San Blas, January 26, 2020
Leaving S. Marta on January 22 we set sail for the San Blas archipelago, about 280 miles to the west. In reality, we couldn’t wait to leave the moorings from Santa Marta and Colombia to enter the somewhat magical and surreal world of these islands.
The route is quite simple if you have the foresight to pass wide from the mouth of the Magdalena river to Barranquilla, which with its mouth to the estuary, and a not proper care of the ecology of the Colombian inhabitants of its banks, pours tons of floating waste into the sea including refrigerators and other plasticky amenities, of all shapes, colors and sizes. Poor Planet. Despite the 20 miles away from the coast, when we are on the side of Barranquilla the water progressively turns from blue to light brown, and then really deep brown, I switch off the engine despite the little wind because I am afraid of sucking mud, but fortunately the distance is so much so that we quickly pass this disturbing moment. Milanto’s friends have passed 5 miles, inside the mud, and now the engine does not cool down anymore.
However, troubles are always around the corner, and we too have had a problem, the umpteenth with the batteries, so much so that one exploded after a night with the engine dead, for overcharge it is said, in the sense that defective, continued to give consent to the alternator to charge, so at the check I do, I see on the external digital thermometers that I have placed for safety, a worrying temperature of 87 degrees !!! When normal is 40. Disaster. One open and boiling (burst) sealed lead AGM battery and three others in poor condition. An emergency situation that we solve by disconnecting 4 batteries from the park of 8 and implementing progressive cooling with forced ventilation and ice-gel packs.Send mail to the race committee for support in Panama (Shelter Bay) before crossing the canal. Three batteries will need to be replaced, but at least the danger of a real explosion on board has been averted (thanks to my digital thermometers purchased for a few euros on Amazon!!!) and therefore to a prompt diagnosis. In the meantime, the wind has arrived and we proceed fast towards the San Blas where we arrive on January 24 at 12 in the morning, in full sun, also because a late arrival in the dark would be dangerous due to the absolute lack of light signals, buoys or headlights, in a area where the coral reef protects microscopic islets low on the sea, where the highest peaks are the tufts of older palms.but at least the danger of a real explosion on board has been averted (thanks to my digital thermometers purchased for a few euros on Amazon !!!) and therefore to a prompt diagnosis. In the meantime, the wind has arrived and we proceed fast towards the San Blas where we arrive on January 24 at 12 in the morning, in full sun, also because a late arrival in the dark would be dangerous due to the absolute lack of light signals, buoys or headlights, in a area where the coral reef protects microscopic islets low on the sea, where the highest peaks are the tufts of older palms.but at least the danger of a real explosion on board has been averted (thanks to my digital thermometers purchased for a few euros on Amazon !!!) and therefore to a prompt diagnosis. In the meantime, the wind has arrived and we proceed fast towards the San Blas where we arrive on January 24 at 12 in the morning, in full sun, also because a late arrival in the dark would be dangerous due to the absolute lack of light signals, buoys or headlights, in a area where the coral reef protects microscopic islets low on the sea, where the highest peaks are the tufts of older palms.also because a late arrival in the dark would be dangerous due to the absolute lack of light signals, buoys or lighthouses, in an area where the coral reef protects microscopic low islands on the sea, where the highest peaks are the tufts of the older palms.also because a late arrival in the dark would be dangerous due to the absolute lack of light signals, buoys or lighthouses, in an area where the coral reef protects microscopic low islands on the sea, where the highest peaks are the tufts of the older palms.
An ancient nature that has remained as such, without resorts, without hotels, without brick houses, without the possibility that a Western human greedy for business can make them his own and without wi-fi. The Kuna Yala, the dignified population of these islands, have fought for centuries to maintain their independence, not only with diplomacy but also with force when necessary and today, in 2020, they still live here with hand-built, thatched houses. , banana leaves and bamboo canes, move on their streamlined and very robust canoes to face the ocean waves between one atoll and another, they eat coconut and any type of fish or crustacean of which the reef is a rich supplier.
Kuna Yala
The name San Blas was given to the Spaniards who attempted invasions on several occasions, both targeted and unsuccessful; and the Kuna do not like the name San Blas and to them the islands are the home of the Kuna Yala, period. Matriarchal society, women decide who to choose as a mate, homosexuality is considered normal, and some men walk around in women’s clothes and take care of female tasks in absolute normality. The Kuna community has leaders divided into groups of islands, and they are concerned with the ecological order, with the control of tourism of the boats that pass by, and with the removal of malicious people. The wealth of the place is also given by the gold of which the rivers of these places are particularly rich and have obviously attracted not only the Spaniards, but pirates and other mercenaries.Today the Kunas have stopped looking for gold in their rivers because they say that since they haven’t done so, the rumor has spread that the gold is gone. Then from a local handicraft of gold jewelry, they moved on to fabrics, and to the packaging of the so-called “Molas”, collages of beautifully colored fabrics that are hand-sewn and assembled in various shapes and designs. There is also a Molas on Ariel in various shades of green depicting a fish.
Peaceful and smiling people did not hesitate to become violent and massacre to protect their region, to the point that the Spaniards fled leaving a wreck on the reef with a load of Rum, and so pirates and mercenaries disappeared. Even cocaine traffickers do not have an easy life among the Kuna Yala, as he told us yesterday during an exploration of an island in the East Holandes atoll, the new seat of a local jurisdiction to control tourism and especially drugs. Today he should bring us a blue crab for lunch; in fact, at night the crabs enter from the reef towards the lagoon to feed on the thriving life of tiny animals, from micropaguri to micropiscus, which, if they manage to become large, will swim free towards the reef. Life is hard for them too. We don’t have many days to stop in San Blas,therefore we move every day to a different atoll to discover, in the similarity, the details that instead represent a diversity. In fact, today we will move to Lemon Keys, an atoll articulated by dozens of small anchorages and where two Kuna families have made their home a sort of small restaurant for those who pass by boat and prepare dinners in the style of the Kuna, with coconut milk, shellfish and fish. Lobster is their pizza. Having arrived by one’s own means, driven only by the wind, having crossed two seas and an ocean, and exchanging a kg of rice with a discount on Guido’s Amaranth-colored Molas is truly a journey and makes us feel a little like explorers.an atoll articulated by dozens of small anchorages and where two Kuna families have made their home a sort of small restaurant for those who travel by boat and prepare dinners in the style of the Kuna, with coconut milk, shellfish and fish. Lobster is their pizza. Having arrived by one’s own means, driven only by the wind, having crossed two seas and an ocean, and exchanging a kg of rice with a discount on Guido’s Amaranth-colored Molas is truly a journey and makes us feel a little like explorers.an atoll articulated by dozens of small anchorages and where two Kuna families have made their home a sort of small restaurant for those who travel by boat and prepare dinners in the style of the Kuna, with coconut milk, shellfish and fish. Lobster is their pizza. Having arrived by one’s own means, driven only by the wind, having crossed two seas and an ocean, and exchanging a kg of rice with a discount on Guido’s Amaranth-colored Molas is truly a journey and makes us feel a little like explorers.and bartering a kg of rice for a discount on Guido’s Amaranth-colored Molas is truly a journey and makes us feel a little like explorers.and bartering a kg of rice for a discount on Guido’s Amaranth-colored Molas is truly a journey and makes us feel a little like explorers.
I’m going to anchor, but the crab hasn’t arrived yet… see
you tomorrow from team Ariel
