CROSSROADS PHOTOGRAPHY: Kuna Say

Dee ge De !!! That means hello in Kuna the indigenous tribe on the San Blas islands that we went to visit. It felt as if we had just stepped onto the pages of National Geographic. It was a day full of adventure starting with a crazy jeep ride through the mountains in which we could look over and see the forboding jumgle of the Darien Gap ( no man{s land). Afterwards we took a boat ( if you could call it a boat it was more of a canoe made out of old boards) through the jumgle to the open sea. We had to constantly bail out the boat because it had so many holes in it and we had to actually jump into another boat half way but we arrived at the villiage of the Kuna finally. It was amazing the way that their culture is completely unique and fairly untouched by western civilization. There was no room for us in the hotel so we were shipped off ( not even told what was going on because of course no one speaks spanish they speak Kuna) to the Devils Island where the Kuna Grandpa Chime lives... and no one else... it really is just a desert island. There was not even a bathroom just a hut with some hammocks. (Although the Kuna don{t have much even in their town just huts over top of the water with a hole into the ocean for a bathroom). So we made a fire using palm trees and when that died we played with the phosphercent planktin( i can{t spell) in the water. We burnt very bad.. i have never felt sun so intense somewhere before. The next day we wound our way back to the Kunas island through the 50 other islands made up of sometimes only one palm tree and sand... but alas there was still no room for us in the designated toursit huts.. so we again did something tourists don{t normally get to do ... we stayed with an old kuna women in her hut she gave up the hammocks in her room for us. The next day we went by boat to catch a tiny plane so that we could get back to panama city. We are here now.. I hope you all enjoy the pictures!!!

Panama City at night from Casco Viejo