laughing at the wasted elders swaying and shouting encouragement as we drank. A whole group of 80+ year old women were in the corner of the hut drunk off their asses, throwing up all over the walls, barely able to stand. Adam dubbed the vomit corner the “penalty box”, and it was equal parts hilarious and gross. They were relentless with the wine, and one particularly persistent, gender-ambiguous local kept hunting us down to refill our bowls, no matter how many times we said “no gracias.” Eventually, we just started faking it, pretending to sip the wine so we wouldn’t be on the floor like the elders. We found out from others that this ceremony apparently happens every nine days and lasts for two whole days – so much for never drinking, lol. Luckily the 3 of us had worn our shoes, but many of our friends had gotten used to the shoe-less island lifestyle, and had to navigate the very questionable and puke-y dirt floor barefoot.
The elders were so lovely and tried to strike up many a conversation, but our very limited Spanish restricted us to repeating “muy bueno, muchas gracias, muy bonito” over and over again. The Chicha Fuerte was so absurd and so not what we expected, but it felt very special to be able to witness the local community partake in their traditional celebrations.
Eventually, we were told it was time to leave the Chicha Fuerte and explore the rest of the village, and even got the chance to challenge the local middle school girls volleyball team to a match. They absolutely destroyed our group. It legitimately wasn’t even close. Those girls were crazy good at volleyball, and even the tall, athletic men on our trip were having trouble blocking their insane spikes.
After the volleyball game, it was time to return to our island for downtime and dinner. Mac announced that dinner wouldn’t be ready until after 8:30 PM, and our stomachs were already absolutely howling after the meager breakfast and lunch. Mac mentioned there would be a surprise, which turned out to be fish empanadas brought over by some Kuna villagers for just a dollar each. I was so hungry I devoured two, while Adam and Saz each had one. They were actually delicious, especially with the hot sauce, and definitely saved us from full meltdown mode.
We lazed around on the island for a bit. Saz floated in the water with Shirley while I read my book on the beach. When the sun started to dip, we snuck off to shower while everyone was still outside. The bucket shower was pretty basic, but it left us feeling fresh and cozy again.
Dinner finally rolled around close to 9 pm, and we were all about ready to gnaw our own arms off. They accidentally screwed up my lactose intolerance order, but what can ya do when you’re on an island in the middle of the ocean?
After dinner, we went to see the bioluminescence. It was mostly just a few faint sparkles in the water, but still fun to splash around. On the way there, Adam got “killed” by Jack in our ongoing assassin game with a rock under a tree.
We were completely spent by then. We washed our plates, scrubbed our faces, and curled up in bed to read until we couldn’t keep our eyes open. Outside, we could hear people still dancing and having a great time, but we were ready for bed.
After getting the hang of sleeping in the hammocks, the second night we got much better sleep. We woke up to an absolutely stunning sunrise, so Adam took the drone out for a morning spin. We then loaded up for another very wet and bumpy ride to our next island. Along the way, we saw indigenous Kuna in tiny boats with makeshift sails ripping like pros through the water. It was such a sight to see!
The first stop of the day was a small island, where we got to play some soccer and basketball with some local kids, and learn more about the Kuna culture. They had many pieces of stunning, handwoven indigenous clothing for us to try on, and taught us a traditional dance. Our group was absolutely terrible at the dance, but we all got a laugh out of each other fumbling through the steps.
We then went to our next island, probably the most beautiful of the trip. The island was a coconut tree farm, and just had the most stunning blue waters. We were given free time all afternoon to drink Coco Locos, play beach volleyball, snorkel, and relax.
After a few hours, we saw a group of Kuna women rowing canoes, made of hollowed out logs, towards our island. They were all dressed in their traditional clothing, rowing the boats like absolute pros.
Mac then gave us the news that not only would we would be responsible for rowing these canoes to the next island over (where our accommodation would be for the night), it would also be a race. Me, Saz and Adam were a team, and after everybody was ready we set off on our race.
The wooden canoes were surprisingly difficult to navigate. They didn’t turn as easily as a modern canoe, and the paddles were much smaller than we were used to so it took a bit of time to get used to. Some of the other boats veered hilariously far off course, and Mac and the boat drivers had to drive a rescue boat over to help steer them back towards the correct island.
As we approached our destination, we noticed our friends Lizzie and Jack looked suspiciously low into the water. As we got closer, we realised that they had a leak in their canoe and were actively taking on water. They were both sitting in waist deep water…IN the canoe as Lizzie was trying to bail out the water with her hands and Jack paddled. Luckily we were right next to the destination dock, so it was not a dangerous situation and it was just a hilarious situation watching them slowly sink.
Our canoe finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. This was the first island we were staying on that was fully inhabited, and it was one of the bigger villages in the area, with a full “hostel” and real bed for us to stay in for the night!
We were lucky enough to be given a full village tour by one of the residents there. It was incredible to see the community and camaraderie that these people had, even with so little access to outside material goods. The guide told us that over 25% of the Kuna population was children, so there were so many carefree and joyful little kids running around, coming up to us to say hi. They were absolutely enamored with Saz, and loved to look at and touch her hair.
The villagers put on a show for us, performing their traditional dance that we had attempted to learn earlier in the day. They obviously did it much more elegantly and beautifully than we did, and it was so amazing to see them sharing their culture. Afterwards, we had dinner at a restaurant, run out of a local family’s home. The home cooked chicken, rice, and lentils were delicious.
Our group spent the rest of the night playing drinking games in our hostel, winding down after a jam packed day!
The next morning, we woke up to Mac’s voice echoing through our little Kuna hostel. Breakfast was the usual – Kuna bread, fruit, coffee, and oatmeal – and then Mac announced the end of the San Blas Killers game. Everyone was laughing about who had survived and who hadn’t. Nina killed Leath Ann by pretending to drop an earring and handing her sand – genius. Meanwhile, Leath Ann confessed she’d had Saz as her target with a beer as the weapon, which is hilarious because Saz would never even THINK about picking up or drinking a beer.
We packed up and headed to the boats. The first leg was to Puerto Obaldia, Panama, where we would officially stamp out of Panama! The boat ride was about 1.5 hours of getting absolutely soaked, with massive waves wrecking us from every direction.
We arrived in Puerto Obaldia, a very soggy mess of people. Luckily, there was a nice outdoor cafe near the immigration office, where we all hung out as we took turns getting our paperwork sorted. It took about an hour for everybody to get stamped out, and then it was back on the boats for the final leg – 30 minutes of the wildest, wettest ride yet – until we would be officially crossing into Colombia.
Mac gave us a heads up that we were approaching the border and would be officially entering South America, and the second we crossed over our entire boat, being the culturally respectful people we are, we started singing the most beautiful rendition of Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie.
We finally arrived in Sapzurro, a charming beach town up the coast from Capurgana, our final destination. Apparently, Colombia’s immigration laws allow for a 24 hour grace period before needing to check in at immigration, so we pulled up some beach chairs, and chilled with some beers, ceviche, and tamales. The tamales were huge and delicious, which was a relief after we had been so hungry for the past few days. The running gag was that we were technically illegal immigrants to Colombia, no longer legally in Panama, but not yet legally in Colombia.
After a few hours of downtime and beers, we boarded the last set of boats for the quick 10-minute ride to Capurgana. There, we schlepped our plastic wrapped heavy bags to the San Blas Adventures office, hoping that the 4 days of extreme waves and bumps didn’t damage our precious cargo.
The immigration office was a few steps away from the San Blas offices, so we lined up with our passports to get get stamped into Colombia. Saz and Adam had to pay an extra fee for being Canadian, but eventually we all made it through.
Joha handed out electric-colored Smirnoff Ice-like bottles to toast our arrival. The drinks were insanely fluorescent and surprisingly strong, and we were all feeling crazy energy and buzz right away…theorizing that they might have been laced with something a little stronger…….something that Colombia is perhaps famous for….
Adam, Saz, and I wandered into Capurgana looking for our hostel, got completely lost, until some friendly Colombian ladies helped us find our way to our beautiful hostel, complete with a wraparound balcony. It was the most magical feeling having a shower after days on a boat with sand in every crevice.
We had an unforgettable adventure exploring the San Blas Islands. The scenery was breathtaking, of course, but what truly made the trip remarkable was the wonderful people we met. We learned so much about the indigenous culture, made countless new friends, and left with memories of an absolutely amazing trip.
We still had a few days left in Capurgana with the gang, before jetting off to our next stop, Medellin.