A budget worksheet for cruising San Blas (the Comarca Guna Yala) on your own boat. Fill it in before you leave Colón, Linton Bay or Panama City, because the islands have no ATMs and take no cards. Have your planned anchorages, the number of people aboard and your trip length to hand.
Fill in the fields below, then print the worksheet or download your entries as a text file. Entries stay on this page until you leave unless you download them. Don’t enter passport, card or medical details; keep copies of those separately.
How to fill it in
Every figure printed on this sheet is cruiser-reported, not an official tariff. The Congreso General Guna does not publish a yacht fee schedule we could open online. Use the figures to size your cash, then write down what the official receipt says. Confirm the current Congreso fee at El Porvenir.
Line by line
- Congreso fee. Pay once, at the Congreso office at El Porvenir or to a visiting official who issues a receipt. Cruisers report you can pay months in advance. Multiply by boat and by person.
- Island fees. Each island or group sets its own fee, usually valid for about 30 days. They are common in the populated east and less common in the western cays. If nobody approaches you in an inhabited anchorage, ask for the saila. Pay against a printed receipt with the island name, your boat name and the date.
- National paperwork. Guna fees come on top of the AMP cruising permit. Porvenir has Migración and the Congreso office, but cruisers report it does not issue the national permit. Some port captains also expect a domestic zarpe naming San Blas or Porvenir.
- Food. Do not fish or take coconuts: every palm belongs to someone. Buy from the Guna instead. The Caribbean spiny lobster closed season, enforced by ARAP, runs 1 March to 30 June. Supplies in the islands are thin, so provision on the mainland.
- Restricted trips. Cruisers report fines of US$200 or more for going up the Ustupu rivers without permission or a guide. Budget for a guide rather than the fine.
- No scuba. The Guna do not permit scuba diving by visitors, so leave dive costs off.
Cash
Carry plenty of small bills. There are no ATMs and no card payments in the islands. Keep the receipts together on the back of this sheet; a visiting official may ask to see the Congreso receipt.
Plan the run from Linton Bay or Colón with Cruising Panama's Caribbean coast.
Read the companion guide
Before using this resource, read San Blas (Guna Yala) by boat: permits, fees and rules.
Use it alongside these guides
San Blas (Guna Yala) by boat: permits, fees and rules
San Blas by boat: the Guna Congreso cruising fee (paid at Porvenir), per-island anchoring fees, no scuba, no taking coconuts, lobster closures, etiquette.
San Blas (Guna Yala) boating guide: islands, fees, reefs
San Blas is Guna Yala, a self-governing comarca of reef islands 38 nm east of Linton Bay. Getting there, anchorages, seasons, Guna fees and rules.
Reef and anchoring protection in San Blas and Portobelo
Panama bans anchoring on coral (Ley 304 of 2022). In San Blas and Portobelo, anchor in sand by daylight, snorkel, don't scuba, and take nothing.
Fuel, water, parts and provisioning in Panama for cruisers
Where cruisers get fuel, water, food and parts in Panama: fuel docks by region, why marina diesel costs more than the capped road price, and supermarkets.