Clearing into Panama

Dolphin completing paperwork

Wow what a load of talk there was about Panamanian authorities and their ability to change the entrance fees depending on their mood of the day. Some cruisers had paid $400+ for the pleasure of clearing into Panama and then spoke to a fellow yachtie on the same sized boat with the same crew number that had gone to the same office, spoke to the same official and been charged $300. Even $300 for us was an astronomical amount of money so with time on our side we decided to scope out the officials ourselves, deal with the bureaucracy alongside two other boats and you know what, it paid off! How much did we pay to clear into Panama? Zilch!

We chose to sail to Portobelo where there is only an immigration office and they charge you nothing for a stamp in the passport. From Portobelo we caught the bus to Colon ($2.40), an hour and a half bus ride away. First stop, the port authority office which is opposite the Citibank. Yes we had to wait an hour for the port captain to arrive but when he did, more paperwork was completed and no money changed hands. We weren't asked to pay for a cruising permit either which are usually $193 a pop. For more information on where the offices are, you can find it all on Noonsite so I shan't go into detail on logistics. No cruising permit is required to transit the canal.

Finn and Petra lunching outside the Captain's office

 The most important thing we learnt from the experience was that you really don't need an agent. If you have a day to spare (or half day if your boat is already in Colon) then the bureaucracy is easily completed by yourself. An agent charges around $300-$500 (this includes Canal Transit paperwork) to take your papers to these offices and you always pay top dollar on the fees. We saved ourselves almost $700 ($300 agent fee, $193 cruising fee, $100 p/p visa fee).

Molas of Kuna Yala

Dylan's Mom told us we must stock up on molas. Having admired the ones that she already owns we acknowledged the suggestion and looked forward to the situation arising. At the time I had never heard of molas so gave it a google to learn more. 'Mola' is Kuna's native language for 'shirt' or 'clothing', it's traditional dress and typically women wear a front and back mola panel sewn onto a blouse. To complete the outfit they team this with a sarong, headscarf, beads all the way up their arms and legs (they are particularly proud of their skinny pins) and a gold nose ring through both nostrils. A Kuna lady in her brightly coloured dress, all of 5ft nothing, acts as a fantastic emblem for the matriarchal society they still exists today.

Back in the day, the Kuna women used to paint their bodies with geometric designs of which they had detailed meaning. A local master mola maker (person that is very good at their art) told us that concentric circles for example, are a traditional design and symbolise the nose ring that is worn through the nose of older women. Only with missionary contact did the community start to transfer their body painting to fabric and then the reverse-applique work that we see today. Although animals have almost replaced the geometric patterns and we even saw teletubbies in one design! With the arrival of cruise ships and more yachties in the area, the designs cater to their main customers now and Kuna's often ask for magazines to aid inspiration resulting in political and cross-cultural themes. These women seriously kick butt, so much so the Kuna rebellion that led to their land (Kuna Yala) being recognised as a semi-autonomous territory from Panama was started when the government tried to stop Kuna ladies from wearing their traditional dress! These ladies mean business; the designing, the creating, the bartering, the receiving of money is all carried out by the ladies. The men solely act as a taxi driver whizzing them from one boat to another.

Venancio and I holding up the molas I bought

The making of molas is a craft passed down from generation to generation and many master mola makers that you meet act as teachers to school kids just getting started on the reverse-applique skill. But how do they make them? Venancio who I have mentioned earlier in the blog (by far the most talented of the mola makers in my opinion!) took out a mola in progress when he was on our boat and kindly demonstrated the amount of effort that goes into them. Between 2 – 7 layers of different coloured cloth are sewn together. Once the design is chosen, he sets about cutting away parts of each layer to form the shape of the design. The edges of each layer of cloth are then turned under and hand sewn closed in different coloured thread. His stitches are so so tiny and intricate and he can thread a needle in 2 seconds with his naked eye and no fancy threader to help! It really is most impressive and you can easily see how it takes him on average 3-6 months to complete one mola.

Having bought my fair share of molas now and learning as I go along, I consider myself pretty well informed on what makes a good quality mola:

• The more layers of cloth the more effort required in reverse-applique technique
• Check the accuracy of the stitching. It should all be equal with no knots visible. The best stitching is almost invisible!
• Cut out pieces of cloth should all be equal in width
• Check for wear as some of them have been sitting around in a plastic bin stinking of mould for years
• Check for old stitch marks in the corners, these molas have been taken off an old blouse and could be damaged (but then again, if they were proud enough to wear them, they are probably of better quality – albeit “second hand”)
• Check for detail, the more layers of cloth, the more cut out pieces, the more stitches, the more workmanship involved (i.e. time and skill)

And remember, it is OK to critique a mola maker's work. I often pointed out imperfections in the stitching or cloth and thus lead to a tool in the bartering process. If we just give them what they ask for without demanding quality then who knows how much they will cost and look like in 10 years time!

Of course like all things in life, it comes with a compromise. If you manage to get an excellent mola with tons of detail, it will be pricey. Although saying that, Venancio from the mola making island made fabulous molas of eye popping quality and I paid no more than $40 per item. An easy way to guess straight away which are the expensive molas is to look for the small cut out triangles. If you see them on a mola you have taken a fancy to, expect to start the bartering at $35/40. Unfortunately I was always drawn to this type! The makers often make the molas in pairs with a common theme through both of them as they are usually worn on a blouse covering front and back. However I often only wanted one of them and they are fine to separate the two if needed.

My favourite mola from Venancio

The most famous of the mola makers in Kuna Yana is probably the transvestite Lisa. She signs all of her work and manages to get to most anchorages in the area peddling her wares. Yes her work is good but I still think Venancio's stands out. You will usually find him in the Lemmons and he is always accompanied by his cousin as the taxi driver.

Lisa and I holding the molas I bought

Mola I bought from Lisa

Now with my stash of molas I am thinking of putting them to good use. A couple will be given away as presents, some framed and others made into pillows. Come to think of it...I may need to get more...

The San Blas Islands

Well the sail over was fairly entertaining. We left Santa Marta with 30 knots up our tail pipe and saw that peak to 42. The spinnaker sat forlornly on our salon sole with not a chance in hell of being brought above deck. The Colombian coast has some pretty good wind / wave action and now we see why it is regarded by some as the 5^th hairiest coastline in the world. We still marvel at our friends on Kadoona who beat into this (and all the rest) to get from Australia to the UK.

It took us less than 48 hours to reach the San Blas, with our first days run averaging 7.4 knots (177.6 miles in 24 hours) under headsail alone. We also set our new surfing record of 10.7 knots!

We had to slow Orion down as we approached the San Blas in the wee hours, flying one of Sally's skimpier pairs of undies as a sail was all we needed to maintain 4 knots.

Our first stop was Coco Bandero Cays. The only French yacht that was anchored there was kind enough to up anchor as we arrived and so we had the whole anchorage to ourselves (West Coco's).

It was fantastic to be anchored off a palm tree lined island in turquoise water all by ourselves. There was a Kuna couple living (care taking) the island. They seem to be the eternal gardeners tending to each island's grove of palms. Fallen fronds are burnt and no other nutrient sapping plants allowed to grow on the island (we are only talking a couple hundred square metres of island). Almost every anchorage will be frequented by dug out canoe's with women selling Molas (sometimes the whole family is in the canoe). Having promised Sally that she could buy a couple, we would invite the women on board and they present each mola individually for inspection. You place the ones that you like on your lap and hand the ones you don’t back to the seller. Once you go through the wares you then down select from the lap pile until you have your “favourite favourites”. Then the haggling comes in. First how much for each one...then you ask for a deal on 2 or 3 etc for “bulk buying”. It is an interesting process of pens and paper, as our Spanish is zilch and their English extends no further than “Hola”.

After a lazy week at anchor we set off to Eastern Coco Bandero's. Beautiful cluster of 4 islands, 2 of which were not inhabited. We did our first rubbish burn (as there are no facilities to dispose of garbage). We put out an announcement on the net (VHF on LOW power) and turned a boring activity of “taking out the trash” into a social occasion / meet and greet.

What is interesting is seeing what other people live on. Garbage can tell you a lot about people we noticed; as one yachtie quietly burnt his 5^th 1litre tetra pack of local wine...

Backpacker boats full of semi translucent gecko looking creatures popped into the anchorage from time to time. Generally these are old large vessels of 50+ feet that look like they have seen better days. Some of the larger ones even cart motor bikes between Colombia and Panama (and vice verse). They were friendly enough and they never partied till 4am like some yachts experienced.

Christmas in the Coco's was a treat. We met a young couple from Vancouver on a 36 ft Hans Christen called Cypraea. They joined us and Dolphin of Leith and Waka Irie for a big christmas party that started at 8am and ended at 5pm. Sally did the event justice in her earlier blog post.

From the Coco's we set off to Nargana. A Kuna village near mainland Panama. People had spotted the resident croc (a 2 metre salty) nearby. Bedding the anchor involved just backing down on it as the prospect of jumping into the water with a croc and the proximity of the creative Kuna sanitation left much to be desired.

Nargana was our first taste of “civilisation” for almost 3 weeks. We even had meat (albeit pork) at a local restaurant. The river Diablo is where the Kuna gather all their fresh water from. A trail of canoe's head up the river daily paddling against the current, with large drums onboard. These are then filled and scooted back to the village. While there it is a bit of a social scene with women doing the laundry, men filling the water containers and then everyone has a wash (the water collection occurs up stream of laundry and washing incase you were wondering).

We had still to see the elusive croc!

Off to Canbombia with Cypraea. Dolphin and Waka Irie followed a few days later. There was a lot of noise on the net about spots to go to for New Years eve bashes so we knew which to avoid. We rang in the new year in Canbombia (an earlier blog post summarises our experience) and spent a day or two recovering.

The christmas winds we had heard about kept a very steady trade wind blowing and the sea seemed to constantly be in a heavy state. As such snorkelling was better on the inner reefs as the outer reefs were a bit boisterous. On the plus side, we had heaps of power as solar and wind kept us topped up.

Off for a 4 mile sail to Achudup (Near Saladup) where we stayed for a few nights before splitting with our friends as we wanted to head to the Holandes Cays. I had spent christmas there 25 years earlier (when I was 5) and wanted to go back to see if I could remember any of it. I didn't.

The swimming pool is a beautiful anchorage. There is one boat that is almost permanently moored there. We were running out of time so did not spend much time exploring the BBQ island, Bug Island, the Hottub etc on the Eastern Holandes. We upped anchor to Central Holandes in search of a recommended mola maker (one can never have enough mola's apparently). Miriadiadup had one other yacht in residence, but the anchorage was large enough to accommodate a bunch of yachts without crowding. Most anchorages are deep 50+ feet. Something to get used to I guess...

Without a doubt, we wish we had spent more time in the Holandes Cays. We like solitude, good snorkelling and fishing. This place has it all. The water is a lot clearer too.

We were just going to pop into the East Lemmon Cays for a night, en route to Chichime via Dog Island to see the sunken wreck. The Lemmon's were very pleasant and it was here that we met in our opinion the best mola maker in the San Blas (Venancio). After seeing a good couple hundred mola's, we now believed that we had a bit of an eye for quality.

We snorkelled the wreck at Dog Island (an old freighter sitting in 10 feet) and then beat our way to Chichime. The current running between the two islands of the anchorage was amazing. It was a good few knots. Not really ideal swimming conditions. Waka Irie joined us there and we had a few drinks that night to catch up before our early morning start towards Portobello the following morning.

The banks off of Punta San Blas were apparently good fishing grounds, so out came the rod. We experienced parts of 30 feet deep and tried to avoid spots were swells were actually breaking on the banks. The caught 4 fish. A large Barracuda, 2 mackerel and a tuna. We had a number of strikes too and one I lost as I reeled it in as we were making about 5 knots through the water.

We had planned on stopping in at Green Turtle Marina en route but the swell and seas made it a bit too exciting for us to risk our house so that we could pay to moor for a night or two. As it was still light, we continued onwards Isla Linton.

We had to anchor slightly in the channel and as such Sally and I spent most of the night rolling violently into each other like some sort of couples wrestling match gone wrong. Needless to say we hightailed it out of there the next morning and headed to Portobello.

Portobello is a great anchorage in a sleepy little town with a lot of history. There are a few tall ships in the bay at the moment. Beautiful to see these old schooners still in use.

We finally cleared in and it did not cost us a cent. Unlike other places where it costs up to $100 per person! Panama, you got to love it!

A very Kuna New Year

I think back to most of the New Years eve events that I have attended over the course of my life. Most of them fairly underwhelming. Loud “doof doof” music, scantly clad peacocks trying desperately to attract the opposite sex and enough alcohol to fuel a car for a whole year.

This year we chose to be in relative isolation. We found a fairly nondescript little island in the San Blas with an equally nondescript anchorage, away from the madding crowd. The morning net was filled with organising “parties” at various places. Potlucks and bonfires arranged by what one can only be described as extroverted Americans with “water caravans” (we are but a few hundred miles from Texas...).

Alas, there were 3 other yachts in the bay when we arrived. A few of our friends on other yachts were soon to follow us. Fortunately there was plenty of space.

We set about looking for a free feed. Scouring the bottom for anything that moved that was edible (and of a decent size). There was not much. The term “conservation” has not hit the Kuna Yala (San Blas) yet.

Just in front of us is a couple of Kuna huts with a family of Kunas and about 20 children. We attributed the lack of seafood to the number of mouths that required feeding, but found out later that most of the kids were there on holiday from Panama City. Yes, in a small paradise, many Kuna chose to live in the city, but send their kids to the “old country” on holidays so as not to forget their roots.

The gentle smell of Kuna wood smoke drifted down our fore hatch and the sound of children playing could be heard well before my usual “lurch out of bed” time.

We are only 2 miles from mainland Panama, so all of the nearby islands seem to be inhabited with families. Even tiny islands with 2 lone palm trees has a hut. With this and common courtesy in mind, we headed ashore to ask for permission to make a fire on their island and call in the New Year. To sweeten the deal, we took a couple of canned goods (a whip around from each of our sailing friends).

“No problema” was the answer!

We zoomed around the anchorage and did the neighbourly thing of inviting all the other cruising boats to join us. Although there were french / spanish, we managed to gesticulate our intentions clearly enough.

The yachts in our little armada set about putting together a few dishes for a bit of a pot luck. Cruiser speak for “what ever one can be arsed making and sharing”. We did lobster linguini (with real lobster – but not of the size that I would send photos to my father to brag about though...he unfortunately still holds the Trompeter record for biggest lobbie – in fairness, he did pull it out 26 years ago when “over” and “fished” were never used in the same sentence).

Hauling our dinghy ashore, ladened with BBQ materials, pots of luck and and multiple young cruisers (30-40's), we were greeted by a squad of kids eager to help with hauling it ashore (and in the process got bowled over like tenpins).

To be polite we made the fire far enough away from the Kuna huts but it seemed that this was too great a draw card. Like moths the whole extended family descended on our little bonfire. The children played with Finn and Petra (3 and 2) and the older girls were fascinated by these cute little blonde haired, blue eyed creatures.

Now came the awkward part...there was not really enough food for everyone (or enough drink – both alcoholic or non).

We delayed the feast for as long as possible thinking that maybe the dinner gong would sound over in Kuna town and we could scoff without feeling rude. But no, this was all way too exciting. It probably did not help that I had been lighting sparklers on the bonfire and handing them out to the kids (who were loving them!).

We also had some battery powered light sticks and flashing balls etc (left over from Grenada Carnival a few months back). Every now and then I would whip one out and run down the beach with it. A gaggle of over excited Kuna kids would chase after me babbling Spanish (and / or Kuna – how would I know) until I selected a random recipient for the bonus prize.

When it became clear that Kuna's were probably not going to leave anytime soon, we reluctantly got stuck into our dishes. I had to do his Pied Piper routine to clear out the kids (they liked to crowd around the dinghy expectantly whenever some one went over to it to do something).

There was plenty of food left over and so we washed our plates in the sea and handed them over to the Kuna's to get stuck in.

Kuna culture is very matriarchal. One of the older woman (assumedly the chief coconut) sent a few kids to fetch bowls from the huts. She then scooped out all the remaining nosh into a large bowl and the bowl did the rounds among the Kuna.

Dessert was much the same process.

We played with the Kuna kids who were still wide awake (I blame the sugar content in Sally's Apple Pie) while waiting for the approaching new year. With so many children, I was soon exhausted, for as soon as you do one “cool” thing to a kid, the rest want a go as well. Trying to be a good sport I wanted to give them all a go swinging them in the air etc, but you eventually lose track of who is who. I am sure one little kid abused me 5 times for the “space rocket game”.

The matriarch and one of the men and loads of kids stayed with us and watched us. We went round the circle each singing a song or a poem trying to include the Kuna's too. They were having none of it but enjoyed watching us be silly.

We hailed in the new year with a toasting of glasses and a few expired flares sent into space. It was well past “cruisers midnight” of 9pm and some of us had been snorkelling for 5 hours in search of dinner and another 5 hours of “space rocket game” with the locals. Fuelled with enough rum to make even the dirtiest pirates proud we said our farewells to the indians and chugged back to the boats.

What a year 2012 has been. What promise 2013 entails...