OK, so after it looked like we had a giant bulls-eye painted on our ass and Hurricane Matthew came our way, we decided to bolt for Panama after spending a week there.
As far as kiting goes, its all about superlatives, awesome wind, awesome colours and scenery, awesome water, awesome chop and awesome sharks!
It would be a foil-boarders paradise, and I think we should organize an offshore foil race from San Andres, then a night of camping on the islands and a race back the next day. For me it was too choppy, and I kept losing the edge when trying to pop. But let me tell you about the shark.
I had tacked upwind of one of the two islands we had anchored our boat between. Going North to my right I was just cruising and looking at the fish and the coral heads through spectacularly clear waters. I came across a huge sandy area where the water was the colour of tropical paradise postcards, and a clear as Gin. I noticed there was a dark line extending just downwind of me as it ran along the edge of the sand shelf and then dipped to deeper water. I thought it might have been weed that had settled there and while I was looking down between my legs trying to estimate the depth of the water. I heard what sounded like a crashing wave just behind my twin-tip 140x40 and saw a splash out of the corner of my eye, I looked behind me to see a 12ft (est) shark cross my wake about a foot behind the board, dark, angry and agitated, it did an amazing tight turn and set off after the board. By now I was aware that he must have tried to attack the board and just missed, as I was chop hopping. I quit dicking around and concentrated on speed, thankfully my wife's Ozone Edge 11 in 15 knots can go surprisingly fast. I slowly drew away, while he was bullet straight after me, dorsal fin out and tail tip thrashing, another metre ahead, then another, I drew on until about 10m back he gave up and did some wide graceful S turns. I noticed a reef ahead and decided to head right for it, do a low jump, and then transition on the far side, and come back the same way. I never saw him again. About 5 minutes later, the adrenaline slowed, and I had made enough distance to stop and relieve myself as the excitement had produced a need to pee.
The snorkeling is incredible.
The water is 30 ft deep there, and you can see the coral on the bottom. These pics taken shortly before departure when the wind stopped.