The San Blas Islands

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March 25 2010
San Blas Islands, Panama, Central America

We left Cartagena early, about 6.45am to try and make sure we were able to get into the Hollondaise Quays with adequate daylight. Debs and I made way and left the kids to sleep as we had a bit of a motor to clear the harbour and the first few miles of the entrance.

The departure was uneventful as was the rest of the trip across to the islands. We caught up with the guys from High Five about two thirds of the way across and sailed in company with them all the way into the anchorage. Our first view of this amazing place was the low profiled, coconut palm filled small islands protected from the swell by a large encompassing reef system.

We dropped the anchor among a few of these islands, finding plenty of depth and protection amongst a few other boats including Erasmus, owned by Craig and Mary who are on their way home to New Zealand. We met these guys in Bonaire and again in Cartagena and as always, was good to catch up again with people we had met along the way.

Now, with thanks to Wikipedia, I can provide a bit of a summary of the history of this area;
Kuna Yala is an autonomous territory or comarca in Panama, inhabited by the Kuna indigenous people. The name means "Kuna-land" or "Kuna mountain" in the Kuna language. The area was formerly known as San Blas. The capital of Kuna Yala is El Porvenir.
Kuna Yala has an area of 924 square miles (2393 km²) and a population of 36,487 people (2004). The comarca consists of a strip of land stretching 232 miles (373 km) along the Caribbean coast of Panama, bordering Colombia and the province of Darién. The San Blas Islands, an archipelago of 365 islands, runs along the coast. About 36 of the islands are inhabited by Kuna communities. An additional 13 communities are located on the mainland coast, for a total of 49 communities.
History
The Kuna revolution began on February 25, 1925 when an armed group attacked the Panamanian police stationed on the islands of Tupile and Ukupseni. The police had been involved in the violent suppression of Kuna cultural practices and had been abusing the populations of various communities. The revolution was led by Nele Kantule of Ustupu and Simral Colman of Aligandi. It took place after many meetings with the Panamanian government and even a delegation to the United States.
The flag of Kuna Yala was adopted in 1925, and is based on a swastika design, an ancient symbol in Kuna culture. A number of variations on the flag have existed over the years; red top and bottom bands instead of orange were previously used, and in 1942 a ring was added to the centre of the flag to differentiate it from the symbol of the Nazi party (this version subsequently fell into disuse). To this day, different versions of the flag are used on different islands. The flag is most often seen on the islands which were directly involved with the revolution, such as Ustupu, Aligandi, and Ukupseni.
The autonomous status of the Kuna was officially recognized in 1930 in response to political pressure by Kuna leaders. The Comarca of Kuna Yala was established in 1938, under the name of Comarca de San Blas. The comarca was formed from the provinces of Colón and Panamá. The governmental structure of Kuna Yala is defined in the Carta Orgánica, of Law 16 of 1953.
The Kuna General Congress is the highest political authority of Kuna Yala. It consists of representatives from all of the communities in Kuna Yala and meets twice yearly. Each community has one vote regardless of population size. The Kuna General Congress has a permanent office in Howard, in the former canal zone.
In April 2003, a meeting of representatives of the 68 Kuna communities in the three comarcas of Kuna Yala, Kuna de Madugandí, and Kuna de Wargandí, declared their desire to unite the three comarcas and were reprimanded by the Moscoso administration.
The comarca is divided into three corrigimientos; Mulatupu, Aligandi, and Carti. Each corrigimiento is represented by one diputado in the national assembly of Panama. The governor of the comarca has an office in Porvenir. The comarca has no districts.
So now that you are all up to speed on Kuna Yale, back to the blog. We spent a bit over two weeks in Kuna Yale, spending two or three nights in one anchorage and then moving on to other islands, exploring, swimming, relaxing and giving the new dinghy a thorough good work out, especially after Ghost arrived and we were able to borrow their ‘donut’ which is a bit like an inflated tyre tube which is towed behind on a ski rope. The kids had an absolute blast and left us in no doubt that we had made the right decision in changing the dinghies over.

The Kuna people live a very basic lifestyle, gathering food from the sea and from their gardens on the mainland, interspersed with selling coconuts from the island to the passing Colombian traders, who they sell the coconuts to for .25 US cents each. Every guide book tells you not to touch the coconuts on any of the islands as each is owned by the Kuna’s and is one of their primary sources of income.

Another major source of income for them is the sale of delicately made molas which are artistic designs made from brightly coloured fabric. The Kunas learn to make these from an early age and it is a practice carried well on to late age in life. When you arrive in an anchorage, ladies paddle out in their dug out canoes to show off their wares and try and entice you, albeit, very gently, to buy one or more of their pieces, made with loving care and attention.

Generally the ladies will also have fresh fruit for sale along with their traditional bread which is like a very small baguette, about 24cm long and 12cm round. The bread is delicious and the fresh fruit, bananas, watermelon, mangoes and oranges are always a welcome sight on the boat. If the ‘mola ladies’ don’t have fruit and veg on board, the men folk generally do, along with some very fresh seafood that they have been able to catch on the nearby reefs. So all in all, one has a very relaxed and healthy environment to live in, in Kuna Yale and it is no wonder that the Kuna Yale live to very ripe old ages. For us, just being able to jump in and have a swim off the back of the boat was a great relief as the temperature had not lessened too much from our time in Cartagena.

All in all we visited 5 anchorages including East Hollandaise, Isla Tigre, Nargana, Coco Banderos and ChiChime, I think overall that ChiChime and Coco Banderos were our favourites. Our 12 month anniversary was spent with the guys from High Five on a little island at Coco Banderos and we had a brilliant lunch of seafood cooked over the open coals of the campfire that Lukey Bill had the time of his life preparing, cabbage salad, fresh watermelon and bananas split and filled with toblerone. The highlight for the kids however was being able to cook some doughboys over the coals, filling them with golden syrup and cream. They hadn’t been able to cook these since we left Australia and the smiles of contentment on their faces told the story better than I could ever try and describe in words.

The dinghy was proving her worth time and time again and just being able to hop in and go exploring was such an easy thing to do, apart from the fun the kids were having on the donut, of course an order for a wakeboard is right on the cards but we will see about that when we get to Panama City. Garry and I from High Five decided to take the dinghy across from ChiChime to Porvenir to do our customs and immigration, a distance of a bit over 4 miles across the open sea and she handled that with no problems at all. I guess we will have to carry a fair bit more petrol than ever before but those problems are insignificant compared to the benefits we are getting from it.

Visiting Kuna Yale was of course a fascinating experience for all of us and when we visited Isla Tigre we had a glimpse of village life and it certainly was an eye opener. The village is made up a bamboo walled and thatched roof houses, some of which had a little bit of power supplied from single small solar panels. The huts all have dirt floors and the bedding is hammocks strung between the beams. The village was full of smiling happy and healthy children who were all fascinated by the blonde hair and height of Alayna. The Kuna people are the second most shortest race of people on earth, being a bit taller than the African pygmies so you could imagine their interest in Alayna when they found out she was only 10 years of age and in most cases, nearly twice the height of girls in the village who were around here age.

Some of the islands had small fresh water springs that were a constant supply of water that, whilst not potable, was able to be used for bathing, hair washing and clothes washing which was a great benefit to those boats without watermakers fitted, us included. We did give our water catching equipment a trial run while we were there which simply consists of a tarpaulin tied off to the shrouds and carried forward to the foredeck where it is funnelled down to a large plastic bucket and then decanted into drinking bottles or our water tanks. While we didn’t catch much water, mainly because it only rained a little bit and for not very long but it obviously showed great promise and we hope that it will be a big help to our water situation as we head across the pacific in the months to come.

The only downside to our visit to Kuna Yale was our first experience of sickness on board since we left. The kids developed some barking coughs and a bit of phlegm and that was in turned passed on to me and I ended up with a really bad cold and felt like crap for a few days, not being able to do much at all except rest and try and recuperate as we didn’t have any medication on board to fight off the lurgee but by the time it came to leave, I am happy to report I am feeling much better and the kids have recovered completely.
It was time to move on, to get to Colon and get our transit through the canal organised so we had a very early departure on the 23rd from Chichime to head straight for Shelter Bay Marina, a distance of about 75 miles, hoping to get in their before dark and catching up with the guys from Ghost who had planned on being there early that morning to start getting things arranged with the agent we had decided to use. As luck would have it, we had a brilliant sail around the coast with great wind on our beam and a favourable seaway, covering the whole distance at an average speed of just on 8 knots. It was clearly obvious the new anti foul and clean bottom was making a big difference and we got into Shelter Bay mid afternoon, caught up with the guys form Ghost, met up with Stanley the Agent and got the ball rolling for our transit. Happy campers all round!! Post Note: Will put up some more photographs in a day or two as I didnt bring my camera with me to the internet cafe, sorry bloggers!!

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