Wind Star 2007 (5) |
San Blas Islands, Panama This page created 12/19/07
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After Aruba we had another two days at sea. Jan was missing her regular exercise so she started walking around the ship. On the pool deck level it was 1/8 mile per lap. She managed to average nearly three miles a day (24 laps). |
| Our next stop was the San Blas islands of Panama. This is an archipelago of over 360 islands with about 60 of them inhabited. The islands we saw were crowded with thatched huts with a few more permanent buildings. These islands are inhabitid by the Kuna indians, thought to be descendents of the original Carib people. | 
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No sooner had the ship anchored when people in dugout canoes came out to the ship to show their Molas, a kind of fine needle work that the Kuna are know for. You can see more about the Molas here (Warning, it's an image intensive page and slow to load) |
| We went ashore via the ships tender (A so called wet landing.) I was amazed how many huts were packed on the small island with narrow, sandy paths between them. All of the paths (streets?) were lined with people selling their wares. Mostly Molas but also tee-shirts with molas attached, jewelry and toys. | 
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Here is a picture of one of the tenders that took us to and from shore when we had a wet landing. The markings said they could hold 41 people but that would have been pretty cozy! |