Kuna Yala - San Blas Islands

 Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/georgedermer/LateFeb2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCOWjtqPqoLewnQE#
Friday Feb 18^th, 2011

We’ve now been in the San Blas Islands for almost two weeks. I have seen and learned so much about this beautiful area. It’s an amazing way of life down here. There is nowhere else in the Caribbean that has remained undeveloped and pristine as Kuna Yala. The same now as hundreds of year’s ago. Here comes a brief history lesson:

The Kuna Indians fought hard for their land and they have not been under Panamanian rule since 1925.  They have successfully governed themselves since then living independently within Panama. With the exception of one island village that we visited (with a power generator, coca cola, and modern clothing) they have not given up their traditional way of life, save for a few cell phones. They don’t eat anything that doesn’t grow naturally on this land; they are happy to sell you a fish for a dollar; and best of all they don’t work for money but for their community. Everything is shared and there are no jails or police, just chiefs on each island and 3 main chiefs for the whole region. They are quite inspirational in a minimalistic way; they take only what they need and waste nothing. After selling you a fish and filleting it for you (with your knife), they keep the backbone as future bait and the head to make fish soup for their family. Until recently their currency was coconuts (it’s forbidden to take a coconut from the ground of even a deserted island because somebody’s family owns it) but recently they have switched to $1 bills so that they can buy more medical supplies, etc from the mainland. The people are all so kind and polite to cruisers.

What makes this place magical is that there is zero commercialization or development anywhere. The Kuna see no long term good coming from resort development, mining, etc on their land. There is one road in to the area but only Kunas are allowed to use it. This means that the only people here and the natives and sailors. It’s a cruiser’s paradise behind the shelter of the reefs. Some tourists manage to get here and are welcome to stay in guest houses on the populated islands which are located near the mainland.

We listen to the radio nets in the morning and the weekly boat count reckons there are 150 boats in the area this time of year. We’ve come to realize that about 30-50 of the yachts (primarily the ones that operate the nets and chat on the radio with each other all day long) are living here for 6 months a year in a kind of floating retirement community, and they all seem to love it. Others are like us and are just cruising through; some headed West to the Canal and others staying as long as a season. We’ve met numerous cruisers who have been travelling for years only to profess that this is as perfect a location as anywhere is the world.

It’s so beautiful down here and our Dad is having such a great time that we have all convinced our Mom to come down for a one week visit. Delaying our plans by a week or so but what the heck, as our Dad said “when you get to a certain age and there is a ‘0’ in your next birthday…” She is here with us until March 1^st.

Friday Feb 25^th, 2011

We’ve been having a good week thus far. Our mom arrived a few days ago; she has been taking it easy and we’ve taken her to some of our favourite little spots. We have had a few engine and boat issues but nothing that should prevent us from leaving Panama next week. It’s all par for the course with a 30 year old boat -everything was in working (or almost working) condition but certainly not new. We’ve been through more than a full can of wd-40 lubricating pretty much anything that can or should move, rotate, spin, swivel, pump, etc.

Today was quite the scene as we were blessed to witness the one Kuna holiday of the year: the anniversary of the Revolution celebrating their independence. There was a long re-enactment of beatings, more beatings and then a bit more beating and finally a victory followed by celebrations!

About 10-12 foreigners were on the island of 1000 inhabitants and we were all welcome to join in with the festivities. It felt like something out of a National Geographic magazine and it was certainly an experience that we won’t soon forget. It was such a historic and genuine ritual. It was obvious that this was not a show for tourists (as there was only a small handful) but rather their own ceremony for themselves to celebrate their heritage. Especially great was when everybody gathered in the central hut received a piece of candy and a single cigarette, we never learned the significance of this particular tradition. I tried to respectfully take a few photos and short video clips.

Hopefully we figure out how to upload a couple videos on here. Solar powered internet access isn’t the quickest but we’ll try our best.

Our mother takes off on Tuesday morning and after that date we will wait for a weather window to head north. Hopefully we’ll be on our way by next weekend. San Andrés, a small Colombian tourist island, lies 255 miles to the NW and it is our next destination.

Enjoy the photos link,

Jamie

Maiden voyage, Colon to the San Blas:

https://picasaweb.google.com/georgedermer/UploadFeb08?authkey=Gv1sRgCLPQl_C0oqTCHA&feat=directlink 

With the exception of our sea trial and test sail from a week prior, our maiden voyage with Paraquina was a 20 mile N-Eastward beat up the coast to Portobello. What seemed like a rough day was just a typical afternoon in the trade winds down here. 20 knot winds and 6 foot swells pounded into us the entire leg but Paraquina stood strong under reefed main and jib. We stayed in Portobello for a few days and the small town of 3-4000 really introduced us to the lifestyle down here out of the big cities. With loud music and lively people everywhere it was the busiest little town that I have ever visited. Even the public buses (colourfully painted and decorated inside and out like a mix of Pimp-my-ride meets reasonably good graffiti meets Disney and comic book characters) blasted Latin-Carib dance music all day long which although fun at first can make for a long ride.

Portobello seems like other towns down here but it’s not; it has a long written history as the strongest Spanish port from the 16^th to 18^th centuries. There was a time when 1/3 of the world’s gold passed through the Customs House here. It’s also the place where Sir Frances Drake stole tones of Spanish gold and the where he was eventually fed to the sharks. It is said that there are 10-20 billion dollars worth of gold sunk off of the coast here in numerous wrecks from numerous battles. Nowadays there are remains from 3 separate forts protecting the bay. We visited each and were impressed by workmanship (and huge canons!).

-Portobello to Isla Linton, although only 10 miles, was another tough slog to windward with 20+ kts and 8-10 ft swells on the bow all morning. We reached the popular anchorage and took the dinghy ashore to find fuel! We filled up our outboard gas and Diesel and also set a new record for cheap cold beers: 3 for $1 at a little bar on the main (paved) road through town.

The next big sail was 50 miles to windward from Isla Grande to the San Blas Islands or Kuna Yala as the local Indians call it. We sailed on Saturday from sunrise to sunset with the wind-vane doing most of the driving. The highlight of the day was when a few dolphins found us and swam along side the boat for a minute; I managed one great photo of them.

-San Blas / Kuna Yala. We just made it hear and first impressions are stunning. This is a beautiful stretch of 100 miles containing over 350 islands. Our tentative plan is to visit many different islands groups within this archipelago over the next few weeks and then head North. We happened to arrive at the one anchorage that contains the only island within about 100 miles with internet access. They have a tv and satellite that are new this season. Although many cruisers are than less thrilled with the idea, it meant that we got to watch the Superbowl on a 100 metre long island in a straw hut.

Many more stories and photo’s to come of this place, so much to see here.

Jamie