Just another day in Paradise

Not to quote Phil Collins or anyting but...
I felt bad for waking up at noon. No really. Usually I have no qualms with it, but when the first thing you see when you open your eyes is this...
... you understandably feel a little bad. Today is our second day in the islands and the rum was flowing quite freely last night, hence the late wakeup. Honestly , it's tough to put into words the constant amazement one goes through walking around this place. Our host and guide, Ricardo, a Kuna indian, met up with us yesterday morning at the airport, which essentially consists of a 100 yard strip of concrete in the jungle by the coast line, a small roof over 2 benches for a terminal, and a pontoon which leads to the "taxis", 3 or 4 small canoes with motors. From there it was a 45 minute boat ride through slightly choppy seas (it's windy in January) to this place, Isla Pelicano (Pelican Island, probably named after the numerous pelicans who chill and feed off its coast).
The island is about 100 yards long by 50 yards wide. If it werent for all the palm trees, you'd see clearly from one shore to another. The island is oblong shaped with the main beach facing Panama's coastline (usually hidden in the clouds in the distance). Two huts are located on the other side of the island, litteraly within spitting distance of the sea.

Now, this isnt the Ritz by any means. The hut is made of bamboo, the floor is sand, and aside from a small built in shelf, there is nothing but the two bamboo beams to hang your hammock onto. But that's the charm of it. It's like camping except the tent is open and you dont sleep on the floor.

From the hut's door, you can spot a handful of other islands. Some seem within reach of a good hearty swim (if it wasnt for the current), others are barely visible on the horizon, with many others in between of various sizes. This is the San Blas archipelago, off the Caribean coast of Panama.

As you can imagine, activities on the island are fairly reduced, and yet it's simply impossible to get bored. You can swim in the turquoise seas and snorkle along the small coral reef barrier off the northern coast of the island.

Or you can tag along with Ricardo and his buddies for the fishing, but to be honest, it's tough to stay in the sun for too long as it's a pretty brutal beat down. Then of course, there's napping, my personal favorite, the difficult part being finding the best spot for your hammock.

Once you've spotted the right pair of palm trees, it's just a matter of lying there in the shade, enjoying the pelicans' deft ballet as they climb in the air then let themselves drop like stones, beaks first, wings pulled back, to catch their never ending lunch. Plug in the iPod or just let the sound of waves crashing slowly lull you into a shallow sleep ? Decisions decisions.

A walk around the island only takes 5 minutes so that's really not worth doing more than a handful of times unless you're zooted and you've got a funky new camera to play with. Oh wait... Thankfully, life is made much more tolerable by the cooler full of beer that was restocked this morning (no picture of that this time, sorry).

Today Ricardo dropped us off to the neighboring island, you know, for variety's sake. This one had a cool little sandy beach that extended outwards along its point for about 50 yards. We took some time to snorkle around the island, walked along the beach picking conch shells, chilled under the shade of palm trees admiring the turquoise waters.

We made our way back to our little homestead in the late afternoon, in time to enjoy the evening, the setting sun and the rising moon. Ken pulled out his lucky Brady shirt righ around kick off time, hoping for a repaeat of the previous week's lucky charm powers.

The dinner that was prepared with the day's catch was both delicious and ridiculous: 3 types of shellfish moxed in with rice cooked in coconut milk, and home made coconut caramel for dessert. Then, it was time for a cub scout classic: a huge bonfire around which we gathered for countless rounds of rum and traditionnal Kuna stories.

Just another day in paradise. I'll go back in about 2 months, once the glow from this 2 day trip (that really seemed like a week vacation) has dissipated. No need to rush it. Although... it IS just there... right there... a hald hour plane ride away, for just $150 a weekend all inclusive. And now that we're good buddies with Ricardo... OK, so maybe next month, to recover from carnaval...