Making Fishers of Boys

The aptly named Green Island.

One fine morning, as the mists over the virgin rainforest of the Kuna Yala lifted, and the sun began to beat down upon nearby Green Island, we watched as two men netted a bunch of small fish near the shore, and then motored close by in their boat.  We waved and they came over to say hello.  The one guy said his name was Lennin. He spoke quite good English and said about his name: “You know, like the singer!”. (I was thinking dictator, so THAT Lennon is a better choice.)  The other fellow was his brother. (I couldn’t pronounce his name, however.  We’ll call him McCartney.)  They were heading out to do some fishing and asked if the boys wanted to come along.  Did they ever! And so the boys headed off for a few hours of fishing with the Kuna brothers.  

The Fishing Kuna Brothers. Lennin is on the right.

They headed out about a mile or two from our boat and started fishing in about 50 feet of water.  According to the boys, "it was very hot, the boat was small".   The Kuna do not fish with a rod and reel,  they just drop a line in the water.  They have a length of fish line on a spool with two hooks attached and a weight at the end. 

Brady demonstrates the hand-line fishing method used by the Kuna.

 For a weight they use a 5 inch piece of iron rebar.  Small minnows were the bait.  These were the fish that we had watched them net earlier.  

Once they feel a fish bite, they pull in the line very quickly, hand-over-hand.  They haul the fish aboard, take out the hook and dump the fish in a basket.  Then they throw the line back in.  

 They  anchored each time at the spot they wanted to fish at. The anchor was a rock with rope tied around it.  One time the anchor rock didn’t hold, so they had to put down two rock anchors.  The rocks were very heavy (Jamie said it probably weighed as much as him!) and it took both men to haul up the rocks. 

Kuna anchor.  Seems to work.

 At the end of the fishing trip they had about 30-35 fish.  Brady caught about 8, and Jamie caught about 5.  The Kuna brothers go out fishing every other day, and need to catch about 100 fish each time in order to feed their family.  They returned after about 3 hours, looking hot and tired.  The boys really enjoyed their experience and now are “expert” hand fishermen. 

The catch. Yes, they are little ones.  But still edible.

Home with some fish stories.

Later in the week, Lennin came by again,  this time with a different brother (Ringo??).  He comes from a large family with 5 boys and 4 girls.  I had assumed that Lennon was a fairly young man, maybe in his early twenties.  Turns out, he's 34, married, and has three kids - a 12 year old girl, 8 year old boy and and one that is 4.  

A few days later we stopped by Rio Azucar, where Lennin lives, to buy some gas. The gas station consist of a building where gasoline is housed...in an assortment of one gallon containers.  Filling up requires off-loading the fuel into our container, via funnel, one gallon at a time.

The Rio Azucar village gas station.

 While at Rio Azucar we sought out Lennin's home.  We saw some interesting sights along the way.

The hospital waiting room on Rio Azucar.  No joke.  The new hospital is just off to the left.

Catch of the day, wandering the streets of Rio Azucar.

Public art installation.

As we wandered to streets we stopped in front of one home to admire the most beautiful wooden couch. 

The most beautiful wooden couch in the world.

And wouldn't you know it, this place turned out to be Lennin's house.  We met his wife and one of his kids, but Lennin was off visiting another island at the time.

Brady sits in front of Lennin's house, with Lennin's son and a friend.

A few days later Lennin generously took Brady out for another fishing expedition.  What a kind, friendly fellow, and what a great experience for my kids.  This one will definitely make our list of "Things I'll Never Forget about the San Blas Islands".

Unforgettable: Fishing with the Kuna bros.