Los Grullos

After our friends left we moved to Banedup in the Eastern Lemmon Cays. Together with Chichime, Banedup is one of the most crowded islands of the San Blas. In fact, it is a meeting place especially for the Italian cruisers who often organize parties on the beach. As you can imagine, this is not a very attractive place to be if you like quite and crystal clear waters.  The day after we sailed just a few miles to reach Los Grullos Cays, anchoring between Kuanidup and a small island nearby. We reached paradise!

Kuanidup – Los Grullos

We were here before, though we did not remember how beautiful these islets are, possibly because of different weather conditions. This time, with the sun shining all day long, the colors of the sea, coral reef and the beaches appear to be magic.

Pelican Island

We enjoyed great snorkeling around the smaller island under the controlling eyes of a crowd of resident pelicans.

The coral reef is extended and reach, and it is much less ruined than in the lesser Antilles. While underwater we found ourselves surrounded by hundreds of thousands of tiny silver fishes, forming a moving cloud more than 10 meters long. We sketched a little shark that was likely waiting us to leave to start its easy lunch.

We are not fishing when underwater, however we do buy fish from the Kuna people who approach us with their canoes. The last purchase was a new (for us) fish, which is quite different to clean (in fact the fisherman did it for us!) and it tastes like chicken!

Budu (chicken fish)

We stopped here for a week, an unusually long interval for us to be in a place without sailing. We read on the Bauhaus Guide that a sailor called his boat Kuani after seeing the beauty of this island!

Full Moon at Kuanidup

Full Moon at Kuanidup

Sunset over Pelican Island