Tag Archives: san blas

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.

Sugar Shack Motoring

San Blas Islands: Beauty Abound

After a week in Linton Bay, we needed a change, so we pulled up anchor and headed back to the San Blas islands.  It was not an ideal time to leave as the winds were pretty strong, but we needed to go and did not want to get stuck in the doldrums that were forecasted later in the week.

The anchor chain was pretty mucky, so we pressure washed it as it came up which made for slow going.  But, Davey, our hook which is a “spade hook” came up clean.  Get it?  David Spade?  Ya, weird sense of humor, I know.

We made it through the reefs and around the corner with the wind on our nose.  We were going to head north before we headed east as the wind and waves would push us south and we did not want to be pushed into the reefs.  It was going to be a bumpy and uncomfortable ride.  Estimated 45 miles at 5 knots would take 8.5 hours.

Sugar Shack Motoring

Sugar Shack Motoring

Within a few hours, Matt noticed that the batteries were not charging correctly.  The engines should be providing 118 amps and we were only getting 18 amps. Crap!  Matt fussed with the regulator but was not able to get it working properly.  No easy task while under way, in a hot engine compartment, under heavy seas.  Something to fix when we are at anchor.

A few hours later, Matt discovered that our Starboard tank was empty.  WTF!  We turned the watermaker on to fill up Starboard that was at 1/8th of a tank.  We didn’t want to make water while in Linton Bay as the water was murky and we were toward the back of the anchorage where the trash and debris flowed past us.  With the watermaker running, we should have made 20-30 gallons and yet the indicator showed empty, 0.  Not good.  Matt climbed back in the engine room only to find a bilge full of water.  The pressure from the watermaker caused a hose to pop off giving a new escape route for all of our freshly made water – into the bilge instead of into our tanks.  Matt replaced the hose, and we were back in business, but now it would take over 10 hours to fill just the starboard tank.

Later in the afternoon, I alerted Matt that the wind speed and direction stopped working.  Not again.  It would give us wind direction but no speed or speed and no wind direction or nothing at all.  Crap.  This is our new wind vang that we just put up a few weeks ago.  The data would come and go throughout the rest of the day, all we could do is carry on.  Seems like a day for breakdowns.

Luckily, fairly easy repairs – hopefully.

  • Matt fixed the watermaker leak on the starboard tank with a new hose.
  • Matt thinks the charging issue is a short or a fuse.
  • Wind Vang not diagnosed yet, but I am sure Matt will figure it out!

While Matt was fixing things, I was at the helm most of the day fighting off the urge to get seasick.  We had an average of 33-35 knots of winds with gusts over 40, an average of 4 meter waves (12’) with some peaking 5+ meters (15’) at 5-6 second intervals.  It was a rough passage, but we made it to San Blas before dark.

Sailing Log to San Blas:

  • Total Miles 49.2
  • Average Speed 5.1 knots
  • Max Speed: 9.4 knots (must have been a rogue wave)
  • Total Moving Time: 9 hours, 39 minutes