Day 4 Cruise

Today, the ship docked 5 blocks from the San Blas Islands. We got on a tender, a small boat made for taking people through shallow waters and saving people’s lives in the case of the ship sinking. The tender carried us through a relatively choppy sea to the small (shrinking) island. Upon arrival we were greeted by the usual blast of locals selling overpriced knickknacks to the many flocking tourists. After getting a picture with some local kids, we found a guy who said he would take us to another island called Icodub. We agreed and followed him through some narrow passages in between the huts that the locals lived in to a small fishing boat. He said he would need at least two more people for the trip to be profitable to him. Luckily, the demonstration chef from the ship and his wife were nearby and happy to join us. After a little convincing to the chef’s wife and a little bartering with the man who was going to take us to the island, we got a ride to the island for $17 per person.

The ride out there was awesome! They drove the rickety old boat over colossal waves that could rock the massive cruise ship. We would go up to the top of a wave and drop off of the other side. After fifteen minutes we were through the rough patch. We approached a beautiful island with an amazing 
beach! Luckily, my mom and I brought goggles. We ran into the water and swam around in the shallows. There were some amazing reefs. They lacked color, but were abundant with fish. I saw a
barracuda, puffer fish and some pretty white fish with black tips on their fins. My mom got to swim in a
school of over 1,000,000 fish. After that we headed back to the little pier where the fishing boat was
waiting. It took us back to the main island and we wandered around for a little while. We observed the
culture. It was very different from our's. All the ladies had a black line tattooed down their noses and were selling molas which are cloths with pictures woven onto them. They are beautiful and colorful. Their school was very small. They only had one soccer field for their sports. It was about a quarter of the size of a real soccer field and was concrete. One little boy was playing with a BB-gun. We got a little lost, which was surprising considering the island was only two square blocks, but eventually we found our way back to the tenders. We got on a tender and headed for the main ship. It was quite the adventure!



The chef and his wife on the way to the island.

Icodub beach from the ocean.


My mom took this picture.





The small pier on the beautiful island Icodub.


Some local hustle and bustle of the town.






A street with people selling molas.






A large house with a nice yard.






Adios!

Comments

  1. ChristiJanuary 28, 2019 at 7:53 PM

    Wish we'd thought to do that!!! We spent the whole time on the island! I'm surprised you didn't comment on the Kuna women's tattoo'd stripe down their forehead to the tip of their nose!!!

    Happy Blogging! As my sister said to me, you will be so glad you kept these pictures and stories so that when they all start to blur together, and you can't remember which was which you have a great reference!

    Christi

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 13, 2019 at 6:15 PM

    The tenders handled those waves? Wow!

    ReplyDelete

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