Thursday, June 3 1999 - Comarca de San Blas/Panama

Good morning fellow travelers,

First of all thanks to Tom Burgess and Jens Paschke for identifying the plane from yesterday - a Lockheed P-3C Orion, which is used by the US to monitor the oceans with listening devices to detect submarines and other marine traffic, including us!

Well today will be a long and busy day so I better started now.

We arrived at the Islands of San Blas, last night at 11.00 and anchored for the night. We were up whilst it was still dark, to lower the Zodiac Tender over the side. As dawn broke and the first pastel pinks and yellows coloured the sky, all the little islands of the San Blas chain emerged out of the gloom, looking like so many little green hats floating on the water with coconut palm trees sticking up like decorative hat pins. As soon as it was light we headed over to the Island of El Porvenir to check in and request permission to visit the islands and film. Trevor and Michael went over to the island to deal with the technicalities - we not only had to check in to San Blas, but into Panama as well

In the mean time the rest of us gave the STARSHIP a quick wash down to get off the accumulated salt of the last few days. As soon as we had anchored off the Island, a fleet of small wooded canoes manned by the women of the villages came paddling out to meet us.


Kuna women selling their wares

The women were so brightly dressed, and so many in each boat, that they looked and sounded like colourful parakeets crowded onto a branch all jostling for a perch. They were very keen to sell us their embroidered wares. The indigenous people of San Blas are the ‘Kuna’ and the Kuna women are well known for their hand sewn and embroidered articles. Angelica went out onto the transom to bargain for some pieces, which gave me chance to take in some of the details of the women’s appearance. They wear brightly coloured blouses and long colourful wrap-around skirts, but also their arms and legs are completely covered in hundreds of bands of tiny coloured beads, all stitched together, so that they extend from the ankle to the knee and the wrist to the elbow. These colourful clothes are not worn to impress the tourists. They are the traditional dress of the Kuna and worn everyday.

Michael and Trevor obtained permission to visit and photograph, from a very pleasant immigration officer, who also told them that he was part of a program to help preserve the Kuna’s culture and traditions.

Afternoon: permission granted we set off to tour one of the populated islands. If fact, the one we chose was so densely occupied that from a distance it looked like a clump of palm thatched huts floating on the waves, with just odd palm tree sticking up above the roofs.

As we approached the island we were guided through the reef by a man who had come out of his house to observe us. This turned out very well. Mr Eladio Garcia or “Mr Blue” as he is also known, turned out to be a local guide. For a small fee he agreed to give us a tour of some of the islands and introduce us to the Kuna people. We visited the local school and hotel, and walked through the village, meeting the villagers, and looking at the houses, simple palm thatched huts with reed or cane sides and sandy floors. We were also taken to meet a local chief and shown the ‘Congreso’, which is the village hall where all major decisions concerning the community are made


Our guide Mr Blue introducing us to the Kuna

Mr Blue spoke very good English but also Kuna which is a language all of its own, and so he was able to translate for us. Having him with us certainly paved the way for seeing a lot of things, but also for establishing friendly relations with the Kuna - who, although they are amicable people, quite naturally see tourists as an extra source of income - he was able to advise us on the correct ‘present’ (usually a dollar) that sometimes has to be given to the people you visit

You can find out more about the Kuna on the Science/Special Interest Page. I am preparing a short article giving more details of their history and customs, including our own observations (should be ready by tomorrow).

After our visit to the Kuna, we returned to our original anchorage of this morning (Cayos Holandeses) to try to fit in a quick dive.

I have snorkeled on reefs before, but this was my first dive in tropical waters and although I tried to maintain a level-head and make as many accurate observations as possible - but I am afraid that there were so many distractions, and fish of so many differing colours that my head began to spin - imagine my surprise when the more expert divers on board told me that the water was, contrary to my opinion, quite murky, and that there was not as much reef life as they had expected!

However that said I shall now continue to enthuse for a while and at least describe some of the creatures we saw.


A perfect 'picture-book' Island

The reef at this locality falls away very steeply, such that when we reached the sandy bottom at a depth of 20m we could see the reef rising up in front of us like a giant underwater cliff. The reef was composed of stony corals, including Brain Coral, Finger Coral and Sea Fans, together with Barrel, Rope and Tube Sponges. Reef inhabitants such as Brittle Stars, Banded Coral Shrimp and Arrow Crabs, with long slender spider-like legs, stalked amongst the stony groves.

Flitting in and out among the stony branches were reef fish of every size, shape and colour; Blue Chromis, reflecting the light and looking like blue glitter floating down through the water, Yellowtail Damselfish, adult and juvenile black and white Spotted Drum, which are actually striped, and only spotted on the dorsal and tail fin, and at one stage, looming over my head, a huge Tarpon about 1.5m long - the Tarpon is such a shiny silver it looks as if it has been pre-packed in aluminium foil all ready to go in the oven!

I am happy to report, for today at least “Here be no sharks”

Signing off for today on that pleasant thought

Janet