Bahia Carreto, Lower San Blas

Catching up... we were in Carreto on May 15.

Anchorage: 08-46.182N 77-33.430W

We left Puerto Escoses about noon and headed south. Our original destination was Puerto Perme, a tiny enclosed anchorage very near Obaldia, the port we needed to stop in the next day to check out of Panama. It was kind of a blustery day... overcast with winds and seas a little higher than the 0-5 kts we'd been used to.

As we read the guidebooks for Puerto Perme, it looked like a nice protected anchorage. But the books said it was a one-boat anchorage. If we got there and someone else was already there, we'd be kinda out of luck. So, as we passed Bahia Carreto, on the way to Perme, we took a close look.

The official anchorage per the Bauhaus guidebook is in the NW corner of the bay, near the Kuna village. But we had notes from friends about a nice anchorage in the SE corner of the bay. The winds seemed to be blowing straight in the bay, with big ocean rollers, so we weren't sure we'd find any good anchorage there. But looking thru the binocs, we could see 2 other boats in the SE anchorage, and they weren't rolling too badly. So we decided to check it out.

The two French flagged boats were tucked up behind a small reef and island near a nice long beach, far from the Kuna village. We sounded the area and made sure there was room for another boat. It looked pretty good, so we dropped the hook in about 10 feet, in pretty good sand.

We took the dinghy ashore on the beach and explored around. There were a couple of Kuna huts--the kind that are only part-time occupied. And we found a large area where they were 'farming' the coconuts, bananas, mangoes, and maybe the land crabs. At the southernmost point on the beach, we also found a fresh water 'stream'.

The beach here, while pretty, was totally covered in ocean flotsam--mostly plastics in all shapes and sizes. It looks like Bahia Carreto is uniquely sited to collect all the trash from the entire Caribbean (combination of winds and currents).

On our way ashore, we spoke briefly to one of the two French boats. They had been in to the village, a very long (2 mile) dinghy ride across the rough bay. Late in the day, they loaded up in a dinghy, and headed to the village--obviously for dinner. We were amazed that they'd make the trip across that windswept bay in a dinghy after dark, on the return trip. But they did eventually get back safely.