The San Blas Islands are a vast archipelago on Panama’s Caribbean Coast composed of over 340 islands. They are unique worldwide, home to the Kuna Indians who have best preserved their culture and traditions out of all the tribes in the Americas. The area is only reachable by small airstrips built by the North Americans during the Second World War.
The San Blas Islands and the associated mainland territory are called Kuna Yala by the autonomous Kuna Indians who effectively control this quarter of Panama. The islands are a cruising ground of incredible beauty and untouched stretches of virgin rainforest make up the Kuna Yala mainland.
The land is not divided into individual properties and fences are absent. Kuna’s treat their forests as we treat an anchorage, tribe members can pass through and benefit, but do not claim possession by industrial development. This is why the landscape still looks much the same as when Vasco de Balboa first arrived.
The Kunas are accepting of visitors, but prohibit any non-Kuna from permanently settling or intermarrying. Foreigners cannot buy land or invest in Kuna Yala. The Kunas are physically small, rivalled in tribal shortness only by the pygmies. They are peaceful, non-agressive and crime of any form is extremely rare in Kuna Yala.
Kuna Yala is a matrilineal society. The women control the money and the husbands move into the women’s family compound. Kuna’s do not marry at a fixed age but rather when they are considered mature enough often with the women choosing the husbands.
Traditional Kuna villages are picturesque, clean and blend into the surrounding landscape. The huts are made from renewable, fast-growing materials; the floor is slightly elevated with compacted sand while the walls are made of cane. The roof is artistically fabricated from a special palm leaf found in the jungle. Everything is held together by jungle creepers. Hut interiors are sparse, with no furniture, just hammocks.
The Kuna’s number around 55,000 or about 10% of what they were before the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors. They are a determined nation, organised and united within a strict hierarchy of tribal leaders. Each village has three “Sailas” (chiefs) who hold the highest authority at village level. Three “Caciques” or high chiefs rule the nation as a whole, each one representing his part of the land. Of these, one will be elected supreme leader of the Kuna Nation. Sailas are much more than political leaders. They are also holders of the Kuna spiritualism, medicinal knowledge and history.
The mainstay of the Kuna economy is coconuts which grow en masse on the outlying islands. Until a few years ago, coconuts were the official means of exchange, with every coconut palm owned by a tribal member, even on offshore islands. Consequently, one should never help oneself to coconuts, including those lying on the ground.
The coconuts are bought by the colourful Columbian trading boats. Columbian traders also bring in most of the supplies: salty crackers, poor quality canned foods, potatoes, onions, oil, fuel, glass beads, machetes and assorted trading goods. Kuna Yala exports lobsters, king crabs and octopus, caught by the Kuna skin-divers.
The women make money selling “molas”. These beautiful appliqué shirts are intricately made by sewing and cutting different layers of colourful cloth. Each mola is unique, and they usually show abstracted forms of birds, animals, or marine life. As soon as you anchor near a village, the women will paddle out in a dugout “ulu” and show you dozens of different molas: they are friendly and don’t say much, but are persistent.
Our second night in San Blas was anchored off Dog Island and another island, Niadup, which were separated by a small natural channel. Two huts were constructed on Dog Island, one being the main family hut on one end and the other, the bathroom for visitors at the other end. The Kuna Family living on Dog Island has a successful business encouraging mainland Kunas to bring tourists to the island for the day. US$1 is the cost for visiting the island. Molas for sale hang on a line outside the family hut. Niadup had a number of huts specially built to house backpackers who wished to stay. A freighter beached off Dog Island in the 1950’s has become a magnet for fish and is great for snorkelling. Mal and I spent some time snorkelling on the wreck.
We would have liked to have spent more time in the San Blas Islands, but our Aussie sailing friends, Nicholas and Lynn on “Girl”, whom we met in Granada and whom we spent time with in St Martin and the US and British Virgin Islands, were in Colon, Panama, booked to go through the Panama Canal on 27 April 2010. Nicholas and Lynn were sailing home and we had decided to sail with them. We were keen to sail to Colon to make our own arrangements to go through the Panama Canal so on the morning of the 24 April 2010, we hauled anchor and set sail for Colon, Panama.
