Pitufa.at

We’re anchored in front of a tiny island a few miles north of Isla Tigre. We wanted to anchor at Niadup at the Devil Cays, but when we were approaching a thunderstorm came up and the charts were again horribly inaccurate, so we didn’t dare entering. Today was almost no swell, so we have it smooth here at Isla Puyadas as well (unless another thunderstorm… Continue reading »

Todays trip from Tupile to Snug Harbour was straightforward and without complications. The water is finally clear again (near the mainland the many rivers discharge lots of mud and sand into the sea), which is, next to good light, the second important requirement for eye-ball navigation. In the morning is was nicely sunny, but when we entered the new anchorage a thunderstorm cloud built up… Continue reading »

Today’s task was to motor the 2.8 miles from Isla Mono to San Ignacio de Tupile. Sounds ridiculously easy, but navigating through the reefs in somewhat murky water took us 2 hours and all our nerves. Birgit at the helm tried to look at the dephtsounder, the chartplotter in the cockpit (with a completely wrong chart, but showing heading and speed) and the more accurate… Continue reading »

Yesterday we used the fair weather to get to our next anchorage at Isla Mono. It took us 7 hours (!) for the mere 20 miles since navigation is so treacherous in these waters. Finding our way through the reefs we had several close encounters with non-charted coral heads. The good part was we cought a big barracuda so we had barracuda steaks for dinner,… Continue reading »

This morning we visited Ustupu, the largest village in the San Blas, once more to buy some things. We thought that a settlement of that size must have some rubbish collection system, so we took a bag with plastic rubbish with us. When asking around where to put it the people just pointed to the shore–already full with litter. We couldn’t believe it and asked… Continue reading »

We reached the largest village of Kuna Yala, Ustupu, after motoring (as almost always here in the rainy season) 15 miles up from Isla Pinos. A place to buy cheap beer (yea!), to check the internet (WiFi at the school), and to leave quickly again. It’s not a very pretty place and people are rather unfriendly. The local coast guard station checked our papers. Our… Continue reading »

Today around noon we motored the few miles from Mulatupu to Isla Pino. For this island, our cruising guide recommends to anchor at a depth of only 2.5 meters, which is way too shallow for our taste (that would leave about 30 cm under the keel). So we aimed at a spot further offshore where it is supposed to have at least 4 meters. However,… Continue reading »

When the fishermen in Puerto Escoces told us that their village was a “ciudad” (a town), we just smiled to ourselves, but after motoring 12 nm to get to the bay we discovered that Mulatupu is indeed a town. About 5000 Kuna live packed on this island (some parts of it artificially raised), there’s several markets, a bakery, but the best bread is sold from… Continue reading »

We spent two days in the calm anchorage of Puerto Perme (Perme means “bay” in the Kuna language), visited the two adjourning villages Anachucuna and Pueblo Nuevo. The Kuna there are friendly, we were invited to three houses and got to chat with the people. Their huts are basic, most walls made from bamboo (quite practical, the people inside can see out, but you can’t… Continue reading »