Monday morning, Martin and David took the tender in to clear us through Panamanian immigration so that we could go and visit some of the
islands in the San Blas. There are over
120 small islands in this area, and most of them are uninhabited. There are four main islands (yet small) that
a lot of the Kuna Indians call home.
With Martin and David at customs, Sue and I got busy
cleaning up the boat. After six days at
sea, there were linens to be changed, floors to be cleaned and showers to be
scrubbed. I have found my kindred spirit
in cleaning, as Sue loves a good scrubbed sink as much as I do. We were all too happy to get Amara back to
her lovely self again. After we had done
some laundry and were getting ready for lunch, Martin and David
returned. We promptly pulled up anchor
and headed for the island, Carti Sagdup.
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| Passing through a house to get to the main street from the dock. |
Now, I don’t mean to sound naïve, but I was preparing myself
to go to a bunch of stores on Carti Sagdup to buy the local handicrafts. What I wasn’t prepared for, until we set foot
on the island, was how primitive it was.
There, we were met by “John” who was an older fellow who said he once
helped in the building of the Panama canal back in the forties. John was also a snide entrepreneur because
the minute he saw us driving up in our tender, he ran out to welcome us to the
island and “invite” us to his home.
While walking from the dock (which was hardly a dock) we had to walk
through someone’s home to get to the main street. John turned us left, and then right, and then left
again. Winding us down alleys until we finally made our way to his home.
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| John's home. This is a typical Kuna family home. Sand floors, little to no furniture with hammocks. The roofs are made of palm fronds and keep the hut dry even in the harshest of tropical storms. |
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| Purchasing traditional "Molas" from John's wife. |
I was in a bit of a shock when we got to his home to see
that he and his family were actually living
on a dirt floor with hammocks as beds. I
was more than happy to purchase some Molas from his wife as well as some long-strand
beads that the women use to wrap their legs in daily. John was very proud of his large and spacious
home and even pointed out his satellite television to us. I let him give me a tour, still in shock at
how primitive these people still live.
The Kuna's have a matriarchal society, where the woman handle the money and the men move into their wife's home. Most of the
women in the village were dressed in traditional Kuna Indian clothing. They take the Mola’s and fashion them into
shirts and wear a colorful sarong around their waists with the beads around
their legs and feet. Of course, I was
mesmerized by the fashion of these women.
I had just come from a swim in the ocean and was still in my tank top
and shorts and felt severely underdressed standing next to them.
Walking the dirt alleys of this island called Carti Sagdup was very humbling, yet
what I noticed was that the kids were just kids having fun in the streets. Mothers were reading to their children in
their huts. Children were attending school and everyone was going about their
daily lives.
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| The local school where the classroom was outside as well as smaller classes being held inside. |
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| Children playing in the streets. |
Three little girls especially loved seeing Lily in her
stroller. We watched them as they eyed
her and looked at the specifics of Lily's stroller. Then they disappeared. Sue and I thought that maybe they were so
interested because they had never seen a stroller. However, we were tickled when they came
running around the corner with their baby doll in her stroller! Then they started laughing as they came over
to me and pushed their baby as I pushed mine, all the while smiling and
laughing.
We walked all around the island and went from house to house
looking at their crafts. Sue and I purchased
several Molas as well as some purses made from a Mola pattern.
Pretty soon we were “Mola-ed out” and decided
it was time to start heading back to our tender. The problem was that we had twisted and
turned so many times that every time we thought that we had found our way to
the dock, we would end up in someone’s living room. I know it’s hard for most to understand how
we would end up in someone’s living room.
However, most of the homes were part of the ally as well.
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| The bathroom cabinet. |
One point, I ended up at one of the many outhouses that the Kuna’s use to bathe and use as a restroom. I really was set back by the filth on the
outskirts of the island, but found the people trying their best to keep their
homes as clean as possible when living on a tropical island with a dirt floors.
It was very humbling for me as it would
be for anyone that came to visit these people.
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| Traditional dugout canoes "pangas" and behind them are the local outhouses. |
When we returned to the boat, I told Martin that I was sold on our new cruising lifestyle. I loved our little adventure and only wished
that more of my family and friends could have been with us to share in this experience.
I am sure that through the course of our journey and through this blog, I am going to say over and over again about how
blessed we are. However, let me make it
clear that being “blessed” can be relative.
For example, some people are blessed with health. Others are blessed with healthy children, and
others are blessed with the opportunity to have the kind of experience that Martin and I had today.
I believe that the Kuna’s are blessed because everyone we saw, old and young, appeared to be happy, surrounded by family, and were very proud of their heritage. It was such an amazing experience for all of us.
