Our second day at Puerto Escoses began with a choir - monkeys howling with great energy and a large variety of birds screaming their individual and quite unique tunes. It was a magnificent jungle morning. You could watch the Kuna Indians leave the village in their ulus at sunrise and head into the jungle where they tend their crops. It is a peaceful scene as the ulus glide through the water. The ulus are these handsome dugout canoes that seem tipsy - but the Kuna are quite fleet-footed in them and move around as if they are walking on land. They are heavy and the paddles are beautifully carved - and in various shapes. This is probably the preference of the paddler. Some of these dugouts are quite long - perhaps 20 feet.
After a morning getting organized, we decided to head to a reef around the corner and snorkel. Unfortunately, Yoshi (you remember that bad-boy outboard!) decided we had been rowing too much and punished us with a lack of willingness to start. Back on the boat and Michael starts to tear it apart. This is a new issue - some corrosion someplace that won't let us even pull the cord. He unjams that - but doesn't have a flywheel puller(of course a Yamaha specific tool!), so can't open the top to get to the cord and clean it out. He does manage to get it started with a squeal almost as loud as the monkeys in the jungle! But we decide we can't let it sit for any length of time - it needs to be used daily.
So off we go snorkeling. The reef has a lot of algae but it is nice with a variety of coral. Not too many fish. But you can see its lobster country - lots of sea grass and ledges. The water is very warm. We are now in the eight degree latitudes - a new southern record for us - and the air temperature, water temperature and sun are all very hot.
On our way back, in the Kuna village, some fisherman hold up a lobster and yell to us to come over. We do (the call of the lobster). They have a bunch of nice sized lobsters and would like to sell them to us. We negotiate a deal - three lobsters for $5 and head back to the boat for our money. We stop at Tumshi and they decide they want some too, so Friedl and Michael head back. Tumshi gets two giant lobsters for $7. We feast on lobsters that night on Astarte. Barbara makes her mom's bread pudding for dessert (thanks for the recipe mom!) A lovely night worthy of the champagne we popped to celebrate making it to Panama.
A funny Kuna story - a Kuna family canoes to Tumshi to visit - three men, a Kuna woman and a three year old boy. The men drop the woman and boy off on Tumshi - then leave. Yes, leave. They disappear for two hours leaving the woman and boy - neither of whom speak English or Spanish. The woman is in Kuna dress which consists of beaded stocking like leggings that start just below the knee and end above the ankle. They are made of tiny, colorful glass beads in a beautiful design. They are tightly woven on the leg. The blouse is a colorful print loose fitting shirt with billowy sleeves and has a mola (their famous stitched cloth designs - more on those in another post) as the lower part. She wears another brightly colored fabric skirt. She has a gold nose ring and earrings. So they sit on the boat - serve her coffee which she doesn't like; a soda which she does like and listen to the little boy cry a lot. Finally the men return, pick up the woman and leave. They stop by our boat - but we are getting the lobster feast ready - so they don't come aboard.
On Friday morning we depart Puerto Escoses and head to Mulatupu. It is a lovely cruise up between islands, avoiding reefs. We pass islands with interesting names like Suledup, Nianega and Takarkandup. We hide out behind Soskandup for lunch as a rain squall passes. Along the way we pass Kuna villages of Akwakinni, Ular, Kwibgana and Misla which are on points (murru) along the coastline. As we enter Mulatupu, the ulus come out in force. They are filled with kids - some six to a canoe, others two or three. The Saila (chief) comes out to collect his $10 before our anchor is even set! He has his own receipt book - this is a big village! There are about 2000 Kunas in the community, a school and a covered basketball court. Now this is a bit funny as well - as the Kuna are a short-statured people. Only the pygmies rival them as an indigenous people that are shorter. Barbara is actually tall amongst them! So basketball seems to be a sport that they wouldn't gravitate towards - but alas, they love it.
The non-stop boats hanging on can get tiring. You have a sense about what a zoo animal must feel like. They just watch you as you go about your business. The kids are more talkative than the adults - and they are learning Spanish in school so it's a bit easier to communicate. A few even have some good English language skills. It's a bit strange when all of a sudden they say something and everyone starts laughing - you just kind of wonder!
After settling in a bit, we decide to head to town (Michael and Friedl made a quick run in to see if they have diesel - no luck) and they found a bakery with Kuna bread and sweet rolls. Friedl decides to stay aboard Tumshi and three of us go back to town. The town is filled with huts - all close to each other with narrow mud streets. The huts are made of renewable resources - cane and stick walls, sand floors and roofs from a special palm leaf found in the jungle. No commercial fasteners are used - everything is held together by jungle creepers. They hold up in big rain storms and wind! There are a few concrete houses and stores. There are about four small stores that have a strange variety of goods in them. Everything from fabric, ribbons and plastic beads for the Kuna dress to Adidas aftershave, bleach and Tulip brand meats (yech). The bread is 50 cents a loaf and the sweet rolls and donuts were 20 cents each. Panama uses US currency - so no need to mess with exchange rates! We have a tour guide for our walk through the village. Miquel, an albino Kuna teenager - 17 years old is our escort. He speaks very good English, Spanish and is teaching us Kuna words and phrases. He walks us all over town - to the school. Across the big long concrete bridge, past huts, into shops, we meet relatives, we see the monkey at the restaurant - it is quite a tour. We meet some young girls who want their pictures taken - Michael obliges (no surprise there).
After a few hours walking through the muddy, narrow streets we head back. At the dock where we left the dinghy, we have quite a crowd. I guess we were the social event of the day!
We'll head to another island tomorrow (and it'll probably cost us another $10 - this is getting spendy!)
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