How would you imagine a paradise island? White sand, palm trees, a clear blue sea, drinking from coconuts? You´ve just imagined our trip to the San Blas islands- minus the blue skies- taking us across the Darien gap. The Darien gap (deep jungle inhabited by drug runners between Panama and Colombia) can only be crossed by flying or sailing as there are no roads. We chose to sail because it gave us the chance to see the San Blas islands and the indigenous Kuna people who inhabit them. We went with a company called San Blas Adventures to avoid the two day open water crossing to Cartagena so instead spent 4 days and 3 nights on the beautiful palm tree islands.

At 5am on the 19th August we were standing outside our hostel in Panama City waiting for our jeep to take us to the boat on the Caribbean coast. At 5:45 it finally arrived and we were off. Our driver drove really fast out of the city and after a breakfast stop we entered the Guna Yala province of Panama. The province is solely owned by the Kuna people and because only they can own the land the area has remained undeveloped. Paradise islands are therefore for sale from only $1,000 but can't be bought by outsiders. When we arrived in the port of Carti we put all our bags in bin liners to waterproof them and then set off in two boats. Our group was quite big and consisted of 25 plus 2 guides (British and Canadian) and 4 Kuna boatmen.

The first island we visited was uninhabited and only had a small shelter, which unfortunately we had to use to shelter from the rain. The weather ended up being cloudy for most of the trip but this saved us from getting too badly burned. The island was still stunning and the all you could eat sandwiches kept us occupied. Once the rain stopped we played some volleyball and had a swim in the sea before heading off to the island we would spend the night on. This island was home to a single Kuna family who had built some shelters for visitors to sling a hammock under, which is what we did. We also had a long wooden table which we all squeezed on in the evening and had a meal of all you can eat lobster, potato salad and octopus. I (Simon) had 4 lobster halves but couldn't finish the last couple in the bowl. We spent the evening getting to know the others on the trip with our Panamanian rum we had bought, which we mixed with coconut water in the coconut.

The next day (after a broken night's sleep in our hammocks) we travelled to a tiny island covered in coconut trees which couldn't have been more than 50m across. In the shallow waters we found lots of star fish which we moved together for the fun of watching them separate as they don't like each other. The snorkeling was fantastic, as good as Belize, and we saw squid, thousands of fish is shoals and bright corals. After lunch we had a 2 hour very wet boat ride to a Kuna village, where Katy and I were lucky enough to get a room with a bed. The hostel, the only one in the village, had pet turtles in a pond and a covered terrace over the water where we ate more lobster. The village looked ugly from the water because all the huts face inwards and had their toilets out back over the water (no swimming on this island) but once we were ashore it looked pretty. The only grassy sandy street was wide and many of the huts were hooked up to small solar panels supplied but the government. All the kids wanted to say hi (Hola) to us and some practiced their Spanish with us (as it's not their first language).

By the third day we were starting to get smelly. The showers were only bucket ones and the fresh water was limited. We had to put our big bags in dry storage so only had limited clothes but we were all smelly together. We had the longest boat journey on the third day. It was 3 hours to our final Kuna village where we got our own small room, with hammocks, in a large building over the water. The view was fantastic but you had to be careful not stare at the water because all the waste from the toilets floated past. After offloading the bags and having lunch we were able to visit an uninhabited island if we wished. I did but Katy caught up on sleep in her hammock. The islands down this end of the chain were hilly unlike the flat picture postcard tropical islands we had visited up to now. This meant that there was a hill to climb which we made hard work off as we couldn't find the path but the views made it worthwhile.

That evening, back in the village, our guide Jessica, told us lots about the Kuna and showed us round the village. The Kuna are remarkable; they are the most successful indigenous group in the Americas, which I think must be down to the Panama government giving them the whole Guna Yala province of over 350 islands and a very large slice of the mainland - although very few Kuna live on the mainland, preferring the islands. The women run the show but the men hold town meetings from hammocks in the town hall. The Kuna get married and buried in their hammocks. They have a large albino population, which they call the children of the moon, who mostly live indoors but come out during a Luna eclipse to shoot arrows at the shadow to protect the village. The two largest issues affecting the Kuna (which the men in the hammocks are discussing and the women directing on) are the protection of their farming heritage and how to prepare for the wave of tourism that they predict will come. The Kuna women wear wonderful traditional clothes which I really wanted a photo of but I didn't feel I could ask (so for our photo album I stole one from Google).

On our fourth and last day we set off for the Colombian border. The sun finally came out but this made the hours we had to endure at immigration hot while our bags were sniffed by dogs before we could take two short boat trips into Colombia to the town of Capurganá. That night we had an arrival party with an Italian meal and a party at our hostel.

Simon