Kuna
Yala June 12--July 14
San Blas Islands
Picture in your
mind white sand beaches, coconut tree covered islands and
various shades of turquoise water and you would be dreaming
about the San Blas Islands of Panama. These islands are also
the first where Betsy got to use the underwater case of her
camera. So bare with us if this section of the site has many
more fish pictures than ever before because the underwater life
is just so beautiful and it was so hard to decide which pictures
to use.
The San Blas
Islands are a vast archipelago on Panama’s Caribbean coast. The
islands are home to the indigenous Kuna Indians and they call
their land Kuna Yala. We began this part of our journey be
departing Shelter Bay Marina and heading to the anchorage of
Portobello. We had stopped at Shelter Bay after our transit
through the canal. We stayed a little longer at the marina than
originally planned but with our provisioning and our trip to
visit the Emberá
the time flew by. The marina was a beautiful place to be, pool,
laundry facilities, great walking trail around the abandoned US
army base, and easy access to provisioning in Colon.
We left
the marina early in the morning and by the late afternoon we
were putting the anchor down in Portobello Bay. There are two
good anchoring spots, one by the town and the second right be
the old fort walls across from town. We chose the latter and
had a very calm night
Up early the
next morning we were under way as the sun came up.
 We
knew we had a ways to go and we wanted to make the islands
before the sun was too far down in the sky. Since there are so
many reefs around these islands it is recommended that you
approach an unfamiliar anchorage in the middle of the day with
the sun at your back so that you can see the level of the
water. We were heading toward the Chichime Cays and doing fine
until about 1400 when we headed straight into a rain squall.
Usually you can skirt them, but this time we couldn’t and the
wind had picked up to very strong gusts, from 5 kts to about
25kts in less than 10 minutes. Luckily we had reefed so we were
prepared for the wind but not for the fact that we could hardly
see. We called out on VHF radio for anyone in the Chichime
anchorage to come back and our friends, Tim and Paula on
Hooligan answered. They were anchored in the East Lemmon Cays
and they recommended that we come there since it was an easier
anchorage to approach in blind conditions. They gave us way
points to enter and said that they would be standing by to
help. By this time we had been in drenching rain for about two
hours and we were wet and cold. It seems funny but Betsy put on
her wet suit to do the anchoring when we reached the anchorage.
Standing out on the bow to drop the anchor takes time and she
was warm and dry in the wet suit. It is never easy anchoring in
strong winds, but we did the job and Tim was kind enough to get
in his dinghy and check our anchor. Of course in just a little
time the sun was back out and the wind had died. It was
definitely time for a cerveza! or what ever the Kuna call it.
Would you believe that we were in bed by 8 that night?
Our first day
in Kuna Yala was wonderful. Betsy was in the water by 6:30 AM
swimming
around the boat, for those of you who know Betsy she doesn't get
up at 6:30 for anything, well maybe flat water when we used to
water ski but nothing else I've seen in 43 years of marriage!!.
The water was unbelievable! At lunch we headed over to Banedup
Island for a Lobster dinner, a bit of local knowledge if an
island in San Blas ends in "..dup" it has fresh water on it.
Now for those of you who are not in the San Blas. lobster may
be rare but out here they are as common as hamburgers. But
who is complaining, we could eat lobster every other night, crab
in the nights in between. This dinner was scheduled
for the previous day but since there was so much rain it had
been postponed. Tim and Paula had signed us up for the lobster,
coconut rice, salad and one beer for $5. This was our first
experience of island life and we loved it. Earlier in the day,
Hank had bought two lobsters from a Kuna who paddled his ulu up
to the boat. The lobster cost $2 each. On Banedup we met
Mr. G the entrepreneur who has a small store, makes bread, and
has a dinner/lunch once a week and always for $5 and always
includes on beer, you can always bring your own for that extra
beer or 2. We also met many new friends that we would continue
to see and enjoy their company at various anchorages.
We spent three
days on this island. We had some great dinners with Hooligan,
played bocce
 on
the beach, had a sundowner party on Equinox and spent some
quality time with Venancio and Lisa Harris both renown mola
makers. Venancio came to the boat with three 5 gallon plastic
containers full of Molas. Check out the
Mola page to see these beautiful art pieces. When you
see that many beautiful pieces of art work it is almost
overwhelming. I did pick out several from Venancio and a few
from Lisa. I probably should explain that molas are Panama’s
most famous handicraft. When the missionaries came to the area
they wanted the people clothed so instead of tattooing their
bodies they taught them to do the same designs but with reverse
appliqué using several layers of fabric. Some designs are very
traditional and some are made for tourists. The quality of the
mola depends on the stitch, the number of layers and the
design. Apparently the missionaries didn't get to the Embara as
they still don't wear much clothing and tattoo their bods.
The next
anchorage was the East Coco Bandero Cays. This is a group of
nine or so islands with one
 that
is used for shore parties. The snorkeling is wonderful and we
found that we went out almost every day. Tim and Paula gave us
a short lesson in hunter gathering and we found that we were
able to locate conch and lobster but the large crabs were
allusive to us. Betsy liked to hunt with her camera and the
vast array of colors of corral and of fish were awesome to her.
Learning to take underwater pictures is an art that takes
practice for you have to count on the current moving your body,
the slowness of the shutter on the camera and the fact that many
times the fish moves before the picture is actually taken. She
felt if she took enough pictures she was bound to get a few good
ones. After each snorkeling adventure she would return to the
boat and download pictures, trying to name the fish in the
photo.
At the Coco
Bandero Cays we had a birthday party for Aaron from the boat,
Blow Me Away, a
 fathers’
day celebration although one day late due to rain and we made
some wonderful crab cakes from 4 large crabs we had purchased.
The Kuna come around with vegetables, bread, fish, crab and
lobster so there is not much way to run out of food. If you run
out of something that is not brought around all you have to do
is call Tienda Edy on the VHF radio and he will take your order
and tell you what day he will be delivering it.
 On
the 24th of June we moved to the Holandes Cays to an
anchorage called the Swimming Pool. We wanted
 to
meet up with cruiser friends John and Kathy from Mystic Moon who
were trying to get to the islands to celebrate our anniversary
with us. They arrived in the afternoon so we spent the morning
snorkeling an area called Barracuda Reef with Aaron and Lila
from Blow Me Away. The water was crystal clear and we had to
finally drag ourselves out of the water or we might have prune
fingers for the rest of our life!
 Celebrating
our anniversary doesn’t mean going out to dinner any more, it
means thinking
what special meal we can fix. And knowing how we both like to
cook, we racked our brains for things we could do with
provisions already on the boat. Of course, one of us was
prepared for this event when we were shopping in Colon for
several bottles of champagne were already on board. Our dinner
consisted of crab cakes, with chipotle sauce, carrot salad,
fillet of beef with huitlacoche sauce, flan for dessert. It was
fun to celebrate with John and Kathy for we had celebrated their
anniversary just a short time before ours. The next morning we
were all moving a little slower than normal which might be due
to the copious number of red wine bottles that were in the
galley the next morning.
 We
stayed in the swimming pool anchorage for 6 days. Every day on
the radio net the cruisers would report that the weather was
beautiful where they were and that there were no bugs. Being
too close to land or to mangroves tend to increase the number of
mosquitoes and no-see-ums that come out in the late afternoon.
We screened up and burned mosquito coils to help with the
problem. Everyone in our anchorage was saying no bugs, so I am
not sure why each day Betsy seemed to have more bites! That’s
another story and the reason that we finally changed anchorages,
but for now we will forget it and concentrate on all the good
snorkeling and hunter gathering that we did. Neil on Attitude
gave Hank a lesson on cleaning a conch and invited us for conch
salad the next afternoon. Of course the gals had a sharing time
seeing Kathy’s molas, it is contagious! Later two Kuna women
came to the boat to show Betsy their molas. Their prices were
much more reasonable than Venancio’s but the quality was not
quite the same as his work
The Kuna travel
in dug out canoes called ulus. Some have devised a way to use a
sail
 when
there is wind and some have been able to afford an outboard
motor. The sails were interesting to see and we realized that
they could be made out of anything, whether it was a bed sheet
or a piece of canvas it still worked. It was the Kuna who was
paddling that we felt sorry for, for they travel great distances
between the islands trying to make a living for their family.
 Every
Monday at the swimming pool anchorage, Reggie a cruiser that had
been there for a bout
8 years, announced that there would be a cocktail party on Bar B
Que Island at 5PM. You were to bring your own drinks and an
appetizer or finger food to share; this was a time to swap books
and DVD too. I made some chicken salad cups using little pastry
shells that I had found in the Colon market. We gathered at 5 to
meet all the cruisers and to watch the sun go down. The great
thing about cruising is that there is always someone around who
can answer questions for they had been where you want to go, or
have done what you want to do. We got some questions answered
concerning buying diesel for our engine
We moved back
to the East Coco Banderos where we were sure that we would not
have any bugs. Randy on Lost Elvis was at the anchorage and it
was great catching up with him, but it always seems that he is
just leaving as we arrive.
 This
time was no different than when we were in Golfito together.
Randy had some chartering guests on board and they were heading
out almost as soon as we arrived. This was sad for we were
hoping to spend some time with him catching up. Kunas from the
nearest island visited the boat but we had our freezer full of
fish and lobster so we gave them some chocolate and they brought
us two coconuts. Mystic Moon gave them several food items and
they gave her an octopus. We tried cooking the octopus for
appetizers but we didn’t have the technique down yet for it was
tough. While in this anchorage the vegetable sellers came by
the boat. There are about three regular guys and this time we
got pineapple, tomatoes, bread, onions and potatoes. There
bread is very good and this time it was shaped just like a
French baguette.
It rained a lot,
many times it would be in the night and we would have a few
showers
in the early part of the morning. Usually accompanying the rain
was lightning and thunder. We got so that we would count the
time between the lightning and the thunder, and if it was not
close we would go back to sleep. We could do this because we
had already put all the computers in the oven and the portable
electronics in the microwave for protection. One day it started
raining about 5:30AM and continued until noon. Venancio was in
the anchorage with his molas so I asked him to come out of the
rain and sit on the boat. Several of the pieces that Betsy had
bought from him previously had his signature but some did not.
So he took the time to embroider his name on the ones that did
not have it already. Then she took one last peek at his work.
Most everything she had already collected was very geometric,
and she wanted to see if she could find a piece that told a Kuna
story. Kathy on Attitude had some great pieces and Betsy was
hoping to find one too. She did find one example of what she
was looking for but from the looks of it she knew that it was
not going to be cheap! (Click here to see
his fantastic Molas)
We went out
snorkeling to the Sand Spit Island and had a wonderful
 time
diving around the wall. This anchorage had so many great places
that you had to try a new one each day or you would never get to
see them all. The only one we really didn’t explore is the old
freighter that was stuck on the reef. It looked like it was
ready to fall apart at any time, and we have since heard that it
has. Again Betsy had her camera and loved trying to get good
fish pictures.
After an
afternoon of snorkeling we enjoyed some of Paula’s great conch
chowder, cabbage salad and Kuna bread. The soup was so rich and
she said it was so easy to do once you get the conch out of the
shell. Since Kathy on Mystic Moon and Betsy were still on the
look out for a great conch shell, they didn’t was to smash the
shell to bits like Paula had done. They learned that if you put
the conch into the freezer overnight it will slip out of the
shell easily the next day. When doing this, it is necessary to
put the shell into a plastic bag for it will get slim all over
your freezer if you don’t. It is also great to clean the conch
on the back of the boat so the slim doesn’t get all over your
galley sink. We all speak from experience on this topic. But
back to the chowder, besides the conch there was celery,
potatoes, onions, spices and I think bacon in the soup. It was
terrific.
We had a 4th
of July party on the island the next day. Breeze off Blue
Skies, decorated the trees with many signal flags and US flags.
We got some dry wood and built a cook fire using the racks from
many cruiser’s ovens as the grill. We all had a great party and
as the sun was going down we knew that it was the signal to
start packing it back to the boats. The evening ended with a
few patriotic songs as we headed back to the boat. I knew that
school rendition of “You’re a Grand Ole Flag” would come in
handy some day.
The fifth of
July brought another day of snorkeling and some more great fish
pictures. It was also the first day that Betsy found a conch so
she was excited.
We moved with
Mystic Moon to Green Island and had the place to ourselves for
several nights until 4 other boats decided to join us and
anchored right close to us. We were not sure why they wanted to
be so close but some people don’t realize how big the anchorages
are and they are not used to anchoring in 30 feet of water. Our
first night there, Kathy decided she wanted to make conch
fritters so Hank pounded our conch meat and we took it over to
add to the recipe. The fritters were delicious and we couldn’t
wait to find another conch. That meant we needed to go
snorkeling again and so off the next day we all went. As a
point of information, we were finding the conch in about 10 to
15 feet of water and usually in sand and eel grass. They are
not easy to spot so Betsy put in contacts to help her vision.
Thanks to Dave Norcott her eye doctor for that great idea!
 After
a few days we left the anchorage for the long half hour trip to
Narganá to purchase diesel for our trip to Cartagena. We
contacted Federico and he said that he would bring 40 gallons to
the boat. We anchored in the Narganá bay and out he came in his
ulu. Loading diesel this way is not the greatest
since you have to lift the 5 gallon jug, pour it slowly into a
filter and hope that none spills on the deck or goes into the
water. It took time but we got it done and it was $3.50 a
gallon, which is cheaper than if we had had another Kuna bring
it to us. While Hank was helping Blow Me Away get another boat
from being stuck in the mud, Betsy met with Claudia and her
husband Pablo. Betsy had heard Claudia was another one of the
great mola makers but that she didn’t have a great supply like
some of the other sellers. The reason for the lack of supply
might be that it takes a lot of time to make a mola and Claudia
has 8 children. We had a wonderful time sitting and talking,
Betsy gave the family a large bag of school supplies to use and
to share at the school. Pablo was so nice as he said in Spanish
that the door to his house is always open to us. Well of course
Betsy added a few more molas to her collection.
 We
left Narganá about 3:30PM and headed back to the Greens. As we
motor sailed we kept looking behind us at the storm clouds that
were beginning to form. The clouds were really moving and we
knew that it was going to be close getting to the anchorage
before the rain hit. We did make it before the rain, but not
before the big winds. I mentioned before how had it is to
anchor in wind because you can’t see where you are dropping the
anchor. This time we had to rely on our GPS location from the
previous anchorage. We got the hook down just as the rain hit.
Then the rain stopped and the wind died down. Now that should
have been a good thing, but it picked back up at 3:30AM and as
we got up we saw that some boats were dragging in the
anchorage. We got everything set, but Hank did not go back to
bed. He stayed up to watch the other boats that were close to
us. One catamaran drug very close but the person on board slept
through the storm.
 July
12th we moved to Isla Tigre. This was to be our last
anchorage before doing the passage to Cartagena. We had been
told that the people did dancing every Sunday night
 and
we were interesting in seeing the show. Mystic Moon went to
shore to check it out while we stayed on the boat so that Hank
could clean the bottom before leaving. This is important for
several reasons. Most importantly you go faster if you do not
have a lot of growth on the keel. So Hank took the time to make
sure that there wasn’t any growth and then we headed to the
island for a late lunch. Now from this point on, all pictures
were taken with Hank’s camera for somehow on Betsy’s last
snorkel trip the case didn’t keep out the water and now her
camera isn’t happy! Anyway we visited the island and found a
very friendly group of people and a very tidy village. Visitors
are given a guide or ambassador and our guide was Lonny. He had
worked at the Panama Canal and he spoke very good English. He
showed us where to buy bread; we would not have found it with
out him, and where to get bananas. Kathy and Betsy got another
chance to look at Molas and to see the bead jewelry that the
women make.
 The
dancing started at 7PM, with the blowing of a multi-reed flute. 
The type of instrument and the sound reminded us of the music of
Peru. The men and women danced a very energetic circle dance
while their children watch. We noticed that there were many
young children on the island, but since the school only goes
through the 6th grade there didn’t seem to be any
teenagers. We were told that they had to go to shore for
schooling and returned when they were older. Observing that
there were several young mothers and fathers we thought this to
be true.
Participants
changed with each dance, but the main flute players remained the
same. 
We saw the influence of the pioneer square dance when they did
the line type formations and the circle dances looked an awful
lot like what we had watch in the Emberá. Lonny told us there
was a big 4 day dance competition coming up in October so it was
no wonder that even after we had gone back to the boat they
continued to dance. What impressed us so much was the
friendliness of the people and the smiles of the children. We
loved taking pictures of the children and showing the digital
image to them. It would have been great to have taken pictures
of all of them and then printed them out for them. Maybe we can
do that when we return in January. But for now, our time was
up; we needed to leave for Cartagena early the next morning.
The passage is 180nm so we planned to leave at 6AM; we hoped to
be getting to the marina about mid day the following day.
Actually it took us a lot longer, but we did make Cartagena
where we would get Equinox ready to be left for 3 months while
we fly back to the states to visit family and friends.
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