Less Talk More Pics

Yep....got to get this over with. The San Blas islands are part of Panama but are self governing and inhabited by the Kuna people who in general are pretty traditional,some islands more than others. It's a matriarchal society and indeed the women ,as far as dress goes are more traditional which adds to the colour .They are the 2nd smallest people in the world after the African Pygmies. They get around in dugout canoes and live in mainly bamboo thatched 'huts'. There are about 300 islands and 40 of them are inhabited by the Kuna tribes with their Chiefs and  laws and gods etc.

 

A Kuna family

 

Typical island village

Besides visiting your boat to sell you lobsters and fish and anything else they might have aboard ,they always have 'molas' ,beautifully embroidered and layered pieces that were originally for their blouses and dresses but are their biggest sale item for us cruisers and touristas in general.

                     

 

Also drop in to an island and  buy more molas.

 

Or go to an uninhabited island for evening drinkies and singalong.

That's Jabiru behind my head

 

This here "matriarch " made sure I gave her a dollar for a photo of her on the cell phone with her traditionally made up sister behind her. When it looked like I was going to take another she shot her hand out for another buck too.!

Anyway,had to get on with the hernia fix so had to catch a panga in about 10 miles to the mainland to go over to the Pacific side at the great big beautiful Panama City.

We travelled with Paul and Piper who we'd met on one of the islands . They were on their way to Bocas del Toro ,Panama.More about them later

The panga/taxi took us to a muddy little dock.

Where we  got a 'taxi' to Panama City.

That took us over the mountains on a winding road through the jungle.

There were cows

 

Trucks that missed a bend

 

Or maybe swerved around a bit of road slip

 

But anyway....got us there.

No pics ....of course but a google of Panama City will show what a great city it is.

The surgeon I saw there told me I could get the operation at David (pronounced Dahveed) and that was closer to Bocas del Toro and we'd heard that 'Bocus' was a cool place to hang out and recuperate etc . ....so it was bye-bye to Paul and Piper and back over the mountains to the  muddy creek

And back out the 10 miles to Jabiru

And bye-bye San Blas.

Next stop Portobello.Sir Francis Drake was finally killed there after his "piratical" carryings on and the church there has a famous " Black Christ " Not really sure what the significance of that is but I guess Jesus was closer to black than white seeing as he was a Palestinian.

The local bus

 Lovely.....but we could only stay a day.....we had a plan.

So after seeing friends from 4 boats we had been bumping into along the way we took off  for a 2 day run to Bocas......next time.