Monday 4 January 2016

San Blas - Guna Yula

Three nights at sea took us from San Andreas
to the lovely San Blas Islands (Panama) actual name “Guna Yula”


They are made up of 340 islands, which are home to the Guna Indians.
There are around 55000 Gunas 
(about 10% of what they were before the invasion of the Spanish Conquistadors)




It is a Matrilineal society – the women control the money
and the husbands move into the womens family compound.

We arrived 6 days before our guests from New Zealand were due. 
Sarah (a 2nd  cousin of Richards & her husband) Steven. 
It was lovely having them aboard Our Rose for just on 2 weeks

 We were also thrilled to catch up with Eileen and Peter from Appleseeds – we first met in Cuba,
and Lynne and Eric from Amarula,
who we first met in Petite Martinique.

Christmas Day started with breakfast, bubbly and presents…


With Richard receiving all the way from Hils & Doug in NZ a toy chainsaw!  


Along with lots of other very thoughtful gifts from Sarah & Steven 
and of course our presents from Santa Claus!

Late lunch begun with drinks and nibbles on the foredeck with Eileen, Peter and their son from Canada Matt, Lynne & Eric and the four of us


We then moved onto our sitdown lunch


Smoked Crayfish, Roast Turkey, Roast Pork, lots of Salads etc,
(delivery of live crayfish by a Kuna, we are not allowed to dive in San Blas)


followed by my homemade Christmas Mince Tarts and Christmas Cake.
It was a fun day with everyone!

New Years eve took us to another anchorage 
(where we started with Moet that Sarah and Steven had brought)


 and enjoyed the end of 2015 into 2016
with Appleseeds, Amarula and Michelle, Alex, Noah & Fern from Jade


Plenty of alcohol refreshments that night
Finishing on Our Rose with (definitely not needed) Rum


The women make money selling “molas”.  
These beautiful appliqué are intricately made by sewing and cutting different layers of colorful cloth.



Heading off with some other cruisers snorkeling



At a local village we saw this lovely Tucan...



Having a drink ashore on Sarah and Stevens last night







1 comment:

  1. Looks like you had a fabulous holiday season in the San Blas.
    It is lovely to see you, and other cruisers we know, having such a lovely time. We hope we can catch up to you all.

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