Ikotpu Island, San Blas Islands, Panama

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The archipelago de San Blas is located in the northwest of Panama facing towards the Caribbean Sea. San Blas is an autonomous territory in Panama formally called Guna Yala. There are 378 islands within the archipelago and they are scattered around in an area of about 100 square miles. If you leave the Golfo de San Blas by boat you will enter the Caribbean Sea. The majority of the 378 islands have no inhabitants (329), but on the larger ones you will find the gentle native people known as the Gunas. These people can be found on the larger inhabited Islands; Aguja Island, Guanidup Island, Chichimei, Yandup Island and El Porvenir. Our island, Ikotpu, was uninhabited but the Guna people had loaded their wares onto Cayukos (dug out ) canoes and travelled to the island and set up stalls selling local goods, T Shirts and other souvenirs before we were tendered ashore.

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Guna wore few clothes and decorated their bodies with colorful designs. When encouraged to wear clothes by the missionaries, they copied these designs in their molas (patterned skirts and head-scarfs).The Guna people worship a god named Erragon, whom they believe came and died just for the Guna people. Driven off Panama during the Spanish invasion, the Guna fled to the surrounding 378 islands. Today their chief lives on an island called Acuadup, which means "rock island". Many Guna are hunters and fishermen. On some of the islands, children can attend school. Most of the men now speak Spanish although some of the women still speak the original Guna Indian language.

The island was pretty much as expected on the basis of Rangiroa; this was to be our desert island dream and BBQ. A very small island with only 2 buildings where we arrived about 8 in the morning. We spent a pleasant few hours on a hired deck chair - a dollar apiece - in the breeze and under the shade of palms, taking care to avoid any coconut drops. In fact, one weighing about 5 kilos dropped about 10 metres from us, so it was a smart precaution. The weather was hot, the swimming was great and the BBQ was good. However, we could only do this once in a while. As we sailed away towards the panama canal we commented that In some ways, negotiating the tiny San Blas archipelago was as interesting as any of the Pacific Island groups.

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