Undisturbed beauty of San Blas

The islands of the San Blas Archipelago are strung out along the Caribbean coast of Panama from the Golfo de San Blas nearly all the way to the Colombian border. San Blas is a series of 378 islands of which only 49 are inhabited by the fiercely independent Kuna Indians. Although only a 30-minute plane ride away from Panama City or four hours by four-wheel track vehicles, a trip to the San Blas islands will transport you 20 centuries into the past.

The Kuna Indians, who run all the islands as an autonomous province, with minimal interference from the national government have maintained their own economic system, language, customs and culture, with distinctive dress, legends, music and dance and thus have avoided traditional tourism development. The economy of the islands is based on coconut sales, fishing and tourism, and they offer travelers good snorkeling and swimming. Facilities are few and very simple, as is the food. The area is surrounded by reefs, some of the oldest in the world, and offer wonderful free-diving and snorkeling opportunities, the best of which are between the months of April and June.

San Blas is famous for one of its arts and crafts, the mola. Kuna women make rainbow colored fabrics, emblazoned with fish, birds, jungle animals and geometric designs that would impress the eyes of the more critical artists. The men still fish from canoes as they did before Columbus came and often carry buckets to get rid of the water that constantly leaks the canoes wooden structure. They still run up to the corner coconut palm trees for something fresh and cool to drink each morning, just as they have for untold centuries.

As long as the Kuna Indians manage to keep traditional and unsustainable tourism from booming in this area, San Blas Archipelago and Kuna’s culture will remain as an undisturbed nature and sociological jewel.

Pictures by Yann Feron (www.yannferon.com)

Diving in Bocas del Toro

Christopher Columbus was the first white man to anchor in Bocas waters in 1502 . Later, English pirates used Bocas as safe haven and in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Bocas became an international commercial center for trade in cacao and bananas. Bocas was populated mainly by immigrants from Jamaica making Bocas an English speaking province in a Spanish speaking nation. Even today, most locals speak English.

At the turn of the century, the town of Bocas del Toro was the first headquarters of the United Fruit Company. Boasting of 25,000 inhabitants, it had six consuls and five newspapers. A banana blight in the l920's put an end to this vibrant commercial center, but historical buildings and a stately park still stand.

Diving and Snorkeling
The best places for diving are Coral Key,

Dark Wood Reef, Hospital Point and Punta Juan Buoy. For snorkeling, the Garden near Cayo Nancy, and Punta Juan buoy are excellent..

When diving in Bocas you will be able to see some of the best preserved hard and soft coral in the world. You will also have the opportunity to see sting rays, lobsters, many species of crabs and a countless variety of tropical reef fish. Besides, it has nice wreck diving, which is hallow and with a good amount of life.

Bocas is also a great place to do night dives. There is a huge amount of amazing bioluminescence. Lots of big crabs and others come out to be seen.

I could concentrate on my dives by using the Suunto D9, which is the world's first dive computer to integrate a digital compass and wireless tank data reception. Suunto D9 combines all dive-critical information in one instrument, conveniently mounted on your wrist. Instead of monitoring a multitude of gauges, I enjoyed my dives and played around with the compass by finding all the critical information in this reliable instrument.

The friendly staff from www.labugapanama.com would help you to discover the magnificent underwater world held in this relaxed corner of Panama.