San Blas Logistics, don't stay at Ina's on Naranjo Chico

This report is in reference to visiting the San Blas Islands from Panama City. It’s very difficult to find your own place to stay or transportation to the San Blas Islands if you don’t speak Spanish very well and are not familiar with the Kuna Indians. We booked our tour with Luna’s Hostel in Casco Viejo, Panama City. Luna’s Hostel staff are not very helpful in recommending accommodations. We were told that Ina’s Cabanas on Isla Narranjo Chico was all that was left (not really the case, there are many others that are not associated with the Luna’s Castle Hostel and Lam Tours group). We were then booked with Lam Tours who would get us to the boat and then we had a room on Isla Narranjo Chico at Ina’s Cabanas.

Lam Tours picked us up at Luna’s at 6am and drove us to their office where we were given the particulars of our tour package, paid the remaining $90 of our 4wd travel to the boat near the Carti Islands and were able to visit a grocery store. We then drove 2 hours to the Kuna boat ramp where we met a boat to our island. These boats are apparently affiliated with the cabana you are staying with not Lam Tours.

We arrived on Naranjo Chico and checked into our cabana at Ina’s. Naranjo Chico has 3 places to stay on the island including Ina’s and Robinson’s, who are cousins, and Cabanas Narasgandup, which is separate. Let me say that it had been pouring rain non-stop for hours at this point. The beds at Ina’s didn’t have sheets or pillows, they were just dirty mattresses that stray cats slept on under stinking bug nets. Other guests complained that their beds had fleas. We had a dirt floor in our cabana so the rainwater just ran under the bamboo walls and through our room never allowing us to be dry.

Meals at Ina’s were good but you had to walk through a pond of a foot of water to get to the flooded main house. The bathroom was unacceptable with a door that hangs off the hinge and no flusher. It was hands down the most disgusting bathroom I have ever used in my life, worse even than a port-a-potty on the Sunday of a weekend rock and roll festival.

Since the rain didn’t look like it was going to let up, we walked to the other side of the island to Cabanas Narasgandup to check out their accommodations. These Cabanas have wooden floors, fresh sheets, pillows and a light in your room from 6-11pm. The bathrooms are very clean and western style with a flusher. The food is better than Ina’s with much bigger portions and more dishes, and the main house which stays very dry is on a nice jetty into the ocean.

The price is a little higher than Ina’s/Robinson’s but the quality of the cabana, the extra amenities, the friendliness of the staff, the better food (you eat with them 3 meals a day, so the food quality is very important), the cleanliness of the grounds make this a MUCH better value. The staff and families at Narasgandup are very professional and very accommodating.

Despite our lodging upgrade we still had a problem. We still needed a boat ride back to the mainland and Cabanas Narasgandup is not affiliated with Lam Tours/Luna’s Castle. When we went to tell Ina, whose boat we arrived on Isla Narranjo Chico, as we were told to do by Lam Tours, that we needed to be on the boat the next day Ina refused to help us and said childishly that since we weren’t staying there anymore we were not his problem and we needed to find another boat. It’s not like we were asking him to do us a favor, he charges $10 per person each way for the boat trip (Narasgandup only charges $5). My husband told Ina that this wasn’t personal and we just didn’t want to sleep in a flooded cabana anymore and Ina doesn’t offer wood-floored cabins, so we moved.

So Ina with his primitive way of thinking took it all very personally and wouldn’t bring us get back to the mainland. We’re now on this island without internet or phones and have no way to get back to the mainland! We went back to our guys at Narasgandup who immediately told us “No Problemo” that they would get us back to the island. They then made some phone calls to the head people at Lam Tours (who do a good job with transportation, by the way) and made sure that there would be a jeep at the boat landing to meet us and told us that they would personally drive us over in their own boat.

I do not recommend staying with Ina Cabanas on Naranjo Chico. I also would be cautious when using Lam Tours because they only recommend budget accommodations. The San Blas are not really inexpensive. If you have the extra $50 for accommodations it is well worth it. That can make the difference between battling the elements with a non-cooperative staff (Ina’s) or relaxing and enjoying this beautiful tropical paradise with welcoming Kuna hosts (Narasgandup).

Great report! The Kuna Yala (San Blas Islands) are a world to themselves. Lodging is very pricey throughout the islands and those who come expecting the usual standards on a backpackers' budget
need to be aware- $25 a night gets you a nasty surprise in a lot of the cheapest San Blas lodgings.
Be prepared to spend more than you're used to or buyer beware. Or alternatively if its within your budget- book space on one
of the many live-aboard boats and visit many of the islands during your visit.

Put this review on the Trip Advisor, it will just get lost here.

Travel to desolate and remote indigenous areas have their issues, and you need to roll with the punches to a degree.

Would like to hear Stuart's opinion from Mamallena. The description of these places on Mamallenas website is accurate, saying they have sand floors. You can't control the weather.

[http://www.mamallena.com/sanblasisland.html]

i heave heard on here that the indiamo with tony is a bigger nightmare.

I was recently in Colombia Amazonas. The accommodations were village malokas. Dirt floor lodges with cooking fires, families, string your hammock wherever and hope you were not intruding . Zero privacy. No electricity. Potable water right from the river in a communal bucket with a gourd dipper. Bathroom was a rainforest walk away. Rain everyday. Food was a mulligan of whatever including mammal, reptile, amphibian and insect. Staff and concept of service was nonexistent. I paid good money for this experience and would have been disappointed otherwise.

why risk falling into sketch sitch when you can sail KY in relative luxury? that's how I saw it in 2010, when I engaged Tony Santo's Andiamo (www.theandiamo.com). i wouldnt do it any other way.

We do send a lot of people to Ina's and we do get some complaints, more so lately. But it's funny, it seems like they often take it in turns to be good and then they go through a bad period. One month Ina's gets bad reviews and we don't send as many people, then he improves and the other guys start to get bad reviews. Thats the problem with San Blas as well. You pick the cheapest place and you may not get the best service. It seems that down there there are so many people going that they know bad reviews just won't hurt them that much. People will still be arriving the next day and filling those spots. But the island is still really nice so as long as you're prepared to accept that then it's still OK.