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I booked a reservation through Expedia for a private cabin on Chichime Island for 12/29-12/31/2019. I was so excited to go to stay with the Guna Yala. The listing/reservation stated "reserve now, pay later" and the fine print mentioned paying a deposit. It was confusing, but I booked the reservation. Chichime Island, then, sent me an email, instructing me to email them a photocopy of my credit card, ID, and passport, in order to pay a deposit. Expedia always posts warnings not to ever email your credit card information to hosts, so I didn't. Instead, I asked for Expedia's help. They encouraged me to contact Chichime. Chichime emailed me, telling me to pay through Booking.com... which I had no idea of how to do... since I'd reserved through Expedia - not Booking.com. I messaged Chichime again, asking for advice on how to pay the deposit. They instructed me to go to a tour website and pay. The problem is... there wasn't really a clear idea of how I was supposed to pay for my cabin on the tour website (there was no place on the web site that designated payment to reserve cabins). I messaged Chichime, and asked them to confirm that, if I sent money on that tour website, I would receive my private cabin on Chichime that I had reserved (I wanted documentation, in case they took my money, and then, said it wasn't payment for the cabin). Chichime, then, informed me that the private cabin I had reserved was no longer available - even though my Expedia reservation had never been cancelled (it was still listed on my active itineraries)....and they said that, if I came, I would have to stay on a totally different island than I had reserved... one of the islands that had 1.5 star rating and horrible reviews. I was very disappointed and frustrated, as I had planned my whole trip around staying on Chichime....and had counted on it, since I had a reservation... and had, now, missed out on other reservation options. Here's the *clincher*... while the Chichime people were messaging me that they had no private cabins available on Chichime on those dates... I did a search of those EXACT SAME dates on Expedia... and Expedia still shows that they have private cabins available for those dates!!! I called Expedia to let them know what Chichime is doing to people.... The Expedia representative told me that, if they do not have cabins available, Chichime is able to update the listings to remove the openings online... So, the Chichime are *keeping* openings on Expedia... and taking people's money, via methods outside of Expedia, knowing that they do not have the cabins available. It reeks of dishonesty... Trusting travelers are either: 1) losing money, when the cabin they reserved is not available, or 2) wisely investigating, before sending money via one of those weird methods, only to learn that they wasted time....and lost out on other reservation options. I would advise you to avoid Chichime Island... It sounds like a scam is going on there... and I'd hate for anyone to go through what I went through - or worse, end up losing money. The only saving grace is that I was extremely careful... and thereby, avoided losing a couple of hundred dollars. I am soooo glad I had not emailed them my credit card information... and had not paid them money through that tour web site... as I am 99% sure that I would never have seen that money again. BE CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH CHICHIME!…
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Date of experience: December 2019
1 Helpful vote
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The journey from Panama City to the island was well organized and all right. The Kuna were so much nicer than expected and the food was really good. But you have to bring snacks as breakfast is at 7, lunch at 12 and dinner at 7 and the portions are not huge. It’s so sad that the island is full of trash and the Kuna burn it which smells bad. The toilets were disgusting and I saw a Kuna using the toilet brush for cleaning the sink. It’s probably lack of education and maybe I should not complain. Not sure how I feel about this. My bed was quite comfortable but the bed sheets smelled sweaty. There are too few hammocks and I missed beach lies or something like that to relax. We had one quiet day which was nice but we also had a day where lots of day trip tourists were dropped off drank alcohol and listened to loud party music. The islands have so much potential but something seems off. …
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Date of experience: September 2019
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The San Blas islands have every potential to be this picture perfect paradise we all have in our heads. So I was pretty disappointed with my 3 days on Chichime, which is supposed to be one of the best islands. Here is why: 1) trash everywhere on the island and in the ocean. It was really disgusting so that some of us started collecting trash. The kuna seem to have no feeling for how bad that looks. 2) toilet and bathroom were really disgusting and broke (thank god on our last day) and the toilet is directly lead into the ocean 3) the kuna were way nicer than expected but still not very interested and have no feeling for hospitality (which is fine with me) 4) late check-out in our case meant we had to check out our room in the morning anyway, which wasn’t that nice 5) the mosquito nets were really bad, I got stung more than 100 times in the 2 nights In total, Price seems really high for that not to paradisish place…
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Date of experience: September 2019
1 Helpful vote
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I love this island, however, it had a few dead fishes washed up ashore. Our guide explained it was due to a seasonal current
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Date of experience: September 2019
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We stayed in Chichime for two nights. The island is really pretty but very poorly managed. There are two main parts handled by two groups. You should definitely avoid the one under Aaron's control. Lots of garbage as soon as you leave the main areas, no water to take a shower, a disgusting bathroom area. The "tour" offered was a real joke ... On top of this, the second night was a real nightmare. A party was organized by the kunas with very loud music making it impossible for us to sleep. We had to ask three times for them to lower the music It's a shame, the island has so much potential... …
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Date of experience: April 2019
1 Helpful vote
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