After leaving the Hollandes Cays, we motored to Cayos Icacos, another sleepy spot with not much ashore, but decent snorkeling not far from the boat. The fish are small, but the coral is healthy. There were signs of bleaching but hard to tell when that occurred.

On Friday we headed south-west under genoa alone for a short 8 mile sail fora morning stop at the Carti islands . These are a small group and densely populated within easy reach of the mainland to the south (just visible in the video below and bottom right of our track above).

We visited Carti Sugdup with Ernesto, our guide, who compared it with Miami as it is so busy (!), especially as the children were on their three month school holiday which stretches between December and March.

It is the San Blas metropolis, but not as we know it in the West.

The islanders live from fishing, tourism and selling handcrafts and molas. In just over an hour, we had walked round the whole island, visiting the Congress Hall where the chiefs meet with the community, the dispensary, the community hall used for celebrations and the restaurant.

Most houses are made out of planks or bamboo with corrugated or palm tree leaf rooves and are packed densely all the way to the water’s edge. It is all very basic and humbling.

We spent our remaining two days in Chichime Cays between Uchutupu Dummat and Uchutupu Pipigua.

Although there are a lot of tourists coming to the islands during the day, it is sleepy and relaxed especially if you go ashore to the small restaurants in the evening.

We could swim to the shore on one side and to the reef on the other side of the boat. It was perfect spot to relax before our sail to Panama.