The San Blas Islands

To understand our last three days, you probably have to know the people we spent time with, considering how an island with an area of roughly one square kilometer has very limited space and brings you face to face with your fellow inhabitants.

Setting: Robinson Island, the indigenous reservation of Kuna Yalah. Or basically, an archipelago along the Caribbean coast of Panama.

Cast of Characters:

Michael – Age 25. Ex-manager of a Residence Inn in Melbourne, FL, and my traveling companion for these two weeks in Panama.

Elan – Age 28. Works in Real Estate in New York City. Parents are from Isreal. Fluent Hebrew speaker. Extremely funny.

Etsy – Elan’s wife. Works in software development.

Kale – Age 19. Ex-construction worker. Just wrapping up four months of backpacking through Central America. Young guy, but very mature and curious nature. Good sense of humor.

Jaquelyn – Age 18. Traveling with Kale. Also a very mature person with a great attitude and sense of humor.

Anna – Age 25. British, from Manchester. Spent the last 6 months traveling around the work through Southeast Asia, South and Central America. San Blas is her last stop before returning to England.

Tal – Age 27 (approximately). Isreali. Ex-Captain with an Intelligence Service in the Isreali Defense Forces.

Anel – Age 20. Kuna Indian. Spent all his life among the islands. Often our captain when traveling by boat.

“Robinson” – Age 55 (approximately). Kuna Indian. Manager of the island where we were staying. An amateur historian, he studied philosophy and history at the University of Panama.

Some others that deserve mention are a trio of South Africans, an older Swedish gentleman, a Dutch man, two Dutch women, a young Isreali woman, and roughly 40 Kuna indians that inhabit the islands.

On Friday morning, after a long jeep ride to the Caribbean Coast, we boarded a set of boats piloted by the Kuna indians. After a quick trip for gas at one of the islands, we headed further down the coast towards Colombia, to one of over 300 islands that form part of the Kuna reservation.

After arriving to the island, we each talked to Robinson, the island business manager, to negotiate our rate, ($20 a day with three meals a day included), and be assigned to a small cabina.


The huts where we stayed. Ours is on the left.

Roughly 10 minutes later, after accommodating our things, and taking stock after the travel, everyone plodded back out onto the beach to check out our surroundings.

The expanse of approximately 100 meters of beach in front of us, dotted with coconut trees and the occasional hammock was to be our world for the next 72 hours.

Most of our days were spent sitting alongside the beach, or taking a dip in the cool blue water, watching small rain clouds move across the panorama as they passed over the other islands and coastal mountains. (see opening picture)


Typical day by the water.

Fortunately, our fellow island guests were a very open bunch. We spent the nights drinking rum and coke, and playing card games under a bright lamp that provided us with illumination until the generator ran out of gas around 10pm each night.

After that, the only two options were to go to sleep, or sit out by the beach looking out at some of the clearest views of the stars that I have ever seen.

The food we were served completely depended on what the Kuna could catch. Luckily, during our stay they served us red snapper the first night, then lobster the second day, followed by crab the last night. They also provided some vegetables and rice as a side. Not bad!

It was very interesting being on such a small island in a remote area, yet hearing conversation in English, Spanish, Kuna, Hebrew, and Dutch. While most travelers spoke English well, we would sometimes have to go through two different translators to tackle the intricacies of a certain situation – such as the rules of a card game or a financial transaction.

During the days we took two trips, one to visit another island where there was a shipwreck that allowed for some great snorkeling, and another trip to a local Kuna island village, to see the living conditions and also hunt for some local Kuna artesanry.

On the first trip, I finally got a chance to chat up our driver, Anel. He was a very pleasant, sincere young man, and I really enjoyed talking to him. He spoke Kuna, as do most of the indians, but he also spoke Spanish perfectly well, so that’s how we conversed.

He told Michael and I about some of the Kuna beliefs about nature and their religion. About how the sun was actually a Kuna warrior, Ibe, that was ordered by mother nature to the sky. Ibe is red in the morning because is always angry, and at night he drifts down below the earth to battle with evils and sicknesses.

Anel also told us about how according to their legends that were passed down orally from generation to generation, the Kuna had come down to the Earth from a golden flying saucer. (No kidding!) And also that one day, they will return to the mainland to live in the jungle.

The Kuna have also noticed the rising sea levels, as any change has a great effect on the land where they live, and that many believe it is the beginning of the Kuna prophecy of their return to the mainland.

He was a very young man, and he liked to joke and had a good sense of humor, but he spoke so freely and with a matter-of-factness about his beliefs.

I commented to him that to me it was impressive that he had such a solid faith in his beliefs at such a young age. He responded back, “It’s not only about believing in your religion, it’s about loving it.” I found that to be a pretty powerful statement, and could think of no response.

At the end of our three days on the island, I ran into Anel in the morning and told him I enjoyed talking with him, and gave him my green Peace Corps hat which I had worn for more than a year and a half, and had always been important to me.

About 10 minutes later he came back to me and told me he would have to return the hat, and he couldn’t offer me anything as well. He explained that according to his beliefs, if you are given an important article of someone else’s, like a piece of clothing, it carries with it a part of their being, or intelligence. So by accepting my gift, he would be taking something from me, and neither could he offer me something of his.

I was disappointed but wasn’t about to tempt the karma of the Kuna indians.

So we reverted to the next best alternative. Or that is, we exchanged email addresses and promised to become Facebook friends!

The trip to San Blas and the Kuna Yalah reserve was incredible. I don’t think Mike or I expect to beat that during our remaining week here in Panama.

Tomorrow we take a bus west for about 7 hours, to a small town called Boquete, near the Costa Rican border and Volcan Baru, to enjoy the freshness of the mountains and some great hiking.

But for now I’ve got to go Facebook my new friend, Anel.