Top 10 Things to Do in the San Blas Islands, Panama

The Panama Canal is one of the most used waterways in the world and many cruisers pass between it to get from the Caribbean to the Pacific or vice versa, but there’s so much more to Panama than just passage. For the cruiser, Panama has three different cruising areas in Bocas del Toro, the Pearl Islands, and the San Blas Islands. This month’s Top Ten will focus on the San Blas Islands to Colon, where the Canal begins.

10. Veggie Boats

The San Blas Islands are fairly isolated and if you want to get groceries it’s a day sail back to Linton Bay and then a half hour car ride into Colon. The good news is there are several locals that will stop by your boat several times a week with fresh vegetables and fruits along with selected dry goods. It’s always fun to shop from your boat and the guys are super friendly. If you get to know one and tell him what you need, they can bring anything to you, making life more convenient.

 

9. Villages

Sailing around the San Blas Islands you will find the 365 islands to mostly be uninhabited, but several have a family living on them and some have an entire village. Even though the villages are not the most beautiful places you’ve been while on vacation, they are quite interesting to visit and very welcoming. Most of the houses are bamboo huts with thatch or metal roofs and many have a solar panel or two to provide power, but other than that the locals, known as Kuna, are the most traditional living natives in the Caribbean and it’s amazing to witness.

8. Linton Bay

Roughly halfway between Colon and the San Blas Islands is Linton Bay and it is a great place to provision before spending weeks in the San Blas Islands, but this should not be the only reason you visit. The coast is protected by several islands where Linton Bay Marina was built, which provides dockage, laundry, stores, and other necessities along with access to taxis or buses. The best feature of this area in my opinion is Linton Island because it’s now overrun by monkeys and around 5pm or so you can watch them walking along the shore. You also have the Love Canal which is a dinghy channel that goes over to Panamarina and nearby is a nice sandy beach called Playa Blanca.

 

7. Chichime Cays

When you enter the San Blas Islands from the west, the mainland becomes a peninsula and there are several island groups within an hour of that point.  The Chichime Cays feature a protective reef almost completely enclosing a small bay with several small coconut covered sandy islands scattered around. It’s so wonderful you will almost always have several boats here, but it’s worth it because this place is postcard worthy and a wonderful place to exist. Besides exploring the reef several times, I enjoyed the northern island’s beach where the sand dropped from knee deep to over your head in one step.

 

6. Panama Canal

Taking a break from the solidarity of the islands and ways to enjoy them, we’re going to head back to Colon in order to see one of the most amazing man-made marvels in the world. The Panama Canal was built over a hundred years ago to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Today there are two different channels. The older one and a new one that was built a decade ago to facilitate larger ships and more traffic. There’s a fantastic visitor center which provides history, photos, a movie, and a viewing platform to watch ships come and go and also looks out over Gatun Lake where many cargo ships are anchored waiting to move forward. The Panama Canal is just simply fascinating to see and my favorite part is the old trains at the older locks to move ships in and out of the locks.

 

5. Holandes Island Group

The large island group at the northern part of the western San Blas Islands is a collection of over 12 islands of various sizes connected by a 5+ mile long barrier reef. Anchoring almost anywhere will provide protection and you can find multiple channels that cut deep into the barrier reef and are ripe for exploring. Plus, there are several small, protected reefs and sandy beaches to enjoy. A couple of the islands are inhabited by the Kunas and they provide meals with advance notice. My wife and I unexpectedly found the chef on BBQ Island provided a sushi dinner, which was a phenomenal experience. We took our kids to the island just south of there and had a fantastic catered fish dinner. All in all, you could spend well over a week just in this island group and have something to do every day.

 

4. Portobelo

The history side of me could not wait until we were able to visit Portobelo, because when the Spanish ruled the new world all the treasure that they extracted from South America and Mexico came through this small town. Due to all this treasure, this town was one of the most fortified towns of its time. Surrounding the deep bay, you will find four or five different fortifications and thinking how Henry Morgan was still able to sack this town is amazing. We were also able to learn about the Black Jesus statue legend at the local church.

 

3. Snorkeling

I have snorkeled all over the Caribbean and snorkeling in the San Blas Islands did not disappoint. I was able to find snorkel sites there that range from open water to protected in any condition. The reefs are beautiful and with lots of fish and other sea creatures. As with most people who live on a boat, I couldn’t stay out of the water and enjoyed every moment I had a mask on.

 

2. Molas

Since I’ve been in the Caribbean I’ve been told if I make it to the San Blas Islands, I had to check out the molas, but no one really explained what they were. The local Kunas take scraps of different colored cloth and hand sew them together into beautiful native or more touristy designs. The natives will come up to you in their dugout canoes to sell their artistic creations. Once you’ve seen several different works you can tell the difference between a master and someone that’s still perfecting the art. By the time you leave you’re going to end up having bought more molas than you know what to do with because they are so beautiful and hard to resist.

 

1. The San Blas Islands

I know it’s going to be a bit of a cop out but my number one spot on this list is simply going to be the San Blas Islands. This is because everywhere we went we loved it. There are groups of islands protected by reefs, other islands that are off by themselves, the mainland with the rain forest up to the water, rivers you can kayak, and the friendly locals makes being here absolutely magical. We did not have one bad day in our entire time while we were there. An additional bonus is the range of activities is huge. The only negative which turns out to be a positive is the lack of accessibility for people and supplies. As I’ve said before you’re a day sail away from any services that you need unless you’re able to have a local bring it to you. It’s a wonderful place to visit.

Shane McClellan has written for ALL AT SEA since 2016.