Panama City to Mulatupo, Kuna Yala

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I woke up to the alarm going off, which it had been doing for several minutes. The next thing I heard is the cab driver telling the night guy my name. Crap. We went out & talked with taxi dude & he was totally ok with it all & said he'd come back later to get us. Whew.

We went right back to sleep for another hour. Too early.

We got up, got packed, & headed out to the airport. We're flying into a little town in the Kuna Yala called Mulatupo. We have no idea what we will find there but we will see. It's pretty well off the typical tourist path so it's kind of an adventure. At the airport we waited for over an hour for the flight. Delayed.

One thing I do love about Panamanians is all the cutsie names for one another, well especially the women. Women are often called muneca (doll), mami, amor (love), guapa (pretty). It'll just be added to the end of a normal sentence. You hear it everywhere & I love it.

So, finally we were off on our flight. We're taking a tiny prop plane which is always exciting. We're flying into the Comarca Kuna Yala which is basically a region along the Caribbean coast where the indiginous Kuna Yala people live. The area is also called the San Blas, which I have no idea why. The Kuna Yala women are the best. They all wear these bright, beautiful handstitched tops made of brightly colored fabrics & there's always some sort of pretty floral or lacy part on the shoulders. My favorite thing is their anklets which start at their ankles & go up to their knees. They're just beads in patterns but it is soooo pretty. I don't think they ever take them off. What's most interesting is that the men all dress super modern. Like they stepped out of an Abercrombie & Fitch ad.

The flight was awesome because we flew over the Darien Gap & saw the enormity of that stretch of jungle. Nuts. Dense, dense jungle, rivers, forest, mountains. Incredible. We flew over some of the San Blas islands which are just postcard picturesque, white sands, palm trees, bright blue water. We landed on a dirt airstrip finally & were getting all ready to get off when the man behind us asked where we were planning to go. We said Mulutupo & he said we weren't there yet. Thanks to him. I imagine they would have figured it out when we got off the plane but who really knows. There weren't any announcements or anything. Just a landing & a transfer of people. Up we went again over more jungle & islands & not a lot of inhabitants, which probably had us both wondering what we were getting ourselves into. When we finally arrived in Mulutupo we arrived to a thatched roof room that served as the waiting area & "terminal." I asked one guy where we should go. He sent us with another guy who was heading somewhere, of which I did not understand the name but it ended in tupo. We go out to the makeshift dock/rocky beach spit. I guess it wasn't really a dock at all, just rocks. So, we get into this guys little tiny boat with a few other locals & head out to who knows where. Sadly, it was a bit drizzly so we were a little damp but at least they covered our stuff with a plastic bag.

About 15 minutes later we arrive to a different island where the guy tells us to get off. Ok. We're greeted by a completely obliteratingly drunk young guy who says he's the local guide. Oh goody! And he can help us with whatever we need, which he's saying while falling over passing out standing up. His eyes were barely open & I barely understood a word he said with all the slurring. There's a challenge: drunky drunk Spanish. He had a friend with him who was also drunk but not passing out standing up so he filled in the many blanks while we were getting situated. They take us to our "cabana," which is right next to where the boat dropped us off & says here's your room. I wish I would have remembered to take a picture right then but I think I was a bit overwhelmed. The room he showed us was a square wooden room with absolutely nothing in it but a window on one side & a 3/4 height wall between us & the other room. Soooo, we were both a little hmmmm about it all. I mentioned to less drunk guy that we didn't have anything to sleep on & he said oh, no worries, we'll bring you hammocks. Ok. That's better. Then I ask where the bathroom is. Oh geez. It's right next to us, just like all of their bathrooms, an outhouse over the ocean.(It makes you think twice before swimming near the island, I chose not to, ick) Not pretty is how I would describe it & that is a very generous description. Ugh. We are really roughing it now. So, now that we had the lay of the land we headed into the village.

The Kuna Yala people all live in thatched roof huts with dirt floors. There were kids running around everywhere & they were all super cute. Every time we would walk by a child they would say "hola, Como se llama?" (what's your name). We later learned that the teacher at the school is a Panamanian & is teaching them all a little Spanish. They have their own Kuna language that's sounds like a mix of different Spanish & their native language. We walked around until we found, what we learned, is the only Fonda in the village. The only thing he was serving was Octopus & snails. Oh goody. We got a plate of snails to share & they were actually quite good, the sauce was tasty. There was no way I could eat Octopus. I'm too in love with them. After we ate we walked all through the village. Apparently today is a celebration that they do whenever a baby girl is born into the village. The celebration includes hanging out & getting completely annihilated drunk. Everyone was drunk, men & women, even some of the older kids. It was a bit overwhelming for sure. And kind of funny at times. When we got back to our room our "guide" was completely passed out on the floor right in front of our door. Out cold, even drooling. We had to step over him for the rest of the afternoon. We spent most of the afternoon lying in our hammocks reading. Our little "cabana" is built right over the water & we have a window which provides a nice breeze, thank goodness the wind is blowing in the right direction to give us that breeze.

After awhile we walked around the village again & looked at some of the Molas that the Kuna women make. They're these beautiful hand stitched squares of fabric that have scenes of animals or designs on them. I also had to get an ankelet similar to the ones that they wear. Although only one, not all the way up to my knees (which I really would have loved!). The woman who put my ankelet on was a cute little old lady. Her name was Delfina (dolphin woman) & she smelled like beer, just like everyone else... We had run into Olo, the less drunk of the 2 guides, during our walk & he decided to walk around with us & show us the village. In the middle of the village is a huge hut where many people were sitting around getting drunk, women on one end, men on the other. When we went in to the hut the men came up & offered us their homemade booze. We took a sip from a communal coconut shell. It tasted like really sweet rum. On our way out we watched a little cute old lady chug the end of her beer, yell something, & throw the can on the ground. We both had to hold our laughter in until we got outside. It was too funny.

Basically we spent the rest of the day wandering, sitting in our hammock reading & thinking about food. The one Fonda had the same menu for dinner but I talked him into giving us a huge plate of rice & lentils with some plantain chips instead. One meal a day of snails is probably my limit. We talked with a guy about getting us to Puerto Obaldia, the border town between Colombia & Panama, tomorrow but he wanted $100 so we have to think about it. We were asleep really early that night. I have barely drank a drop of liquid today. The thought of using that toilet.....

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Photos

The Darien Gap!
It was jungle like this for almost the entire plane ride, about 1.25 hours. Awesome!

Walking toward the terminal in Mulatupo.
Yep, that's it.

Our tour guide.
It couldn't have been later than noon and he was already passed out.