Portobello

Ships Log Left Shelter Bay Marina on Tues 1-13-15 @1:23 headed towards Portobello, anchored at 5:11pm.  The adventure begins, first stop Portobello was a small little villageWe arrived in the San Blas Islands several days ago and have been busy having fun since. First we stopped at Isla Provenir to check in on Tuesday afternoon after a long sail from 5am to 2pm. It was a bit rough but I survived without getting sick.  We also caught 2 fish on the way; a Maui maui and a large Jack fish. When we arrived the Immigration Office was closed, due to new store hours, so we stayed over night in the bay and went back to the office in the morning.   The Kuna people are very polite, we spoke a little  Spanish and they tried a little English. I bought a Kuna hat with their flag on it, the symbol looks like a Nazi flag.  Then we took a dinghy ride over to another island to check out the village. Tiki huts close together over the entire island with small walkways in between.  They had several small stores which sold some groceries and snacks.  We bought a coke and continued our walk around the island. We also bought our first Mola which is the Kuna woman art pieces made with cloth and different designs. The people are very quite and demure unless they are selling something then they are pretty pushy.  But you can only buy so much of their stuff, what I bought on the island was considered low grade tourist Molas not the traditional handsown items.  The people here have a simple life on their island, just fishing and making Molas. They have no electricity or running water.  Their bathrooms are on the windward side of the island in little out house type of situations.  The have hand washing boards and clothes line to wash their clothes.  The have a community hall that could be their activities center or church.  So anyway, after  about a half hour we were heading out to the next stop.  Chichtime Cays and beautiful surreal island of paradise, palm trees line the island, baby blue calm waters.  After arriving on the island we went for a swim.  Then some local fisherman came over and sold us 1 large crab and several lobsters for dinner.  We have been eating well on the boat, with fresh fish, crab and lobster; it's a rough life in Paradise.  with a few bars and eating establishments.  The two most important items on this island was the fort where the Spanish took all of their gold and treasures and the Church of San Felipe de Portobello. This church houses the "Black Christ of Portobello, this local saint is worshipped by followers throughout Latin American.  People walk on their knees from as far as Costa Rica to pay their respects every October 21.  Portobello was discovered by Columbus in 1502 on his 4th trip representing the Spanish Crown.  Portobello was the Caribbean transshipment center because of its magnificent harbor and convenient location.  From this port tons of gold and silver flowed to the capital of the Spanish empire. The ruins can still be seen here today.  We walked several of the ruins at the forts and tried to picture what it was like during that time period.