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A native of La Rioja (Spain's wine country), but raised in a coastal town close to Barcelona, captain Javi Santos developed a passion for the sea and its ships at an early age. He first worked on and then captained various types of classic sailboats before acquiring his first vessel in 1999. Three years later, while anchored at Barcelona's Puerto Olímpico, Javi set eyes on Ni Banu and decided that at a handsome 13 meters long, it would do wonderful as a charter boat. He bought it and spent the next eight years professionally sailing and chartering around the Mediterranean sea until he decided it was time to realize his ultimate dream: to take Ni Banu on a once over around the world. This has proved to be no easy feat, not because of the time and effort it takes to cross the ocean, but because places like San Blas exist along the way, and now he’s been charmed in paradise for the past two years. During this time, he has gotten to know the finest anchoring and snorkeling spots all over the archipelago while casually taking friends and tourists around the islands. But with an increasing itch to continue on to the Pacific ocean, Javi started envisioning a more solid plan for Ni Banu while it still sits in Kuna Yala waters: He decided to resume his professional chartering business to complete circling the globe aboard his sailboat.
Along came Estefanía, a Bolivian wanderer who’d been trekking Latin America for 15 months before being welcomed into a Kuna home the day she arrived on the San Blas islands. When Javi met her, she'd been spending her days picking up and cracking open coconuts for the daily family meals, clearing overgrown weeds and gathering fire wood. Taking part on the day-to-day living of the Kuna family has allowed her to have a deeper understanding, and thus, a deeper love for the Kuna people and their culture. A huge fan of the dulemasi, a coconut milk and plantain based stew, which in Kuna means 'our food', and an enthusiastic student of the dulegaya, the Kuna language, she's started to become as dule (one of us) as an outsider could hope to be only a few months into this anthropological study not of the Kunas, but of herself. Estefanía is still as awe-struck with Kuna Yala today as she was the first day she set foot on Chichimé, the island she calls home. So when Javi called upon her sales and marketing experience to get the Ni Banu Charter project off the ground, she was ecstatic to put to use skills learnt in her past life that would enable her to stay in her current life. After all, she'd spent the last 10 years studying and then practising marketing working for a tv company. This time around, she's thrilled to provide folks a fantastic live experience felt in their own skin and not just viewed on the small screen.
Together, Javi and Estefania are chartering Ni Banu around the islands, letting others in on the Kuna Yala secret before the boat sails off to the Pacific. Those willing to take action have the opportunity to behold this paradise in their own eyes from the unique close-up perspective of a sailboat, and get introduced to a primitive culture that has much to teach the civilized world.
