Eastern Lemon Cays, San Bas Islands

Monday, February 25, 2002

009-33.600 N
078-51.540 W

We've continued our trek westward through the San Blas islands. It's really hard to describe what it's like here. Tons of little islands that are covered with coconut trees. Each island group, such as the Lemon Cays where we are now, are owned jointly by a tribe. The tribe collects a fee from each visiting yacht, typically $6, which allows you to anchor at in the chain Each of the coconut trees is "owned" by an individual who maintains the grove. On some islands there's a caretaker who looks over the trees. Many times they're the only hut on the island. It's very obvious that some people maintain their groves much better than others as on a given island there will be a distinct line when one person's grove ends and another person's begins. The ground will be clear in one area and covered with palm branches in another. The cruising guide warns you not to pick up coconuts as they're owned by someone.

On some of the larger islands there might be 5-10 huts, all made out of bamboo with thatched roofs. Life in these villages looks like it hasn't changed in aeons. The men fish or tend coconut trees and the women make molas. There doesn't appear to be any educational facilities.

As day breaks you can see the fishermen heading out in their dugouts working the reefs. Most paddle and some have small sails. Occasionally you'll see a more prosperous one with an engine, but that's rare. When you pull into an anchorage there's a race between the people in the various surrounding islands to get to your boat first and sell you molas, fish, or fruit. Whoever gets there first has the best chance of getting the sale.

The reefs have been massively over-fished. The Kuna Indians take everything that the can get their hands on. Most of the lobster that they have for sale are tiny. They don't realize that they're killing the next crop. Yesterday Ken & I went out to the reef looking for lobster & we found 6-8 of them, all but one of which was too small for us to think about taking. The Kuna's would have taken them though. I did manage to get stung by a jelly fish with a VERY long tentacle. Oh, that hurt!

This anchorage is strewn with reefs. We're between Nuinudup and Banedup facing towards an inner reef. The snorkeling here is just so-so. Moving on to Chichime today.

Oh, great news! My new camera shipped yesterday. Joy, joy, joy!
Log ID: 175