San Blas Islands
Ripple2
Mon 6 Mar 2006 23:04
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G'day web fans,
I got a few emails from people asking could we
please update. Well, we had sent some updates but the address we send them to
somehow got a l after .com so they never arrived. Sorry about that. And we
didn't discover it until we arrived in the San Blas. It was too rough to email
on the passage.
So now Annie has written an update. Monday March
06
I'd like to tell you about these islands we are
currently sailing around. They are called San Blas Islands.They are just off the
east coast of Panama, south of the canal down to the border of
Columbia. There are hundreds of tiny atoll-like islands covered in very
tall (over 100 feet), spindly coconut trees. Some islands look as though there
are more trees than island. A lot of them are uninhabited.
The people who live here are called Kunas -they are
the orginal people of this area and have stuck to their native ways as much as
possible. So they live in thatched huts, have no furniture except for hammocks,
and paddle around all over in dugout canoes with just one paddle and sometimes a
long pole for the shallow areas.The women wear traditional outfits which feature
intricately sewn bodices called molas. These are brightly coloured with lots of
layers of fabric appliqued over each other and have traditional designs like
animals, birds, and geometric designs that represent spiritual passages &
such.
Of course these have taken my eye as they are
usually rainbow coloured. The women paddle out to our boat to sell them. Most
are about 30x40cm (12x15 inches) and sell for $10-15 US. It seems like a very
low price for so much work. The more intricate ones take a month to
sew. So far we have about 12. The first 7 I
bought within 20 minutes of dropping anchor. Even Darren likes
them.
Other than mola shopping we have explored a couple
of islands and one of the villages. On Friday to our dismay a huge (and I mean
for a cruise ship, huge) cruise ship that would carry more that 2,000 people,
pulled in on the second day. The island where the airstrip is, became mola city.
There had to be hundreds of women - all with their molas hanging up to sell. And
hundreds of cruise-ship people either swimming,shopping or taking off in long
wooden boats to visit a village. So there went the neighbourhood and our feeling
of having "discovered" a rare and beautiful place. Anyway as I said earlier
there are hundreds of islands and we moved off to another one which is mostly
uninhabited except for some fisherman. They come around to the boat and sell
what they've caught, usually for $1. I knocked back an octopus yesterday,it was
huge and today there were some big snappers - too much for us. We are still
eating the small bonita we bought the day before!
We are planning to spend a few weeks
here before going to Panama. The canal is about 70 miles away. And I'm
looking forward to plopping around and exploring some more, ...maybe get a
couple more molas.......
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