BED BUGS!!! Trash dump site with some extra stuff

What you get for $400 a night: BED BUGS!!! Some guest thought they were mosquito bites - look at the pattern of the bites - in the row, look closely at the mattresses - we found a few bugs after we suspected we were bitten by bed bugs. The worst of all - four fifth of this small island is a trash dump site, septic tank spilled and flooded most of the are you see in "beautiful" pictures posted on line. Stunk for the duration of our stay. There was no area to walk on clean surface- trash piles or sewer covered grass. Eating area is dirty, utensils appears to be not cleaned with water. Kitchen is filthy from the back with dog (poor animals living on site full of fleas) running in and out of it. Towels smelled like mold and were given to us only once on the first day, water bottles appeared to be refilled and sold to us as new. Scary! No running water at night. Beaches are trashed with everything from plastic, hazardous waste material, construction refuse, semi-burned plastic furniture. Included exertions were to another dump site beach that had no sand. There are dead reefs. Staff was trying to be friendly- some of the people were hard workers. 2 our of 6 exertions to nearby islands were decent. Daniel- owner or manager, has University degree. He takes advantage of tourists- $400 a night plus extra pay he demanded for water is an extortion. Keep in mind you are at their mercy - nobody can take you to the main land, but his boat. No cell service.

Not five star holiday but authentic

First of all, we chose this place because of lack of transport options to the Northwestern part of San Blas. We got a direct flight to Achutupu runway, an experience in itself. We were picked up by Jeronimo, the 80year old owner of the lodge. The lodge is old but kept spic and span. We were a bit disapointed to be the only tourists, however, it had some charme to be the only visitors to the island. Unfortunately, the rest of the island that belonged to other people but uninhabited had lots of litter on its beaches. Still, there wer two very clean beaches with shady trees. One of the employees took us for two daytrips to very neat little islands to snorkel. Unfortunately, there were no canoos or other boats to rent that would have made us more independent. The trip to Achutupo was authentic, a wonderful village with 2000 inhabitants, and NO cars or motorcycles. Unfortunately, on its beaches lots of litter. Also, no place for animal/rights/people with pigs kept in minute cages...The downside of the place were the tiny moscitos smaller than the holes in the moscito net provided. Bring your own moscito net, and aks the staff for smoke spirals that you also should use in the restaurant. Repellents to do not work. And be aware that you are not residing in a luxury cabin you may know from more famous tourist places. You are going to an authentic area where the Guna Yala live their more or less traditional lives. One further advice is to bring along drinking water.