The San Blas Islands here in Panama are bit of an unspoiled paradise. There is no power (except generator power and now solar power) or plumbing on the island, life is lived very simply here. The Kuna indians live on hundreds of these tiny islands off the coast of Panama. They dress as you would expect with the women wearing the family capital in the form of gold around their neck, in their ears and in the their nose.
The San Blas islands compose what is known as the Kuna Yala, also known as Guna Yala, an indigenous territory of Panama. This archipelago consists of 378 islands in the Golf of San Blas of which only 47 are inhabited. The Kuna people on these islands are believed to be an indigenous group that came over from Columbia during the time the Spanish arrived and now live exclusively on these islands. Only until recently thee Kuna did not permit tourism, but in the past decade they have welcomed tourists to these spectacular pristine islands. So visiting here be sure to bring small denominations of US currency as a picture with one person will cost you a dollar, a picture with two people will cost two dollars and so on. A picture of a caged pig will also cost a dollar. This is fine as most locals are wearing their traditional clothing and are worth the cost of the picture. We visited, by way of tender, the main island which can easily be walked in its entirety in about an hour. Although pristine, with no plumbing on the edges of the village around the island are a series of over the water walkways with outhouses at the ends so one can guess where the human waste ends up. The people seemed to be happy and healthy enough as they eke out their living, we did see a community school in the centre of the village with plenty of little stores providing all the necessary goods one need to survive. Houses and buildings are made up mainly of bamboo, thatch and galvanized steel. There was a bit of a main market place where Marianne found a great fridge magnet for us, yeah. We did have a good stroll around before heading back to the ship and our Tropical Evening night. The dining room and servers all dressed in themed attire which made the evening very festive. We took tonight to head to the Piano Bar in the Crow’s Nest, Steve does a good job in this outstanding venue. He made the point that he is our private piano player on this private Yacht - this is exactly how this ship feels, she is a classic. Panama Canal tomorrow, yeah, I believe this will be our third or fourth transit of the the Canal which is always an amazing crossing going from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean. Looking forward to another amazing day… Hope you enjoy our pics of the day…
Quote of the day: I would rather own little and see the world than own the world and see little of it. - Alexander Sattler
No comments:
Post a Comment