SAN BLAS ISLANDS

                  Relaxing in the San Blas Islands of Panama

The morning after we had transited the Panama Canal I walked out on deck with a cup of coffee and saw incredibly beautiful small islands everywhere.

I was to learn that San Blas is one of Panama’s provinces and is also an archipelago of 365 small islands that are home to the Kuna (also spelled Cuna) Indians. Only a few of the larger islands are inhabited. The small islands have lovely sand beaches and a few palm trees for shade.

A gently arched barrier reef extends 110 miles to the Colombian border on the south. The reef is one of the oldest in the world and is the focus of a study by Smithsonian scientists. Try to visualize the reef as a rainbow with three colors. The outside is blue, ten miles wide with 250 uninhabited islands with coconut palms and deserted white sand beaches. This is what I had seen. There is no tillable land on these islands as they are all sand. There is no fresh water, but it is said that the fishing is great as is the swimming and snorkeling.

In the center of the rainbow is a yellow strip, only a mile wide with a cluster of slightly larger islands that are inhabited by large families/clans of Kuna Indians. This area is population dense with 50,000 Kuna Indians living in 50 villages.

The inside 3-5 -mile -wide strip is green and represents the jungle. The Kuna men tend fields here with a slash and burn agricultural style. However, they clear only small areas, 3-5 acres, at a time and are not involved in commercial farming, have no animals, do not irrigate, and use no pesticides or chain saws. Their farming is strictly survival and when they move the jungle takes over their fields again.

That afternoon the captain ran the ship up on the sandy beach at Acuatupu and tossed a line around a coconut tree. Tupu means island.  Our small ship had a very shallow draft and its unique design allowed us to leave the ship via a ladder in the bow. The water was warm and we all stayed in it for some time. The snorkeling wasn’t worth putting a mask on for. The island was small and it was easy to walk around it. We chose to do so in shallow water rather than on the sand. There was not a speck of litter.

The next day we made another bow landing at Quin Quin in the morning. The crew put the glass bottom boat in the water so we snorkeled dry. The coral was numerous and the water fairly shallow so better viewed from the boat than trying to swim over it and not touch it.

That afternoon we ran the boat up on the beach again, at Wayshalatupu. We spent all afternoon in the clear warm water. Late in the afternoon the crew brought buckets of pina coladas onto the beach and we had a regular beach party. It was a wonderful fun restful day.      

We remained here all night. The next morning the captain delayed getting under way until 10:00 AM so we could swim after breakfast. When we did get underway he laid off a reef at Tupu Tupu for the diehards to snorkel the reef.

Late that afternoon we stopped at Carti Village on a bigger island. The market place had hundreds of little stands and there were reverse appliqué molas everywhere in all designs and colors.

I hated to leave the peaceful San Blas Islands, but all good things do eventually come to an end. The Kuna culture is an interesting one and will be the next post.

BREATHTAKING NORWAY

                                              Talk About Photo Ops!

            Norway is a country of tunnels, the longest being 24 kilometers long. They know how to build tunnels; they were clean, odor free and dry. Maybe Boston should have consulted the country’s engineers before they started on the Big Dig! And beside tunnels the country also has speed cameras on most roads.

            The country’s scenery is spectacular! Even in late summer we saw snow on the mountain tops. Of course the climate is conducive to creating waterfalls and we saw them everywhere in all sizes, from narrow streams cascading down mountainsides to huge thundering waterfalls. We stopped to view the spectacular Kjosfossen waterfall with its 590-foot drop. It reminded me of a couple such falls I’d seen in the Swiss Alps. Absolutely breathtaking scenery around every curve of the road!

            On a fabulous leisurely day traversing the countryside we stopped in Borgund to view and admire an original stave church, built in 1129. Stave churches were a blend and bridge of Viking paganism and Christianity. In 1066 it was declared overnight that everyone would be Lutheran. At one time there were over 1000 stave churches, but today only 25 remain. Except for one stave church in Sweden, the few remaining churches are in Norway.

            A guide briefly explained, “Stav in Norwegian means load-bearing post, thus giving the church construction its name. They are very similar to the more commonly known post church. Walls are formed by vertical wooden boards, known as staves. Four corner posts are connected to ground sills, resting on a stone foundation. The rest of the staves rise from the ground sills. Each stave is notched and grooved to lock into one another, thus forming a sturdy wall. Scissor beams support the ceiling, in other words two steeply angled supports cross each other to form an X shape with a narrow top span and a broader bottom span. Think of a pair of scissors that are opened only half way. I believe there are a couple of replica churches in the United States.”

            I commented to my friend, “It would be fun to research that.”

            “They no doubt are in Norwegian communities, so let’s put that on our ‘to do’ list.”