Welcome to Paradise

While I have a decent conection, I would like to provide some reference information about this area from http://www.moon.com/planner/panama/regions/kunayala.html





Welcome to paradise. Cartoonists who love to picture tropical islands as dots of soft sand with a few coconut palms could have gotten the idea from Kuna Yala, otherwise known as the San Blas Islands. That image fits countless idyllic spots in this archipelago of nearly 400 islands off the eastern Caribbean coast of Panama. When the sun hits the sea here you’ll think of emeralds and sapphires.

The islands are part of the Comarca de Kuna Yala, a semiautonomous homeland of the Kuna people. Kuna territory also encompasses a mountainous strip of mostly virgin forest on the mainland, along the Caribbean slope of the Darién. It runs the length of the archipelago, ending at the Colombian border.

Any lingering romantic notions one has about indigenous people’s harmonious relationship with nature gets a jolt upon realizing how severely the Kuna are overfishing their waters, or seeing the garbage and sewage they routinely dump into pristine blue waters.

On the other hand, there are still plenty of lovely, uninhabited islands in the archipelago, more than anyone could possibly see during a visit. A big part of the charm of these islands is their very simplicity: no timeshare condos or tacky T-shirt shops here. Nodding off in a hammock slung between coconut palms, watching a Kuna woman sewing a mola, and showering by the light of a kerosene lantern can soon seem like a pretty good way to spend the day.