Tag Archives: carti

A day out with Betty, our small spin, Josh and Sara

Texas Friends in the House: Part III

We enjoyed a lazy day on the boat and in the water in the Western Holandes and made a plan to head to Carti the next day.  Matt and I had been here before, but we wanted to show our friends the true Kuna experience.

It was a perfect downwind sail with light winds on a sunny day.  Josh and Sara helped us hoist the small spinnaker, we shut the engines off ,and enjoyed the motion of the ocean.

A day out with Betty, our small spin, Josh and Sara

A day out with Betty, our small spin, Josh and Sara

We arrived to Carti with no incident, but had a devil of a time finding a good anchoring spot.  This anchorage has really deep areas and a few shallow parts so boats congregate around the shallow parts.  We tried 8 or 9 times and could not get it to stick properly.  It was frustrating for everyone.  Finally, Davey stuck and we had a beer!  Our friends from “Itchy Foot” met us here and we all headed to shore.

We had 2 overly stuffed bags of trash and another bag of cans that we desperately wanted off the boat.  We dropped our trash at the little market that has a panga pick up and drop off on the main land.   Once of the few places you can bring your trash as Kuna have a tendency to drop it directly in the ocean.

We wanted to visit the Kuna museum and had heard that the English-speaking guide would be there.  A nice local showed us how to get to the museum as it is a hard to find.  Once we got there, we discovered that the one English-speaking guide was off island getting drunk during a multi-day celebration.  Shoot.  We decided to pay $3 each to go inside just to see what they had.

It was a really small space, about 20×20 filled floor to ceiling with artifacts, clothing, hieroglyphics, and some brief explanations.

Images: Top: Museum sign, ulu or dugout.  Second Row: hut structure, worship piece.  Bottom row: information on how they bury their dead (in hammocks), pottery, and classic men’s top.

Kuna Museum on Carti Sugdup

Kuna Museum on Carti Sugdup

Ancient Hieroglyphics, animal skulls, pottery where they ferment liquor for celebrations, worship idols, clothing and mola fabric.Kuna Museum on Sugdup

Kuna Museum on SugdupThe little museum was really, really hot so we were all in need of a cold beverage.  Matt hunted down a local bar, as only he can sniff those out.  On the way, we stopped at a panderia and bought bread and a few gifts for Josh and Sara’s kids.

The beer was cold and cheap and the bar was on the water.  Good friends, cold beer, and beautiful scenery.  Perfect setting to enjoy our libations.

Afternoon at Bar Garcia

Afternoon at Bar Garcia

On the way back to the boat, we stopped at the market to get some fresh fruits and veggies.  They were pretty well stocked, but not as good as the first time we stopped by the week before.  I think Josh and Sara were grossed out by the freezer that had freshly plucked chickens lying about – not in packaging, just hanging out featherless in a clump.  We did not pick any up.

Back on the boat, we enjoyed another fabulous dinner concocted by Matt and a rum tasting followed.  Matt is famous for inflicting his rum tasting on friends, but Josh and Sara mastered the challenge. It’s always sad to say goodbye, but we know they will be back.

See Texas Friends In the House:

Kuna House

Carti Islands Provisioning: Part II

Several days after our first visit to Carti, our new cruiser friends Louis on “Freya “and Kelly and Darin “Mischief” suggested we all go shopping to the same islands. We were intrigued because both of these boats have spent many seasons in Panama and know a lot about the region, islands, and Kuna.  We explained our lack luster adventure and were assured we missed the store and the Kuna museum.

Matt and I had no plans for the next day as I had already completed my boat cleaning projects and packed for my trip back to the states so we quickly agreed to meet them in Carti.  Sugar Shack pulled up anchor first, around 0930 with the hopes of making it a bit of a sail day.  We had not been able to raise the full main in a while and were happy to see the winds at 30 degrees.  It is a bit of a pinch, but we can do it.

We raised the main while at the anchorage, pulled up the anchor and were on our way.  To our delight, we had 15 knots of wind, right at 30 degrees and were able to sail with full canvas.  It would require us to tack several times, but we didn’t care, we were just happy to be sailing.

After the first tack, we headed further away from our waypoint, but with luck, we would be able to make our destination with only one more tack.  As luck would have it, our wind died.  It dropped form 15 down to 5 and when we made the tack we slowed to less than 1 knot.  We tacked back to gain some speed and made another attempt to tack toward our goal.  Slowly, we turned and were on our way, but at a painstaking 2-3 knots.  We turned on the engines and left the sails up in search of a wind line.

Within 10 minutes, we were met with a fresh bout of wind pushing up toward 25-28 knots.  Wowza, where did this come from?  We shut the engines down, reefed the jib and enjoyed the ride.  The wind did not last long, and we were soon forced to turn on the engines again.  We would have loved to continue our sail, but we had to be in Carti before noon in order to meet our friends to find the market.

All of us anchored in the same general area and headed into Carti Sugdup.  Matt and I had visited this island before, but as I mentioned earlier, we were not successful in finding the market or the Kuna Museum.

Our first mistake:  Dinghy parking.  On our first visit, we parked the dinghy behind the fuel dock where a few other pangas and dugouts were located.  On our second visit, we parked at a regular dock, with a thatched roof and was much easier to access.  Just as you exit the dock, there is a trash deposit, yeah!  We have found that you have to be very judicious about where you leave your trash with the Kuna as they tend to dump it in the ocean.  This place has a daily pick up where they take it to the mainland for disposal.

After we deposited our trash, we walked through a very well stocked market. It is not like HEB or even a mini-market at a gas station, but it had fresh fruits, veggies, and some meats.

Down a well-maintained dirt path, just past the “Congeso” is a small eatery called “Pango Rojo”. We were planning on eating lunch first, then visiting the Kuna museum, then coming back to get produce.  Off to lunch.

Matt and I passed this restaurant on our first trip.  We recognized it by the skulls hanging from a string at the entrance.  Not sure what critter belonged to those skulls, but they appeared to be a source of pride and joy for the establishment.

Pango Rojo interior - lunch stop

Pango Rojo interior – lunch stop

We were seated, ordered beer, water, and food.  Your choice was chicken or fish.  Two of us ordered chicken and the rest ordered fish.  It was about 1330 and excruciatingly hot inside.  They had two fans but neither were on – when we asked to turn them on they said in “30 minutes the power will come on”  So we waited, and waited in the heat, with no beverages.  Evidently, they had to go out to the market and the “private store” to buy the beer.  We grew tired of waiting and sent 2 boys out to get beer.

Of course, before they came back, our beer showed up.  Which was fine, as we were so hot, we drank the first one rather quickly.  As we continued to wait the power finally turned on and graced us with some air movement from the fans – yeah!  But it took well over 90 minutes before our food was served and what a surprise that was.

The fish head was the first plate served to Louis.  He happily dug in, completely not bothered by the face staring back at him.

Lunch for Louis - Fish Head

Lunch for Louis – Fish Head

Slowly other plates were delivered and as it turned out, they served two fish to four people.  Two people got heads and two people got tails.

Louis's head and Matt's tail - lunch

Louis’s head and Matt’s tail – lunch

Let me tell you how glad I was that my chicken did not have a head, tail, or feet attached.  I have to say though; the fish was rather tasty if you could get passed the looks of it and the fact that you had to pick your way around the bones and spine.

All of the homes/huts are made using bamboo tied together with twine, ribbon, or material.  It remarkable how are constructed.

Kuna House

Kuna House

Twine that holds the pieces of the Kuna house together

Twine that holds the pieces of the Kuna house together

Now that we were all fed and had consumed several beers and water, we had to use the “facilities.”  On most of the Kuna islands we have noticed that there is no running water.  And most, if not all, have huts over the water which we learned were the “facilities.”  So, this would be an adventure.

The “public bathrooms” are actually for everyone as the Kuna do not have restrooms in their homes.  Down a small alleyway, across a very precarious walkway of wooden planks that were draped over logs (not attached), was a small hut.  Being the chicken that I am, I let Kelly go first.  As she returned, she said “don’t fall in” and I thought she meant on the way to the toilet.

Bridge to bathroom

Bridge to bathroom

I gingerly crossed the bridge and peered inside. Humph.  There is no door, but as you go in further there is a small wall where you do your business behind.

Hmmmm…do I really need to go this bad?  I knew I would need to do my thang over water, but I did not know the floor would be so slippery and unstable.  In I went.  Behind the little make shift wall, there are two small limbs that you place each foot, drop your drawers and do your thing.  Thank goodness, I did not fall in!

Floor of the public bathroom

Floor of the public bathroom

Off to the Carti Kuna museum.  We actually found the museum, but the Kuna guide who spoke English was off island so we will have to come back another time.

Back to the market and the dock. The second mistake we made during our first trip to Carti Sugdup was that we didn’t ask where the “market” was and we did not go down each of the dirt paths.  Had we walked all the way to the water on this one street that we stopped midway and turned around we would have found the market.  None the less, they had great pineapple, papaya, apples, onions, green peppers, soda, bananas and a lot more.  Since I was leaving the next day, we only did a small provision run.

Market on Carti Sugdup

Market on Carti Sugdup

Fun Carti Sugdup Images:

 

Not the most comfy chair, but the cat liked it

Not the most comfy chair, but the cat liked it

Kuna woman walking in standard outfit for women

Kuna woman walking in standard outfit for women

Sweet Kuna man carving wood

Carti Islands: Provisioning: Part I

The Carti Islands are a small group of islands that are among the busiest and most densely populated islands in San Blas.  There are four islands that make up the Carti Island chain: Tupile, Yandup, Sugdup, and Muladup.

While staying at the Eastern Lemon Cays, you can almost make out Carti and the mainland.  Usually it’s hard to see with the clouds, rain, and weather.  It is a 9-mile sail from the E. Lemon Cays to Carti (too far for the dinghy) but too close to put any amount of canvas up.  Especially being that we had less than 5 knots of wind.

It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the water was smooth as glass, and the trip was short.  From the distance of a few miles, you could see Carti Tupile and Carti Sugdup.

The first island you see is Carti Tupile on our approach to the island chain.  We visited this island and did a quick walk around, but did not buy anything.

Carti Tupile Island

Carti Tupile Island

Carti Sugdup, is such a fun name.  Sugar Shack was on Sugdup!  This is a busy little island specializing in the sale of Guna Handcrafts and molas.  They also have a make shift panga fueling station, very similar to a U.S. gas station on water.  Many kids were running up and down and over this structure giggling along as they played.  We were not certain where to park the dinghy so we selected a spot off to the side of the fueling station.

Carti Sugdup Island

Carti Sugdup Island

Carti Muladup is the last island in the chain and is overflowing with huts and a large structure on the eastern side featuring a red roof.  We did not make it ashore to this island

Carti Muladup Island

Carti Muladup Island.

As we advanced on the anchorage, the water turned to a ghoulish brown making us happy that we were not running the watermaker.  We dropped the anchor and made our way to Carti Sugdup.

A small dirt path led to a semi closed gate that took you between two huts.  We were not certain this was the “walkway”, but we proceeded onward.  As it turned out, this is a road.

Matt on a street on Carti Sugdup

Matt on a street on Carti Sugdup

We came to a local market which was inside a man’s home.  The owner added shelves for his products along the walls between his hammock (bed) and personal belongings.  He was very friendly, spoke to us in Spanish and offered us bread for the next day.  To our amazement, he had an uber fancy professional stand mixer which stood out like a sore thumb among his other belongings.  We continued exploring, trying to keep track of landmarks as there were no signs to tell us how to get back to the dock.  You sort of weave in and out of communities of huts, hoping you don’t intrude on their personal space.  Many have no doors or windows and you just sort of look in as you pass by as they are almost always trying to sell something.

During our discovery, we passed by a small cafeteria and a beautiful nativity set.

Carti Sugdup Cafe

Carti Sugdup Cafe

Life size nativity set in the center of the island.

Life size nativity set in the center of the island.

We also met this really nice older gentleman who was working on wood carvings.  He was so nice, but was very hard to understand as he only had a few teeth, spoke softly, and in Spanish.  We caught every 4th or 5th word.  But he was so very nice and invited us to his home to see his work.

Sweet Kuna man carving wood

Sweet Kuna man carving wood

We found our way back to the dinghy and set out for Carti Yandup.  The Bauhaus guide book mentioned a “store” on Carti Yandup, so we headed there next.  We were doing ok on general provisions, but we were out of bread and almost out of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Stepping onto Yandup, we were greeted with a few concrete buildings with green grass and a raked dirt path.  The concrete buildings were a stark contrast to the huts made out of bamboo and palm fronds.  We meandered our way through the village, peeking in a few huts and smiling.  We determined we were both too shy to actually go into people’s homes to see what they had for sell.  Our loss as we later found out.

BUMMER: Leaving Carti:

  • Didn’t find the market
  • No trash area
  • Kuna Museum closed

Feeling a little discouraged, we departed the Carti islands without any provisions and proceeded to Gun Boat Island for the night.