Kuna Yala Islands

 This is where Hollie and I spent our post-semester week of vacations (three days of it, anyway). 

Gorgeous, right?

This lovely little spot in the Caribbean is called Kuna Yala, but is also known as the San Blas islands. It is the home of the Kuna people, natives of Central America. 

There are 360-something islands in the San Blas archipelago, forty-ish inhabited. 

If you are interested in seeing a little Kuna history, wikipedia has some info that looks like it mostly agrees with what we heard from the Kuna people. Also, here is another tale of the islands if you care for more reading material.

At five o'clock in the morning, Hollie and I were picked up from our hostel in Panama City and headed out to the islands. 

Picture from here

Our driver, Junior, was a very nice guy, Italian who had lived in Miami, and now has a business doing 4x4 tours throughout Panama. Another couple came with us as well, a very friendly pair from Georgia. Although the road used to be pretty terrible and it was more common to fly in to the islands, the road is now very nice. In fact, the entire way there the whole road was significantly better than the majority of the roads in Costa Rica. As of three months ago, there is even a bridge that eliminates the need to cross a river before you get to the islands. Although is was a pretty curvy road, overall it was a very comfortable trip. 

The very comfortable road.

 Once on the coast, we were herded towards a motorboat and sped off to avoid the terrible mosquitoes that plague the mainland cost. We really had no idea what we were doing, exactly, but our host, Germain, was very helpful and knowledgeable. We were dropped of on a very rickety dock, right by the over-the-ocean toilets and shown to the house. Quite a nice little place, actually not that little at all. The ground floor had hammocks and a cooking/eating area, and the top floor had four bedrooms and a common area with hammocks. We ate breakfast of bread and nutella and then headed out to the beach.

The island we were staying on is called Carti (this is the site for the hostel, if you care to see) and it is one of the most populated islands. The whole thing is full of little thatched roof houses, right up to the waters edge. Plus the whole-in-the-dock toilets that dump straight to the ocean surround the whole island. So it wasn't ideal for beach time. Germain, however, was great about organizing trips to the other islands, and we spent all day out on the beaches of the other islands. 

They were gorgeous, and practically private islands, with just a handful of us on them. We snorkeled, swam, laid out in the sun, and chilled in hammocks under the palms. What a life, right?

 This was our lunching/hammock spot. Germain is setting the table.

This is the couple from Georgia, Brad and Paige, and our boat driver.

On our first night in Carti, there were three other guests. One was a girl from Holland beginning an 8 week volunteer trip, and another was a married couple, a Mexican artist and an Estonian philologist who was collecting poetry in native languages. The artist put on a workshop for the kids in the neighborhood, and I went to take pictures for him. He did some fun and quick modern art with acrylic paint, spatulas, and lots of water. It was fun to see all the kids so fascinated.

In our hostel the night before the workshop, showing us how it's done

Isn't the tiny little canoe funny! It looks like a toy!

The Kuna people are famous for their traditional fabric art called Molas. They are place mat size embroidered designs with layers of fabric had cut and sewn. You can see them hung between the palm trees here, and below they incorporated the cat from Aristocats.

This spot wasn't an island, but just a big shallow area of the ocean with a white sand bottom and a bunch of lovely star fish.

We had lobster twice in one day! Delicious!

The couple from Georgia, our driver, and us on the dock on our last day in the island.

 Once back in Panama City, we stayed the night in another very nice hostel. The next morning we took one of these lovely pieces of art in to the bus station. These buses are called 'little red devils' and all have very unique paintings and even lights.

The bus ride back to Costa Rica (on a considerably more comfortable, if less colorful bus) we crossed the canal and were able to grab some pictures. It really wasn't that exciting, no big ships or anything. But it is what Panama is famous for and all. 

Our whole time in Panama was quite enjoyable and everything worked out great. We met some really nice people, relaxed on some beautiful islands, and had a great experience.