Date of Entry: January 14th 2017
Date of Writing: September 10th 2017
So first things first, I’m writing this as a married man which is pretty exciting. Nine days ago on my mother’s birthday I married the woman of my dreams here in Brazil because I’m just that lucky. So from here on out my name is the impressively lengthy Lucas Harold George Robinson Grant Porfirio Da Silva. Now back to the blog, my wife being one of the main reasons I’m so far behind. But I will catch up, and I have the notes, photos and memories to do it.
I sleep well in the calm sheltered bay surrounded by the san blas islands and awake refreshed and ready to move, and move we do, setting off early to make the most of our second full day in this little cluster of paradise just off the coast of Panama. We drag our zodiac behind us, because luckily we don’t have far to go, as none of these stunning islands are too distant.
An hour or so later we arrive, our crew dropping anchor nearby two more beautiful islands in a section of the ocean with quite a strong current. We waste no time dividing into two groups and grabbing the zodiac on to the island. Renata and I are on the second boat and the journey gets a bit wet making me very pleased to have my national geographic waterproof bag I bought before the Antartica expedition. Thankfully it keeps everything dry and lets me bring my camera to shore safely to capture the even more incredible than the day before colour of the water here along with our two Aussie friends.
The best photos are taken in the shallow strip of sea between two of the islands which you can easily walk across to explore either island, if you’re brave enough to pass a very friendly and small dog owned by one of the local family’s which was pushing it for Renata though she did manage and spent an amazing hour or so with me just exploring the tiny little island and revelling in the cool embrace of this beautiful crystal clear water.
As we explore our Colombian friend David and his Australian girlfriend Stephanie come over and we take some pictures for each other before I of course fall into the unforgettable and truly gorgeous paint me jack pose I will one day be famous for. (I’m just kidding, it’s hideous but at least it’s in a beautiful place.)
It’s hard to leave this perfect place and so we stay a while longer taking more photos, swimming, laughing, kissing and just falling in love with the caribbean as a whole, one day I have to better explore all the islands there, though that can be somewhat difficult on a budget.
We eventually walk back past the friendly dog onto the main island where we swim a bit more and circle around the island snapping a few more photos before we head back to our boat to spend the late afternoon enjoying a late lunch and delicious dinner from the amazing chef on board the Amande 2.
Today is a day of relaxation and we don’t actually do much but it’s beautiful and beyond perfection, even hanging out on deck as some of the others go to a bar on shore is a lot of fun, Mani joining and slowly but surely making Renata start to reconsider her fear.
As the daylight starts to die and we opt not to go party on the island we instead spend the evening together chatting and reviewing pictures from the day, while also thinking about what we want to do once we get to mainland Panama. Sleep comes easy, and we’re sad that tomorrow will be our last full day in San Blas, and that in just a handful more days Renata has to head home to Brazil while I work my way northwards through Central America to Mexico.
