A Trip To Kuna Yala Comarca/San Blas Archipelago

This posting will tend to be longer than all the other postings I have written. Realizing after traveling to such a wonderful and interesting place as the Kuna Yala Comarca, the need to write about the Kuna lifestyle was just as important as our trip - therefore - I could not visualize writing a brief article solely on our trip and sights. At the end I have put together with some research  interesting facts about the history of the Kuna people. Enjoy exploring, discovering and learning about Panama!

We started our trip driving to Panama from Boquete at 8:30 Saturday morning on June 6, 2009. Our dear friend Remi Bodet was heading back to France to be with family and his stay in Panama would end with the three of us visiting an area in the Kuna Yala Comarca or known to powers, such as the gift of healing or the ability to foretell the future. Albinos often grow up to play a pivotal role in the community, becoming political leaders, shamans or entrepreneurs. many as the San Blas Archipelago and stay on Yandup Island. One of the attractions of the archipelago of Kuna Yala is the uninhabited islands, covered by an exuberant vegetation and coconut plantations, with beautiful small beaches and fine white sand. The islands are surrounded by clear water and pure with colors that vary from emerald to turquoise and blue to all stains.Ideal for a sunny day with beaches surrounded by virgin nature. It is an ideal paradise of sunny days with virgin beaches surrounded by nature.

Ukupseni” it is one of the most populous islands in the Kuna Yala territory of Panama, 200 yards from the mainland. It is a small island, roughly ¼–⅓ mi, or 300–400 yd. The population of the island is about 3,000 the Kuna Indians populate Ukupseni.
The literal translation for Ukupseni is "little beach" in English, or playa chica in Spanish, thus Playón Chico is a mistranslation, which means roughly "Big Little Beach". There is no road to Ukupseni only a bridge connecting Ukupseni to the mainland and extremely useful, as the majority of local agriculture, schooling, the airport, and potable water are on the mainland.

We decided to drive to Panama City and would be the first time driving for Edward and I. To say the least we were a bit apprehensive but since we had received our Panamanian driver licenses about a month ago, we felt the need to take the plunge. Panama City is full of traffic jams for most of the day and is a totally a crazy place to drive.

We got an early start though as it turned out it really does not make any difference on the time of day one arrives in PC because it is always “rush hour” unless of course one is driving at midnight or in the wee hours of the morning. Edward drove half the way and I the last half. PC is 480 kms (300 miles) from Boquete. After crossing the Puente de Las Americas in PC it is not clear which ramp to take to the Allbrook Airport our overnight stay will be at the Albrook Inn located a hop, skip, and a jump from there. I drive onto a ramp, after given directions to which takes into the Chorrillo and Santa Ana slums. YIKES/OOPS! I am driving while Edward and Remi are supplying instructions on how to drive out of this area. As it turns out, we end up on Puente de Las Americas again on the same highway to enter into PC noticing u-turns were not allowed, there are no exit ramps until miles down the highway, and finally we exit heading back on the highway to the Puente de Las Americas again. WHEW! Exiting onto the correct ramp this time we enter another busy highway, and immediately need to cross four lanes to exit onto another ramp while cars are honking but being the optimistic person that I am, cars let me cross. It was a very frantic and confusing experience to say the least. Thank goodness we arrive at the hotel safely but mentally drained after the back and forth excursion trip trying to find the Albrook Inn. We had a good laugh about the whole experience afterward.

At four-thirty the next morning, we wake up to the sound of the alarm clock; stumble around while we prepare to leave the hotel for our 6am flight to Playón Chico. Fortunately, the hotel staff gives us permission to leave our car at the hotel for the four days. After checking in at the Allbrook Airport waiting to board the plane and enjoying a cup of coffee the reservationist comes over pointing out our online tickets for the return date is scheduled for July 10. He asks are you planning to stay there for one month, we respond “no” and ask if it is possible to change the date to June 10. As it turned he did we were relieved and thankful that he had brought this to our attention and made the necessary change. Thank you Air Panama.

When the time came to board the Air Panama plane we are surprised at how small it is, we look at each other wondering will this small plane make it. The plane only has twenty seats and the flight to our destination over Panama’s rainforest and famous canal takes 40 to 60 minutes.

Visiting the Kuna Yala Comarca is a trip well worth it for anyone who enjoys exploring different cultures and learning all Panama has to offer.

The Air Panama plane landed on Playón Chico the Kuna name is “

Aside from the bridge, the second most popular form of transportation is the kayuco (hollowed-out tree canoe). Kayucos range in sizes and styles. Extremely large kayucos, some more than 4 ft wide are used, and others vary in size down to one-person boats. A typical kayuco is similar to a Western-style canoe. Even though kayucos travel in the ocean they do not have a lateral brace and balance as found on Polynesian ocean-going craft. The Kuna use a distinct, low-profile kayuco when navigating through rivers.

Ukupseni is mostly autonomous, in that it grows most of its own food. Colombian ships travel through Kuna Yala, and the Kuna people sell coconuts in exchange for goods, including hammocks, cloth, and other supplies. The sell lobster, crab, and fish to seafood airplanes on the Ukupseni airstrip.

Ukupseni, along with the vast majority of the rest of San Blas islands lies atop a coral reef that has broken the surface of the ocean. People depositing earth, rock, waste, or other debris in order to create a large living area on the island enlarges this island constantly. The elevation of these islands is about 1½ feet above sea level. Local tides fluctuate the water level by 4–11 inches in the area. Occasionally a "super-high tide" of about 18 inches will saturate the outer parts of the island.

After landing, we notice a young group of 20-25 boarding the same Air Panama and later told they were a group of students and had stayed at the Yandup Lodge for two nights. The boat from the “Yandup Island Lodge” arrives shortly with our two guides, Eliberto and Domecio for the duration of our visit.

Yandup Lodge is a paradise island surrounded by coral reefs. It has a little beach with calm and clear water and miles of sand within walking distance. The word Yandup is Kuna and is two words “Yan” means a Mountain Pig and “Dup” means island. Yandup belongs to a small archipelago, where you can even go swimming from one island to the other, crossing channels of various depths. The island is located approximately in the center of the Kuna Yala reserve and 1000 meters from the Ukupseni community or Playón Chico and 1.300 meters from the tropical forest and the airport.

As we arrive at the Yandup Lodge, the upkeep of the island and grounds is thoroughly impressive. Surrounded by Palm trees, a manicured landscape the cabañas spread out providing privacy. There are five cabañas over the water with private bathrooms including two in front of the sea with private bathroom and one small cabaña in front of the sea with shared bathroom. All built with local materials by the Kuna Indians of Playón Chico village. The cabañas octagonal shape symbolizing passages of Kuna tradition. The cabañas have double and single beds with mosquito netting, wooden floor, night tables, floor fans and a terrace overlooking the sea with hammocks, they are very neat and clean. Beds are changed and made daily with clean bath towels. The owners Elicio Alvarado and Beatrice Garcia are very gracious hosts. They were on hand to greet us upon our arrival Yandup Island Lodge, provided an upgrade immediately for us at no extra charge into a larger cabaña probably due to the low season and the island cabañas were vacant. The two owners were educated in Spain, Beatrice is from Toledo, Spain, and Elicio is Kuna from Ukupseni, they met attending one a university in Spain. Beatrice has lived in Panama for over thirty years.


All meals (3 per day), guided tours (2 per day), pick-up, and return trip to Playón Chico airport are included in the package. The menu (lunch and dinner) depends on the catch of the day. June begins the season for catching lobster, crabs, and other shell seafood. Prior to June it is unlawful to catch. The food we were served was excellent eggs in the morning with coffee, seafood for lunch and dinner. During the lobster season, one can order some for dinner at an extra charge. We shared a three-pound lobster between the three of us as an appetizer the cost five dollars each. The server at the restaurant an eighteen-year-old Kuna woman named Daylet was very attentive, fun and always smiling.

Around 9:30 each morning, we boarded the boat to ride to one of two islands named Dupir and the other Arridup. We were on each island for about 3 hours each day and when one is snorkeling, the time goes by quickly. If you travel to the Kuna Islands be sure to take along snorkeling gear. We were sure glad we did for there are fish to see and besides swimming with snorkel and fins is fun. Remi saw a Stingray and Barracuda we all saw little fish, starfish among other sea life. Lunch followed our swim each day in the restaurant overlooking the water and always delicious.

In the afternoon, around four the island tour began. Around the dinner hour, the schedule for the following day is on the board in the restaurant and in English. Some places we visited; the mangroves by boat; second day the Kuna village across from Playón Chico and the third afternoon; a boat ride to Rio Grande or Kuna known as “Tejuar Dummad.”

You can read more about the Kuna lifestyle below on facts of the Kuna people. The children in Ukupseni the village we visited were very friendly, happy, and appeared healthy, some of the older women were busy sewing molas and molas hanging outside of homes were for sell. Children who can barely walk swim like otters, and it's not rare to see small boats in the open ocean with a five or six year old child at the helm!

Volleyball and basketball are the popular sports played in the Kuna community, Tournaments are held, and trophies for the champion team are given. On the afternoon, we visited the community a game of young men played volleyball at one end of the village while at the other end young women played a game of volleyball.

Yandup Lodge is a place worth another visit. I felt as though we were on our very own private island it was so awesome, sunsets were beautiful and different each evening. The service was very good and the staff was good-natured and eager to talk. Rating the food from a one to ten, my rating is a nine. All the ingredients used in the preparation of our meals and plate presentations rated excellent. Yandup serves a 1.5 liter of bottled water with lunch and dinner. We brought our own wine and it was fine with the owners. We also brought with a few snacks, bug spray, shampoo (they provide soap in each room), beach towel because Yandup does not want you to use their towels for the beach. My thoughts it is unnecessary since the water is warm and so is the air. Our bug spray did not seem to help at all neither did the Gruber Oil bought in Boquete to keep the "chitras" (no-seeums) away. Several people have mentioned coconut oil, Baby oil or any oil for that matter works well to keep them from biting because they slide right off nothing to bit. Therefore, the next I go to the beach or the Kuna Yala I will have baby oil or coconut oil and slathering it all over.

Further information about Yandup you can click here to read their webpage.
http://www.yandupisland.com/index.htm

Interesting facts about the Kuna community and the people.Dulegaya is the primary language of daily life in the comarcas (region), and the majority of Kuna children speak the language. Spanish is also widely used, especially in education and written documents. Although it is relatively viable, the Kuna language is an endangered language.

Kuna language dictionary click:
http://www.paigerpenland.com/travel/dictionaries/kuna_dictionary.html

The Kuna live in an area that includes a 140-mile stretch of rainforest on the mainland and a chain of coral islands off the Caribbean coast of Panama, from San Blas Point near the Colón side of the Panama Canal to Porto Obaldía near the Colombian border. Named San Blas by outsiders, the region known as the Kuna Yala, which means 'Kuna land.”

History
Because their homeland is located near the old "Gold Route" of the Spanish Conquistadors, Europeans contacted the Kuna soon after the "discovery" of the New World. The Spanish found the Kuna people to have an egalitarian society, proud and independent. With the protection of what the Spanish regarded as a pestilent and impenetrable jungle, the Kuna managed to avoid colonization and exploitation. A free trade system evolved whereby the Kuna borrowed from other cultures that which they found useful while maintaining their own language, culture, and customs.

The Kuna were living in what is now Colombia at the time of the Spanish invasion, and only later began to move westward towards what is now Kuna Yala. Centuries before the conquest, the Kuna arrived in South America as part of a Chibchan migration moving east from Central America. At the time of the Spanish invasion, they were living in the region of Uraba and near the borders of what are now Antioquia and Caldas. Alonso de Ojeda and Vasco Nunez de Balboa explored the coast of Colombia in 1500 and 1501. They spent the most time in the Gulf of Uraba, where they made contact with the Kuna people.

In far Eastern Kuna Yala, the community of New Caledonia is near the site where Scottish explorers tried, unsuccessfully, to establish a colony in the "New World". The bankruptcy of the expedition was one of the causes of the loss of sovereignty over their own lands, to the British.

Living on the mainland until the 1850's, the Kuna moved to the islands to escape insects, snakes, illness, and vampire bats, and to interact with traders traveling along the Central American coast. Today the Kuna number approximately 40,000, most of who live in Kuna Yala. Nearly 10,000 live in Kuna communities in Panama City and Colón.

Kuna Yala has an area of 924 square miles (2393 km²) and a population of 36,487 people (2004). The comarca consists of a strip of land stretching 232 miles (373 km) along the Caribbean coast of Panama, bordering Colombia and the province of Darién. The San Blas Islands, an archipelago of 365 islands, runs along the coast. Kuna communities inhabit about 36 of the islands. An additional 13 communities are located on the mainland coast, for a total of 49 communities.

The comarca, or district, of San Blas, often called Kuna Yala literally means Kuna Land. The Kuna are one of Panama's three major indigenous groups.

Like indigenous peoples throughout the world, the Kuna walk a thin line between preserving their culture, language, and traditions and assimilating into the 21st century world. However, unlike many, the Kuna have been able to retain their independence throughout their history. Though small in stature, the Kuna people have strength of will and intelligence which have produced a resilient culture with education, reason, and creativity.

They cultivate coconuts, bananas, plantain, and root crops as well as corn, rice and seasonal fruits. Patches of land they set aside for the spirits and botanical medicines. Monkeys, parrots, squirrels, wild pigs, and a variety of other animals also inhabit the mainland rainforest. Today, a cash economy exists alongside traditional subsistence farming and fishing.

Traditional Kuna Women Style
The traditional costume of a Kuna woman consists of a patterned cotton wrapped skirt, red and yellow headscarf, arm and leg beads, gold nose rings and earrings and the many layered and finely sewn mola panel blouse.

One item the Kuna borrowed from Europeans was cotton fabric. As far as we can tell, the Kuna had no history of weaving but adopted the use of fabric to produce the article, which has now become the defining element of their culture: the mola. A mola is a fabric panel, worked in several layers of appliqué, which serves as the bodice in the traditional woman's blouse. The style of appliqué, often referred to as "reverse" because the top layer is cut away to reveal colors underneath, was developed by the Kuna as an expression of their cultural aesthetic. The designs and patterns used are particular to the maker and incorporate both traditional and modern elements. Early mola designs were related to pre-Hispanic body painting; today, mola designs may include abstract geometric designs, motifs from the natural world, or themes related to politics, popular culture, or Kuna legends. Today, molas are a vivid and varied art form and a major source of income for the Kuna people.

Elicio Alvarado the owner of Yandup Island Lodge took part in a project headed by UCLA surveying the worldview of the Kuna people. This project explored their adaptability to the influences of the outside world, the strength, vibrancy of their living culture. As well as the Kuna peoples central concern for form and beauty in everyday life, narratives, rituals, healing, and visual arts such as Kuna women's molas (textiles). While showcasing Kuna culture through a wide range of objects including baskets, wooden objects, molas, and gold jewelry. In addition a catalog titled “The Art of Being Kuna: Layers of Meaning Among the Kuna of Panama” was edited from an extensive exhibit includes articles by many of the writers who help in this project. The editor Mari Lyn Salvador gathered a reference from the collection of molas, from the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History compiling all for the book published in 1997.

Political and Social Organization
Today there are 49 communities in Kuna Yala. In Kuna Yala, each community has its own political organization, led by a Sahila (pronounced "sai-lah"). The Sahila is traditionally both the political and spiritual leader of the community; he memorizes songs which relate the sacred history of the people, and in turn transmits them to the people. Decisions are made in meetings held in the Onmaket Nega (Congress House or Casa de Congreso), a structure which likewise serves both political and spiritual purposes. It is in the Onmaket Nega that the Sahila sings the history, legends, and laws of the Kuna, as well as administering the day-to-day political and social affairs. The Sahila usually accompanied by one or more voceros who function as interpreters and counselors for the Sahila. Because the songs and oral history of the Kuna are in a more traditional dialect, the Sahila's recitation frequently followed by an explanation and interpretation from one of the voceros will be in either their island's dialect or Spanish.

The Kuna General Congress governs the whole region, led by three Sahila Dummagan ("Great Sahilas”). The local government for various needs throughout the year conducts community projects, and every citizen is required to help.

MarriageKuna families are matrilineal and to some extent a matriarchy in which the line of inheritance passes through the women. After marriage, the young man must live in his mother-in-law's house and work for several years under apprenticeship to his father-in-law. Kuna myths suggest that, symbolically, Kuna women hold high status. Daughters, pampered with clothes and jewelry, are preferred to sons because they eventually bring additional work force into the family. Their children will often care for the elderly, and so one family dwelling will often house several generations.

House StructureThe typical housing structure is a "pole"-style thatch hut, which will house an entire family. Building materials are tree trunks for the main pillars, bamboo poles for support, and various types of leaves for the roof. Walls are typically lashed bamboo or caña blanca (cane). A well-constructed hut can stand for as long as 30 years.

AlbinismThe Kuna have a very high incidence rate of Albinism. In Kuna mythology, Albinos had a special place. [3] The Kuna Albinos are considered a special race of people, and have the specific duty of defending the Moon against a "dragon" which tries to eat it on occasion...the Eclipse. They are the only one allowed outside on the night of an Eclipse and use specially made bows and arrows to shoot down the dragon. In the 1920s, an American adventurer explored the Kuna area looking for the Albino Kuna. Richard Marsh also helped organize the Tule Revolution of 1925. He wrote about his adventures in a book.

Children of the Moon
In a quirk of genetics, the Kuna Yala has one of the highest rates of albinism in the world. In the US and Western Europe, albinism occurs on a rate of about 1 in 35,000. In the Kuna community, the rate is 1 in 165. Given the tropical setting, one would think these pale, easily sunburned individuals would face serious discrimination but in fact, they are revered and considered 'children of the moon'. Their reverence stems from Kuna creation tales, which describes God sending his albino son into the world to teach humans how to live. Thus, the Kuna believe albinos are endowed with inordinate wisdom, and may even have supernatural
powers, such as the gift of healing or the ability to foretell the future. Albinos often grow up to play a pivotal role in the community, becoming political leaders, shamans or entrepreneurs.