For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, a visit to Williamsburg is an immersion in another world. You can watch barrels and wagon wheels being made, learn how the British regiment marched in formation, and even get your picture taken in the city stocks. While wandering the streets (keeping an eye out for authentic horse droppings) you can mingle with men, women, and children dressed in colonial garb (stockings, britches, tri corner hats, and belt buckles on shoes). You'll be surrounded by other sneaker-and-shorts wearing time travelers like yourself, but pretending they don't exist gives the adventure even more presence.
Of course, Williamsburg is a historical recreation - almost a theme park of sorts (complete with concessions). The 'colonials' you meet are mere reenactors, who at the end of the day, go home and watch American Idol like the rest of us. If you ever go for a jog along Duke of Gloucester street early in the morning, you'll see a battalion of workers armed with leaf blowers, brooms, hedge clippers, and white pickup trucks that say 'Operations' on the side. This unit is replaced by the tri-corner hat brigade before the first tourists saunter in.
Oddly, that's the best I can describe the San Blas islands. I feel like we've entered another world. We're surrounded by picturesque islands covered in palm trees. Outlying reefs are awash with shipwrecks (both sailboats and freighters). And many of the islands are home to small straw huts.
The Kuna Indians live on these islands and on a porton of the Panamanian coast. The women cook fish in giant kettles while the men fish in traditional fashion from authentic wooden dugout canoes. Their lifestyle looks stolen from the pages of a 1970's era National Geographic. There are plenty of other cruisers about (one entered the anchorage yesterday blaring a song by Lady Gaga), but ignoring them immerses you fully.
Perhaps my time in Williamsburg left me jaded, but I'm half expecting to see a Kuna go around a palm tree, past an OSHA poster, and clock out next to a water cooler. On his way home he'll stop by Boston Market to pick up some dinner for the fam, and by 8:30 he'll be deep into a rerun of CSI:Miami.
The San Blas Islands are extraordinarily authentic (almost painfully so). I don't know how they do it, but the 'Operations' trucks must get going really early in the morning.