San Blas was an interesting stop. We’d heard some warnings about dinghies being stolen right off of people boats! Plus, everyone warns about the Jejenes (no-see-um bugs) that eat you alive. The theft warnings…hooey. Jejenes…TRUE! They eat you alive!! But, although I’m still itching almost two weeks later, I was very glad we spent a couple days in San Blas.
Actually…we were in the Bay of Matanchen, which is the anchorage near San Blas without having to cross into the San Blas estuary. It’s a very large, very beautiful bay surrounded by beaches and beautiful, green mountainsides. The sun sets each evening over a sliver of beach lined with picturesque palm trees – pretty much every picture looks like a postcard.
Pretty, golden sunset (top) and a foggy sunrise (bottom) in the Bay of Matanchen/San Blas.
We decided to not travel into the actual town of San Blas [Dave was getting over the cold he caught from me 😦 ], but we did take the jungle cruise tour from nearby La Tovara with friends on s/vs Navigo and August Moon.
We were the first boat out in the morning (7am) and got to see many birds that only come out first thing in the morning. Really cool to see some of them drying their wings from the tops of the trees. We also caught glimpses of iguanas and some limar-like monkey things (still not quite sure exactly what they were…but they were cool to see). However, by the time the cruise was half over and we were visiting the local Cocodrilaio (croc refuge), we hadn’t seen a single croc in the wild! The bigs crocs at the refuge were cool to see, but it was a little sad that they were in such small pens. It looked like they were in the process of fixing and/or building new pens while we were there, so they may have just been in temporary spots.
Welcome the the Jungle…literally (top); bird drying its wings in the early morning sunlight (middle); and Crocs in the cocodrilario in La Tovara (bottom).
Anyway, I was starting to get a little worried that we’d leave the tour without seeing a single croc that wasn’t in a cage. But, on our way back from Tovera Springs, as we were racing back along the jungle path, I spotted one sunning himself on a big rock. I shouted to the tour guide, “Crocodile!!” and pointed back behind us. He put the ponga in reverse and we all got a close-up view of Mr. Crocodillio. After that, we kept spotting more crocs sunning themselves along the shoreline. It was very cool and made the trip to San Blas complete.
Crocs in the wild!
The Capt' and SME 