Kuna Panther Hunter

You never know what kind of adventures you will have here in the Kuna Yala.  And so,  we had no idea as we left this morning to explore one of the nearby islands that we would return having encountered “The Kuna Panther Hunter”!  

Ready for an adventure...

We decided that we wanted to visit the village of Rio Azucar.  Conveniently, a Kuna panga (water taxi/launch) driver who lives in Rio Azucar stopped by to ask if we needed anything...water, soda, eggs, gasoline...and said he could get anything for us.  We told him we were planning to go to Azucar in our dingy today.  He offered to take us in his panga instead.  It’s about a 5-6 mile round trip, so we agreed to have him take us instead of taking our little dingy.  As we headed of toward the village we took a number of detours, stopping at the various ulus  (Kuna dugout canoes) along the way.  

An ulu pulls up with freshly caught lobsters.

At each ulu our driver picked up lobsters from the guys in the ulus who had obviously been diving all morning.  The lobster guys tossed their catch into a basket that was then weighed by our driver.  

Toss in the basket, and....

....give it a weigh.

No money changed hands, and I’m not sure how they keep track of what they are owed for their catch, because no one wrote the amounts down...but then, their memories are probably better than mine.  The lobsters are then either sold to other “yates” (cruisers on boats), eaten by the Kuna, or are shipped by airplane to Panama City.  We finally arrived at Azucar puebla after picking up lobsters from 4-5 different ulus.  

House and Garden, Rio Azucar style.

Our first impressions about Azucar is that it was MUCH cleaner and neater than the nearby village of Nargana.  Nargana had loads of trash laying around the “streets”.  Well, actually there are no streets, just dirt footpaths.  No cars, golf carts, or bikes.  Just feet.  Like Nargana it appears that Azucar has mostly jettisoned the more traditional Kuna lifestyle, and these islands have electric power for lights, TV and radio.  Most of the women were wearing western clothing rather than the traditional Kuna woman garb of mola blouse, wrap skirt, and beading on their arms and legs.  

We set out in search of eggs, Kuna bread (called madu in the Kuna language), and whatever fresh fruit might be available.  The first tienda turned out to be at the home of our panga driver.  As is typical, most tiendas (stores) in the Kuna Yala are small rooms in a family hut.  And although there are a few houses made of cement blocks, most huts are made of bamboo stick walls, with either a tin or palm frond roof.  

Local Supermarket.  Total produce: one tomato.

Our driver’s store had eggs, cold Coke, Cheetos, bleach, laundry soap and a few cans of pork and beans.  But no fruit of any sort. Well, there was one tomato.  Just one.  We asked if any other stores had fresh fruit or veggies.  Nope.  Nothing.  Apparently that one lone tomato was the sum total of fresh fruit/veggies available at the Azucar puebla.  

Then we found the Bread Hut (this may not be the official name) where we bought 30 loaves - hot out of the oven - for $3.  30 loaves sounds like a lot, but we will go through 30 loaves in a matter of 2-3 days. 

Loaves of Kuna bread.  See pencil for size comparison.

Kuna Bread is much like the Kuna themselves: very small.  This bread comes in the form of mini loaves, slightly smaller than hot dog buns.  They are perfect snack size, and pretty tasty.  (Especially tasty after the awful, “bread” found in Colombia... which is essentially flour crumbles barely held together with I don’t know what... sawdust? glue? cardboard?  spit?   Tastleless and crumbly, it was barely recognizable as bread.  So in comparison, Kuna bread is muy delicioso manna from heaven.)  

We wandered the island a bit, and suddenly one of the boys (who has requested anonymity) needed to go to the bathroom.  There are no public facilities here.  

Typical Kuna restroom.

In fact the family toilets are outhouses constructed on piers out over the water (a literal WC!).  

A friendly gentleman...Sure you can use our facilities!

We happened by a hut with an older gentleman sitting just inside.  He looked friendly, so I asked him if there was a bathroom that my son could use.  He waved my son in through his hut, and then out back past the kitchen (a lean-to with his wife cooking beans over a coconut husk fire) to the outhouse. 

Friendly man's wife, cooking in the kitchen.  

As I followed, the gentleman pointed to a nearby structure and said that was the shower.  He spoke a little English, and was just as sweet and welcoming as could be to a couple of strangers using his outhouse. 

The WC.  Shower building is just to the left.

As we continued our wanderings, we came upon a fellow who was waving and yelling for us to come over, saying “Amigo!  Amigo!”.  As we came closer, he said “Me amigo, JAMIE!” 

Huh?  He knows Jamie’s name?  Turns out this was one of the guys we had talked to the previous day on Green Island who was part of a crew clearing the island for coconut harvesting. (Read our post about coconut farming, here.)  He wanted us to follow him to his house.  

Up the river,  in the jungle, alone...but in daylight.
Panthers come out at night.

He went inside and came out with a skull from an animal that he had killed.  I wasn’t quite sure what kind of skull it was at first because he was talking so excitedly, and explaining his hunting experience.  He had apparently killed the animal up the river, in the jungle, alone, at night.  

Jeepers.  I finally caught the word “pantera”.   Panther.  (Of course, for all I know it was some other large feline...Cougar? Jaguar? Jaguarundi?  Main Coon?)  He explained that the jaguar had killed his pet dog, and so he had exacted revenge.  At least I think that’s what he said.  My Kuna/Espanol is not so bueno.  

And then, he presented Jamie with the skull - a gift, he said.  Then he brought out some crocodile teeth, and feathers that he had collected. 

The skull, and feathers.

He also gave us two cacao fruit, and two huge banana stalks.  (So there IS fresh fruit available, just not in the stores!)  Jamie kept saying, “Am I awake? Is this a dream?”  

Bananas, fresh from the jungle.

Cacao.  This becomes chocolate??

The Panther Hunter and his friend Juan talked to us for a long time telling us over and over about the dude’s brave shooting of the Panther along the river in the jungle at night, with (I think?) a spear gun.  They were both really proud of his accomplishment, and asked that we post the picture of them on Facebook!  

After we were presented with all these gifts, we hopped back in the panga and headed back to our boat, again stopping along the way to collect more lobster from the ulu divers.  

As I thought more about our friend The Panther Hunter, and his request to have his photo posted on Facebook, I had to chuckle.  Although many Kuna have cell phones, internet is not readily available here, so it’s doubtful that our brave hunter is actually active or tag-able on FB.  

Maybe I’ll start a fan page for the “The Kuna Panther Hunter”  Let’s see how many “likes” he can get.

The Panther Hunter, right.  His friend Juan stands to the left of Jamie.
Look for them on Facebook.

Kuna Coconut Farming

Morning in the San Blas Islands

It was early in the morning, and as I lay in bed I felt the unmistakable rocking of our boat caused by the wakes of other boats going by.   This was a bit unusual, as the island we were anchored near was normally quiet and uninhabited.  As I peeked outside, I spied 9 different boats on the shore of the island.  This was not normal.   It was clear that something was going on.  Work of some sort, perhaps?  Jamie wanted to go check out the ulus, and see what was going on on the island.  And so we set out toward shore in our dingy.  

Ulu convention.

A fine sailing vessel.

Ulus at rest. 

We found about 15-20 men spread out over the island, all with machetes.  They were slicing/chopping down the 1-2 foot high grass and weeds that were growing all over the ground.  Then we noticed that they were collecting all the dead palm fronds and other detritus and putting them in piles all over the place.  In my stunted Spanish I asked about the work project.  Turns out these men are all family members; brothers, uncles, fathers, sons from all over the Kuna Yala- villages like Nargana, Azucar, Sidra - from near and far.  This little island belongs to their family. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that the coconuts on the island belong to this family. 

Mucho Trabajo: Hard work clearing the land under the coconut palms.

 One very friendly guy explained that if they don’t keep the ground clear and remove the dead fronds that the coconut trees don’t produce well, and may die.  If I understood correctly, this month is the appointed time to clear off this particular island.  They do this every three months or so.  One guy told me that they collect one thousand coconuts from this island every month.  I believe that the coconuts are sold and the money distributed to the family members.  

Piles of detritus that will be burned.

We watched for a bit, and then wandered off to admire the collections of ulus tied to the shore. 

A particularly fine ulu specimen.

Little did we know it, but our short conversation with that one very friendly guy would lead to yet another interesting adventure a few days later.  Read more about our experience with this cool dude -"The Panther Hunter" - in an upcoming post.

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.

Master Mola Makers

 After a morning of island exploration and snorkeling, we were preparing to sail on to our next destination, and in a hurry so that we could navigate through the reefs in good light. 

Reef and Island in the San Blas: Exploration Heaven

There's a crab on a rock, in a hole, in a log, on a beach, on an island, in the middle of the sea.
There's a bug, on a crab, on a rock...Oh never mind.

As we were rushing around preparing to pick up the anchor, a large ulu with two people in it approached.  I groaned inwardly. Here in the San Blas Islands -the Kuna Yala- we often get visiting ulus (dugout canoes) to our boat while at anchor.  Most of the time it’s someone offering something for sale: fish, lobster, soda, or molas.   I figured I’d be as polite as possible, but would try to shoo the ulu off quickly so that we could move on.   

Let me introduce myself....Venancio: Master Mola Maker

As the ulu drew up, two men were aboard and the guy in front handed me a business card which read: "Venencio, Master Mola Maker".   Huh.  Venancio.  A man?  Most molas are made by women, but then I remembered reading that in the Kuna society there are many cross-dressing men who make and sell molas.   Being trans, gay or living an "alternate lifestyle" seems to carry no stigma among the Kuna.  

Lisa, the famous trans mola maker.

 I had heard about “Lisa”, perhaps the most famous trans person in the Kuna Yala, known for her very fine mola artistry.  

Venencio, with a piece of his mola art.  

Venancio's card said “Master Mola Maker”, and that was clearly true.  A well made mola will have many layers of cloth, intricately cut and sewn designs and details, traditional designs are usually geometric or of animal motifs and are often symmetrical and mirror imaged from side to side.  And if one looks at the back side, the smaller and neater the stitching, the better.

Swallow Mola, front.  Symetrical, mirror-imaged, traditional fauna design.

Back side of the swallow mola.  Note the fine, precise stitching.

I’ve seen a lot of molas, but NONE as finely crafted, delicately sewn, and beautifully designed as Venancio’s work.  And he had hundreds.  

Venancio displays a few of the hundreds of pieces he has created.

Mucho Molas

We held court with Venancio for almost two hours and bought six molas, spending more money (and time!) than we had intended.  Venancio is proud of his work and demands a fairly high price for them.  But I love fine folk art, and to me these pieces were worth every penny.  

Mulling molas: difficult decision making.

We finally said goodbye to Venencio and his ulu driver, picked up anchor and headed off to our next stop a few miles up the road.  Our anchor had just barely settled in the sand when a panga approached.  And as the boat pulled up alongside,  it turned out to be none other than the infamous Lisa.  

One of Lisa's intricate molas.  On top is a Kuna woman and child.
Bottom is King Soloman, splitting the baby.
Lisa is peeking thru on the left.

Her card read, "Mola Lisa - Master Mola Maker".  And of course, I couldn't resist her fine work either.   I bought a mola from her, too.

Medicine Woman, by "Master Mola Maker" Lisa

Our ever growing Mola collection.