San Blas – Mantanchen Bay

From Isla Isabel we moved on to the town of San Blas. Actually, we stayed just around the corner from San Blas at Mantanchen Bay. The Spanish established San Bias as a navy port for New Spain in 1768. The population grew to the point where it was three times higher than its current population. Today it is a sleepy town surrounded by mangrove wetlands.

While we were there, we toured the old fort overlooking the present-day town and went on a “jungle tour.” It was the highlight of our visit. We took a small panga into one of the wetlands where we saw crocodiles, various species of birds, iguanas and turtles. Our guide spoke only a little English but before leaving the dock he told us to, “keep your hands in the boat.” We happily complied with his guidance.

We didn’t escape San Blas unbitten. The mosquitos and no-see-ums were prolific. They were worse at sunrise and sunset but while at the old fort in the middle of the day, we had to spray ourselves liberally with repellant in order to keep the bugs at bay.

We have bug screens for all our hatches so we were able to stay relatively free of bugs down below. Unfortunately, when the screens are in place they cut down on the amount of air flowing in and threw the boat so it got pretty warm during the evenings.

Having said this, San Blas is a great spot. I’m glad we stopped to check it out.