Community amongst the San Blas Islands
Its hard not to get caught up in the seemingly rock-star life that is given when you take a sailboat, lots of rum, some good people, and the pristine atmosphere that the San Blas Islands present. We sailed 3 days into the chain of 350 islands before having to stock up on some provisions. The boat needed some diesel fuel and the crew needed more food to get through the 2 days at sea that was facing the Sea Adler. Our captain Guido radioed into the nearest port to have our supplies boated out to us. When the supplies came they where only partial to what we needed and a full day late. In frustration Guido pulled up anchor and drove the boat to a small island community amongst the San Blas. The island was scarcely larger then 2 football fields and had all a community would need. As we set foot on the dock of the island it actually felt like we were in a far off land. The kids ran up to us as they where equally intrigued at the foreigners. I felt very lucky to see this island since it had’nt been tainted by the tourism industry. The kids wanted attention instead of money and the people as a whole seemed to be more personal instead of trying diligently to sell some meaningless trinkets. I stayed occupied with the kids, giving them piggyback rides and trying to move while 10 kids attached themselves to my limbs. This place was as close to an ideal cultural experience as ever. It was good to see people living like a community and working together on an island so secluded. In a lot of aspects the village was sheltered from the outside world and it was beautiful.
There is a book amongst travelers called the lovely planet. This book is a tourist guide constructed collectively to make peoples journeys, vacations, spiritual awakenings as foreseen as possible. It makes traveling a little more scheduled and perhaps comfortable for those who need a plan. As my words sound like they are not into the idea, its because I am against the thought of a planned journey. Sure I am in the process of traveling from point A to point B, but the contents of my trip are as sporadic as possible. I feel that there is more to learn in a journey that is more oblivious and has less expectations. Not trying to belittle anyones means of travel as I am not saying that I have the art of traveling figured out. There are times when a trip has a time limit and has a expectations and this is when the lonely planet is an asset. As for this little island community being in the lonely planet, it still has its simplicity and not yet scorned.