chichime

so many islands in san blas and they are all equally beautiful. the entrance to this one was completely off on the charts. If we had followed the GPS on the way in, we would have surely sailed on top of corals and a tiny island with a palm tree. fortunately we arrived during the day and the channel was obvious, so we followed the color of the water and what we saw, instead of the electronics, and went right in. we could see an old boat up against the reefs at a distance. not the best of sites for a sailor. this island had maybe 5 other sailboats at anchor and we quickly met most of them. one of them was captain don north, the owner of another morgan 38. we were happy to see another boat just like ours so we went to meet him and introduced ourselves. he invited us onboard. it is strange to see another boat just like ours and see how the same boat can be so different. he also went to our boat and brought us very good champagne which we drank with delicious lobsters. we celebrated the encounter and complimented each other’s boats, of course. we also met other captains and crew from the other sailboats. we were even singing alone one night with a group of backpackers playing a guitar and singing american tunes (as if we knew any)… i guess more than signing we were humming along but having a lot of fun. a big part of sailing is spending time with the other boaters. we admit we do not do this often, but somehow in this place we did, and we actually enjoyed it. the days passed in this place very fast. we would snorkel, swim and try to get lobster every day, and at night we would be in ours or someone else’s boat eating the lobster we had bought from the kunas, because we failed miserably at every try to get some ourselves… we like this routine very much. it wouldn’t be hard at all for us to live in a place like this.