Taste of the Exotic

I think the highlight of my time in Panama thus far has definitely been visiting the San Blas (Kuna Yala) islands. We were supposed to go via these 365 archipelago islands on our way here by boat from Cartagena, but as outlined in my previous post the harbour was shut there due to the Summit of the Americas, so we ended up flying instead. I had resigned myself to the fact that we weren't going to see the islands at all, until I was told you could do excursions from Panama City. Whoop!


The excursion there began at the ungodly hour of 5:30am where we were picked up from Lunas Castle hostel which I mentioned to you in my previous blog. From here we were driven in a 4x4 vehicle to the island of Carti. The road to Carti was pretty insane, with lots of steep inclines and then sudden drops. One section of road we traversed had even collapse on one side! Once at Carti, we caught a boat to take us to the island of Tubasenika (a.k.a. Franklin) where we had chosen to stay. The treacherous journey was worth it though as the island was literally straight out of a Bounty advert (the chocolate, not the kitchen roll...).

Our boat - with life jackets!!!

Another boat going to a different island

Just one of the many islands we past...some were even smaller!

Our own piece of paradise : D

Closer view of paradise

Everybody getting off the boat

Welcome to Tuba Senika!

The island was absolutely stunning, albeit randomly full of Israelis. After speaking to the two Israeli guys I was sharing a hut with it transpired that when they go travelling they all use a website called Gringo which basically tells them where to go and what to see. Our tropical Panamanian island being one of these places on the list. Someone needs to translate this Gringo website into English as it sounds ideal website for when you´re travelling. 


Franklin island where we were staying was pretty basic, which just a few huts, some toilets, a volley ball net and basket ball hoop. Weirdly the island was split into two parts with a fence running down the middle. It turned out that one side was Franklin cabins and the other was Senidub cabins. All fine until we realised that our electricity switched off at 10pm and the other side of the islands electricity stayed on?! Not amused...

Basket ball "court"

Our hut - you can see my bed through the door...

Where we all slept. Check out my Porky Pig bed sheets!

The view to the right from our hut

The toilets...

The beach 

Its a hard life...

Being a tropical island, there really wasn't much to do except chill out and enjoy the stunning surroundings. We swam in the sea (which was like a bath it was so clear and warm), played some volley ball (badly), shot a few hoops with the b.ball (surprisingly quite well much to the amusement of the Israelis) and played endless card games. 


Meal times were announced by the blow of a conch which I found hilarious and very Lord of the flies! I was expecting to get bitten to death by mossies and sand flies whilst on the island however I came away unscathed which was pretty amazing. I did douse myself in Deet and have been taking insane amounts of vitamin B12 tablets so I think this may have helped...

Kitchen & general rules on Franklin Island

Eating area

A conch not too dissimilar to the one they used to announce meal times

Our one night on the island turned out to be pretty eventful. We were all in bed by 10pm as the electricity as outlined above was all switched off then which made it pretty difficult to do anything. I managed to get about three hours of shut eye before I was awoken by an almighty clap of thunder which caused me to fall out of my bed and hit my travel buddy Gordon who was in the bed next to me, in the face. Poor guy. Unfortunately that was just the start of it, I was awake for the next three hours rocking myself in fear on my bed whilst the storm continued to wreak havoc outside. I was also, annoyingly, desperate for a pee but I was certainly not going to venture outside. Every time the lightning struck in would light up our tiny hut (the wooden slat walls were see-through) and then the wind would howl through causing my bed sheets to lift! What didn't help was the proximity of our hut to the sea, we were literally not even a metre away. Whilst Im sure the islanders would not have built the huts that close if they knew it was dangerous, my over active imagination was conjuring up visions of tidal waves crashing towards us :(


Thankfully my imagination was just that, all made up. The storm past, albeit very slowly, causing me to eventually drift off and then oversleep and almost miss my boat ride back to Carti! To think that some islands don't even have huts, rather just hammocks to sleep in makes me think actually we were pretty lucky...