A Complete Guide To visiting the paradise San Blas

Have you ever heard of the virgin islands of Panama? Panama has 350 islands, some of them are part of the Guna Yala community. A paradise that you really shouldn't miss.

San Blas is an area in the Caribbean of Panama, full of really beautiful islands with crystal clear waters and white sand, without many people and far from the stress of the city, Panamá gives you a little piece of your paradise.

How to get here?

Well backpackers, let us tell you that if you have already gone to Panama and did not go to these islands, you definitely have to return. To get here it is easier than you think here we leave you the steps:

1. Take an uber from where you are in Panama city to the Albrook Terminal. We were staying at Casa Areka Hostel and the Uber cost us $ 6.

2. In the Albrook terminal, it is a bit confusing how it works, we were very lost, so we hope that with this post you will not get lost. To get to the bus area you must buy a card that serves one or more people, the card costs $ 1. Somewhere in that terminal, load your card with whatever you want, it is $ 0.10 for each person that passes to the bus area. Here ask for the bus that goes to Cañitas (terminal 49). The ticket costs $ 2.5 and takes 2 hours. Tell the collector or driver to leave you at the entrance to go to San Blas, but you are very likely to be taken to Cañitas and you will have to take another bus.

Then, this part gets a little difficult. We read in many blogs that the only way to reach the ports (without a tour) is to throw finger at the 4x4 trucks. Arriving in Panama as many people told us to take a tour because it was a very big risk. And well as we love adventure we take the risk, here the result:

1. Upon arrival we met a man who seemed local, his name is Alex (cell +50760258752) he asked us if we wanted a car for San Blas and well he called someone on the radio and a 4 x 4 arrived. We negotiated with the driver and stayed at Pay him $ 10 per person. Alex was a very good person with us, and although at the beginning we saw him as our savior after we realized that good the car we could find on our own and his job was that, try to make the drivers charge us for the ¨ ride¨, as some can even take you for free !!

2. The trip is very curvy and lasts 1 hour. In the middle of the road you will pass through the border between Panama and Guna Yala and they will ask for your passport and $ 20 entrance fee. If you do not carry your passport, then gentleman grab your backpack back to the city because there is no way to let you pass.

3. When you arrive at the port, there are thousands of islands, each one belonging to a different Guna Yala family so accommodation and boat costs vary depending on the distance and rates of each island. We chose the Isla Chico Chico, it cost us $ 30 (includes the return) and it took 30 minutes to arrive.

Another way to go to San Blas is with a tour. Later some friends we met on the trip told us that they paid a 3-day tour at $ 200, which is a good deal. But we found tours from $ 100 just for a full day. So if you are stingy like us, then do the cool route.

Where to sleep?

Viajeros les tengo una lista muy simple y básica de las formas de hospedaje aquí:Travelers I have a very simple and basic list of forms of lodging here:

• Tent. Well this is the hard part. In Albrook Mall they sell tents, the costs are between $ 100 - $ 200. As we were clearly not going to pay that for one night, we bought two toy tents for children ($ 12 each tent). And well, this tent is very uncomfortable for adults hahahahaha. But in the end we don't freeze and have a great time. The cost in Isla Perro Chico for putting together our toy tents was $ 8 per person.

• In each island there are lodgings, we never ask the costs but we knew that they exceed $ 50 per night and person.

• Airbnb also has bedrooms and prices also exceed $ 40.

Where to eat?

Eating on these islands did not seem expensive or economical. The dishes are around $ 10 - $ 20, and the fruit salad seemed very rich and abundant and cost us $ 5. You can also bring your own food from Panama, which is cheaper. In the same Albrook terminal, it turns out that it is also a mall, so here you will find supermarkets.

Season in San Blas

We tell you that as you have seen in several blogs, the rainy season is from June to November and the dry season is from December to May. So the best time to travel is in March, April, May, June there will be more sunny days and there will also be more tourism. We traveled in July, and well in general there were days when the sky fell from so much rain, but there were also very sunny days. We also see beautiful sunsets in other parts of Panama. What we do recommend is that you do not go in the months between September and November, since at this time tourism is very low, so you will meet many new people and the rains are abundant, so in short you will not be able to enjoy much The beautiful paradises.

Budget for a skinny wallet

These amounts are for the 2 days and 1 night we stay in San Blas, from Panama City.

Latest recommendations ...

It costs little to get to San Blas, and as you can see it is a nice place where you will want to stay. We only stayed one night, and it is one of the things we regret. What we highly recommend you stay at least two nights, Panama is characterized by having beautiful sunrises and sunsets and depending on when you go you will find great sunset. So extend your stay and stay a few more nights to breathe fresh air and relax. If you have the opportunity to stay more than a short day, you can visit other surrounding islands, they all look alike but each one has its spot to take that picture that will dazzle you, and believe us there will be no person who doesn't ask you where you took it. You also have the natural starfish pools. You can visit them for $ 5 per person, they charged us $ 5 all three, because we haggle a lot.

Here is another important recommendation: Always haggle, even if you find the most closed person, there is always your little heart that will learn from our stingy wallet.