One Dolla -- San Blas Island

It is 10:30 am and we have already done the laundry and been to shore and back.

What we saw on San Blas Island was extraordinary.  We are anchored about 75 miles off the southeast coast of Panama, where there are 365 islands and islets scattered in the turquoise sea that comprises the San Blas archipelago (50 of which are inhabited).  We were taken back in time to grass shacks and huts.  These islands are the home to 50,000 Cuna Indians.  They found refuge in these islands after being driven from the isthmus in the 19^th century.   

They fiercely defend their autonomy, language, and traditions.  It is a matriarchal society where the women run the place and the men fish and work the fields.  After marriage, a man moves into his wife’s household and baby girls are welcomed with far greater enthusiasm than boys.  Women wear elaborate traditional dress:  mola (colorful needle work panels) blouses, skirts made of colorful printed fabrics, scarves, pearls, jeweled combs and anklets and gold rings through their noses. 

We tendered to shore and along the shoreline we saw thatched roof huts and “parking spaces” for their boats.  This is the 21^st century, and yet we could have been in an alternate universe (except for the trash washed up on shore including plastic bottles of all types).  The maze of narrow streets was dirt, there was no glass in the windows, and the doors were just openings in the wooden poles that made up the walls.  There were children running about – lots of children – and all wanted to have their picture taken for “one dolla.”  The people were extremely short and they all seem to have the same facial structure (can you say inbreeding?).  The women all dressed very similar and they had a black line painted from the forehead down to the tip of the nose.  Most of them were sitting in the shade on large buckets sewing molas by hand.  There were children holding parakeets on the head, arm or stick wanting us to take a picture for “one dolla.”  There were puppies and kittens and monkeys… 

 

We came across the “kitchen.”  This is an area where the communal food was prepared in huge vats over a wood fire.   They were cooking rice and I think mole sauce.

There was one concrete building, which was the school.  Molas were hung everywhere.  There were so many, that I got sensory overload and could not make a selection as I did want to buy one for a souvenir.  So what exactly is a mola?  It is a technique, sometimes called reverse appliqué, that involves sewing several layers of different fabrics together and cutting down through them in a pattern, something like a contour map, turning the cut edges under and sewing them down.  How did it start?  The Cuna wore very little clothing and decorated their bodies with tattoos with elaborate designs.  When the missionaries came and convinced them to wear clothes, they adapted the designs to fabric.  The valuable molas are hand stitched using bright colors and intricate patterns. 

It was just unbelievable that people live like this today.  Yes, there was technology.  I did see one sewing machine.  There were satellite dishes and some had cell phones.  This was not the cleanest place, either.  Toilet facilities were primitive, i.e. an outhouse suspended over the water.  I peeked into some houses and saw hammocks inside, no beds. 

I am going to upload a bunch of photos.  In this case, a picture is worth a thousand words.  I did not get the sense the people were unhappy or desperate.  They don’t seem to need a lot of stuff.  It was a fascinating experience and if I was an anthropologist, I might enjoy spending some time there to find out why they live as they do.  I can see keeping your traditions, as many other cultures do such as the Maori in New Zealand, but why live like that? 

Upon returning to the ship, Michael went to the pool and I stayed behind to write.  After lunch, we sat in Seabourn Square, which is located on deck 7, to read (for Michael) and to knit (for me).  A woman from Bulgaria came over to see what I was knitting and we had a wonderful discussion about knitting related stuff, including the cockamamie way she knits.  She wraps the yarn around her neck and uses her thumb to make the stitch.   It was then on to bridge, where I had to play. 

All this bridge stuff makes me tired.  We put all the stuff out, play the game, and then put all the stuff away.  Now we are making the boards (for you non-bridge players, that means shuffle the deck and deal out the hands, which then go in a plastic carrier or board) – 22 of them!!

Dinner tonight was Japanese, which Michael really wanted to do.  I want to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  He won.  Tomorrow, I win.  I really dislike having to dress for dinner -- having to change my clothes, shoes and earrings three times a day.  And this is only day eight [sigh].