Puerte Perme

Innamorata
Steve & Carol
Sun 27 Jan 2019 19:07
08:44.195N 77:32.67W
We motored the 8 miles to
Puerte Perme a small well sheltered bay with reefs on either side, as you
approach the anchorage you pass the village of Anachucuna which is a traditional
Kuna village, once in the bay you see another newer village set slightly back
from the shore. The skies were somewhat cloudy so not great for seeing the reefs
and obstructions and the water isn’t very well charted - even with the Bauhaus
charts there is little information so a sharp lookout is
required.
There was one small yacht
already in the anchorage and we managed to fit 3 of us in with Quicksilver
choosing to anchor just outside the bay. Soon we were approached by a local boat
with women in asking for an anchoring fee of $10! The bay was very quiet and
after our overnight passage we were happy to go to bed early and catch up with
some sleep - we were woken at 2 am when we had swung around and the boat was
gently hitting the bottom - quickly we pulled up 5 meters of anchor chain to get
away from the shallow and went back to bed. In the morning we re-anchored a
little further into the bay to ensure we were well away from any shallows. We
were visited by a Kuna man and his 2 boys selling coconut, plantains, a fruit I
didn’t recognise and a basket. As soon as we took their line they all hopped
onboard - I purchased a coconut, he asked for books or magazines but
unfortunately we didn’t have any - we use Kindle for reading books, the children
accepted some crayons I had on board but they didn’t want paper! Soon they moved
on to visit Lulu where Steph bought the rest of the goods they were selling.
Later we went ashore on
mass and had a pleasent walk ashore, we wandered around both villages and were a
source of interest to the children who came out to looks at us, giggle and
laugh, it was Sunday so the village was quiet and the adults didn’t seem
interested in us at all!
Everyone appears to have a canoe or ula which were all pulled up on the
shore, these are mainly hand crafted from tree trunks and used for fishing,
trading or visiting other villages. The homes were all traditionally built with wood, bamboo
and palm leaves with the odd bit of corrugated iron or concrete thrown in! Homes
in family enclosures with a sleeping, living hut with mud floor, hammocks and
nets for the clothes, a cooking hut with a fire in the middle made from coconut
husks and often a small garden with fruit and vegetables
growing.
Each village has a congresso / meeting hut
Strange gun butt decoration on a bread shop!
We found a couple of ladies
and an older girl sitting in the shade, one was making a mola which was
interesting to watch and the other chatted to us in Spanish, Kuna are very
reluctant to have photos taken as they believe it takes their spirit away so we
didn’t attempt to take any pictures of the adults, some children want their
picture taken while others indicate no when asked if it’s OK, we were able to
take pictures of the village though.
Each Kuna family has it’s
own land where they grow produce, there are plenty of coconut trees as well as
bananas, plantain, sugarcane, cocoa - in the new village where the homes are
less closely packed we saw gardens with chilli's, peppers, tomatoes and pumpkins
as well.
there were an amazing number of ants – they seemed to particularly like a
certain bush and there were busy ant roads leading to and from the bushes where
leaves were
There were donkeys tethered
grazing and a couple of horses.
Near the new village there
were also a few old rotting pieces of agricultural machinery bought in, in an
attempt to get the Kuna to farm coconuts more intensively - coconut oil is
produced in these islands, the machinery seem to have been of little interest to
the tribes who use the old method to two bits of wood to press sugarcane and
coconuts.
Remains of a pier built to bring the machinery ashore
After our walk about
everyone came to Innamorata for sundowners and nibbles and we had a great
evening - we have now called ourselves the S2R2.4 rally
group!
Honey Ryder and Lulu
heading out of the anchorage on our way to Isla
Pinos
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