09 11.19 N  077 58.56 W

Mulatupu, which is the second largest village in the Kuna Yala Islands.  We arrived in the bay and found a Canadian, American and Netherlands boats there.  A gentleman arrived to announce that we would meet Mr. Green and the Chief of Mulatupu at 3pm.  We met Mr. Green at the official building and he introduced us to the current Chief.  We took care of the official business, which was the payment of $5 to visit the village, then  Mr. Green took us on a tour of the village through the huts and narrow walkways… and we knew we would not be able to find our way back to the official building as the huts and dirt tracks all look the same.  We said many Olas to the villagers as they greeted us from their doorways and windows.  One very proud lady showed us her ‘Three Blind Pigs’!  The village is very clean, the dirt is swept and there isn’t any litter on the ground.  We saw the Dr’s house and clinic, the hospital, school and sports field.  The villagers are extremely friendly and I took many, many photos of the kids, they love to pose and then they would run back to me to see their photos on the digital camera.  The boys especially like to have their photos taken.  Although they have the whole island to build their huts, they build the huts very close together, and one would think that there should be some odours permeating the island due to the closeness, but they have that problem covered, the outhouses are on stilts over the water, the huts that are beside the water have their own outhouse, but there are communal outhouses for the villagers who have huts in the village and not on the water.   We certainly can attest  that the outhouses are working… as we arrived by the dock and saw many special  things floating  in the water.  They also have the pig pens over the water so the pens stay clean and…well we have all driven past a pig farm and know that special smell that assaults our nostrils.  This certainly takes care of the stench that sewers and farm animals produce in close confines.  We met Mr. Green’s mother and sister, their huts have dirt floors, but they do have plastic lawn chairs to sit on, they don’t have a lot of stuff and don’t seem to miss the stuff, they have a fire to cook their meals, beds to sleep on and small patios to sew their molas.    You smell the burning wood throughout the village, it really is quite nice.  There is a generator on the island so sometimes you would hear music coming from one of the huts.  Our tour was coming to an end, but Mr. Green had one more surprise for us, he took us into the Congress.  They meet at 7pm every evening to discuss the days business.  We came out of the sunlight into a very large room with benches all around and as our eyes adjusted to the dim light we saw a gentleman lying on a hammock wearing a gold leisure suit and hat.  He is the next chief, as they can only hold office for three years.  He asked us many questions, mostly we couldn’t answer them as Mr. Green’s English is very basic, but we muddled along, said our goodbyes to the chief - this was a nice way to end our afternoon in Mulatupu.

Ola for now.

We have now met up with our friends from Vancouver, S/V Kilkea and it is good to be reconnected with long term cruising friends at the same time as we keep meeting new ones.

DTG to the Panama Canal entrance at Colon: 128 nm