The day began with our usual dining room breakfast, but to our surprise, Barbie joined us. Often she wears a baby blue sun hat, so we have graced her with the name, the Blue Hat Lady. She always cracks up when she hears that. Anyway, she had a tale about a huge water leak in her cabin, resulting in a flooded room all the way out into the hallway. Good grief! Besides dealing with the problem, they would have to dry out the room for a few days. That meant she had to move temporarily into an empty cabin, and believe us, she is not a happy camper. Don’t blame her….what luck to get the jinxed cabin. Worse comes to worse, they can remove the old carpeting and padding, and re-install it new. The good part was that we got to share the early morning with her.
The arrival to our second port would not be until noon, so we took care of some unfinished business. A nice bouquet of flowers arrived, which should have been here on day one. Then a case of Vitamin waters arrived to replace the booze. While titling photos, a knock on the door presented our room steward with a newer tower fan. Bill had informed Shiv about the wobbly one we had been given. Within 5 minutes after Shiv made a phone call, the new one was here. What a guy. Busy morning for sure.
Today’s port of call was a quite unique one, which does not come to a surprise to us, since we have been here three times now. Many of the world cruisers have been. The name of this place is the San Blas Islands, an autonomous province of Panama, and populated with a small number of indigenous Kuna Indians. They have lived here since the 1800’s, migrating from the mainland along the Colombian and Panamanian coastline. We have often wondered if this tribe came off shore to escape yellow fever or malaria in the old days, which would explain a lot. Anyway, the women rule the roost, while the men fish and farm bananas, coconuts, and plantains. Besides taking care of the family’s needs, the ladies sew “molas”. These are fabric designs created from layers of fabrics, then cut into designs. They are all done by hand, and some are quite beautiful. And expensive these days.
Many years ago, we arrived here the first time while on a Princess ship. The feeling was far different from what we found today. At that time, molas and all of their by-products were reasonably priced. The little children remained in the backround. But today, we encountered the kids using props such as kittens, puppies, and birds to pose for photos, then asking for one dollar. When the folks did not pay, the moms intimidated them to do so. Really ruined the ambience for us, because they really don’t need to exploit the younger set that way, in our humble opinion. We saw a spattering of this while in the Amazon, but nothing like we saw today.
We joined some fellow friends to be the first in the newer tender boat for the short ride over to one of the larger islands. The info in the tour book stated that there are 365 islands in this archipelago, but only 50 or so are inhabited. We strolled among the thatched bamboo houses with attached outhouses on a spit. They overhang the water, because there is no running water. They do have a source of power since we saw many TV satellite dishes, as well as solar-powered outdoor lights. We had been informed that there would be no ATM machines or WIFI.
What they did have were alleyways full of the mola handicrafts. Already owning too many, we just took photos today. Inflation has hit this little itty bitty part of the Caribbean, even more so than elsewhere. Selling these items were the Kuna ladies, dressed in native clothing, and be-decked with gold nose rings, metal bracelets, and beads wrapped around their wrists and ankles. Only a few of the native men were visible, and some were drinking beers inside their huts. In one public meeting area on this teenie weenie island, a few tables were set up containing beautifully painted feathers. The subjects were mostly birds, but we did see insects and frogs too. Most were mounted cleverly on covered cardboard, and signed by the artist. Nice ones ran around $12 each, and we saw no one bargaining at all. That was a fair price, since we have seen these sold in Costa Rica for much more.
It took about ½ hour to walk from one end to the other, then up another sandy alleyway. A few young boys had a pig in a cage, and were charging money for folks to take a picture, of course. We located the infirmary, a school house, a few small stores, and even a library of sorts. It is possible a few natives stay here, but we feel that with the shoreline a mere two miles away, these natives are ferried back and forth when cruise ships come in. The only supplies we spotted in a small shop were canned tuna with vegetables, canned milk, and cooking oil….lots of it. Detergent was for sale too in little boxes. The main shopping has to be on the mainland.
Purged with photos, we headed back when the island became flooded with passengers from the ship. We were told that no crew members were allowed to come over here today. Truthfully, they would find nothing here that they needed, which is usually internet and phone connections.
Hungry by now, we went to the Lido, because the dining room had opened from 11:30 to 12:30pm for lunch and was closed. Sharing a salad and sandwich, we were happy enough. At 3pm, they called the last of the tender tickets for the ride over, and people were free to go down without them.
All aboard was 5:30pm, but we watched from deck nine while the boats came back, and all were loaded around 5pm. Interesting operation seeing how they are hooked up and lifted into place. With such new and pricey tender boats, the sailors were most cautious.
Captain Mercer announced that we would be heading west for a mere 90 miles to park and wait for our transit through the Panama Canal early tomorrow morning. Expecting it to rain any second, we lucked out and the skies remained dark and foreboding, but there had only been a few sprinkles today, we heard.
Dinner was back at our table with Barb. Each of us was gifted with a Panama hat to be used tomorrow in the pounding sun. The labels claim these hats are made with paper straw, so now we wonder how they will hold up in a possible rain shower? Must be a “green” thing. They will join our growing collection at home.
By the way, forgot to mention that the priority tender service was available to only the Pinnacle, Neptune, and President’s Club members, and will remain that way for the entire voyage. We found it worked well to be among the first ones off. That way we did not have to cut any existing line, which we do not prefer to do. Neither do our buddies. In addition, a list of do’s and do not’s were given to all to read regarding the tendering process. Great idea to avoid accidents.
Bill & Mary Ann
