It is strange that, during the past week spent anchored off of the tiny island of Porvenir, I have met more people than I normally do when I visit large cities. Despite only having four families residing on the island, a handful of visitors staying at the hotel, and less than five sailboats in the anchorage, over the past week I managed to meet several interesting people and learn more about the Kuna culture.
On Sunday, I met Pam and Doug, who are sailing aboard a yacht anchored nearby. In her former life, Pam was a dentist in Boston and said that she had regularly passed through my home port of Onset, Massachusetts while sailing on Cape Cod. Her friend Doug, originally from Alabama, helped her bring her boat down from Guatemala before returning to his own boat, also in Guatemala. They invited me over for an excellent dinner and told me wonderful stories about the nice cruising grounds of the western Caribbean.
On Monday, I attempted to reciprocate the hospitality and invited Pam and Doug over for drinks. Afterward, we went ashore for dinner at the small hotel on the island. Once there, we met the only other diners at the hotel, two students who recently completed a semester abroad studying Product Design in Costa Rica. Katrin, an Austrian, and Kerstin, a German, are two intrepid travelers who arrived in the San Blas Islands after a rough five hour trip aboard an old diesel-powered supply ship. In Porvenir, they slept in hammocks under a canopy of palm fronds for $5 per night. These two adventurous women are a perfect compliment for each other. One is blonde, one is a brunette. One enjoys books and politics; the other prefers sports. One is short, one is tall. It goes on and on. During our brief time together, we managed to play soccer, football, volleyball, swim, and climb (they went up the mast at night). We even held a long jump competition on the beach (as usual, the US prevailed over Germany).
One evening, they took over my galley and prepared a good meal, although they took a sick pleasure in including onions, much to my disgust. While spending most of Tuesday and Wednesday with them, I gained a number of insights into both German and Kuna culture (via their superior grasp of Spanish). Among the interesting things I learned from these two young women was that the German term for jail is “kitchen” (as in, “if Colombian drug runners get caught dropping packages of blow off in the San Blas Islands, they will get sent to a Panamanian kitchen”). I also learned that when a person sneezes, it is thought to mean that someone else is thinking about them (in a good way). Most importantly, I learned that not all German people love David Hasselhoff. In return, I enlightened them on subjects as wide-ranging as who is the current chancellor of Austria (Wolfgang Schussel) and on the intricacies of the five second rule (any food dropped on the floor can be eaten if picked up within five seconds).
As for the information I was provided on the Kuna people, the tribe continues to fascinate me. Apparently, they believe that people who work hard and are poor on earth are rewarded with great wealth in heaven. Conversely, people that are rich and lazy on earth are poor in heaven (American tourists were provided as an example). Sticking with the theme of death, the Kuna’s bury their dead in the ground of specifically designated islands after wrapping the deceased in their hammock. In terms of fashion, the word “mola” actually means any piece of clothing and does not apply only to the hand-stitched items that Kuna’s are famous for selling. The nose rings that are common among women are first worn when a girl is deemed to be a woman and the size of the ring increases as the woman grows older. On Thursday, Katrin and Kerstin flew back to Panama City, where they were to join a boat transiting the Panama Canal to volunteer as line handlers. I can only hope that when I make my trip through the canal, that I am as fortunate as to find attractive women to serve as crew.
Throughout the week, I was lucky enough to have frequent interaction with the Kuna’s. My diminished soccer skills were barely a match for the enthusiastic Kuna boys, although their ability to guess my age was painfully poor (they thought I was 38). Each day, dugout canoes would pass by my boat selling fish, lobster, bananas, and molas. When I politely declined, they would often ask for cigarettes or other common items. One canoe full of four Kuna men asked for magazines and I happily handed over a couple of issues of GQ that I picked up at a Laundromat. One of the magazines had a suggestive picture of Jessica Alba on the cover and the men were ecstatic. I’m afraid that they will be disappointed when they open the magazine to find that it isn’t the kind of periodical that they were hoping for. Thankfully, my week alone passed in the friendly company of several well-traveled and interesting people. The fortunate meetings with these individuals served as a reminder of one of the real benefits of this nomadic lifestyle.
The party rolls on since Zach is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. We are eager to set out in exploration of the other San Blas Islands. We can only hope that we will continue to meet such kind people as we learn more about this fascinating culture.