Achutupu to Ailigandi

Achutupu – 09° 11.695’N & 77° 59.412’W

Achutupu (Dog Island in Kuna) lies 18 miles north of Islas Pinos. Numerous breaking reefs surround the island, however with GPS systems, life for the modern sailor is made so easy by simply following the given waypoints. Under these circumstances, it was quite an easy anchorage to enter, it's almost like cheating. Here we discovered a small Kuna hotel where we were able to indulge in a great crab dinner with cold beers – a real treat as our stocks are down to pasta, rice and more pasta and our drinks are never quite cold enough.

Our second day radically changed our view on swimming. As we entered the village, the local policeman (also the local hairdresser) took us around the corner to show us what had been wandering up the beach into the village during the night – a three metre long crocodile! Nasty looking beast! One of the local chaps had seen it skulking around at midnight and was able to get it with a single shot in the head. They apparently come ashore looking for food in the form of cats, dogs and small children. I wouldn’t want to meet up with it down a dark alley, or anywhere else for that matter. We had no idea that the crocs here were that big. Caymans had been mentioned so we pictured smallish things like small alligators. When I went for a dip this morning, I put Paul on crocodile watch – several laps around the boat for our morning exercise are, for now a thing of the past!

We loved this very traditional village with its white sand and grass huts. The people were openly very welcoming, the children delightful and their entire way of life almost enviable. Although they appear to have very little, the Kunas, generally, are a healthy and happy lot.

Bahia Golondrina & Ailigandi - 09° 13.581’N & 78° 01.752’W

The bay of Golondrina proved to be a well protected, mangrove lined spot which was definitely NOT a swimming hole. As we gazed across this beautiful bay, we watched a couple of crocodiles swimming lazily on the surface and wondered what was beneath as the water was not clear enough to see down.

Several times, we visited another delightful village, nearby Ailigandi, very picturesque with wonderfully friendly people. Ailigandi is a picture perfect island with all the huts built the traditional way with bamboo poles, cane tied together to form the walls and palm leaves for the roof tops. Despite the heavy rains, these huts remain surprisingly dry inside and apparently will last from 10 to 15 years. In some of the villages, there are separate huts for sleeping and cooking as well as miniature versions on stilts over the water which serves as the loo.

Ladies selling their molas are evident everywhere. Vibrant and amazing works of art, many of the molas take many weeks to sew.

We also saw 'nuchus', small carved symbols placed around the home. These are used to invoke Spirit defenders of the family members. Often it is the man of the family who carved them and the shaman 'nele' of the village "awakened them" through prayers. The shaman also uses them to exercise his medicine and exorcism.

Generally wherever we go, the children rush around us waving and yelling ‘hola, hola’, grabbing our hands to lead us around giving us a permanent entourage in each village. We have wondered if inbreeding is a bit of a problem amongst the Kunas as there appear to be quite a few simpletons on every island as well as an inordinate number of albinos. These poor soles suffer so much from the bright sunshine both with their skin and with their eyes.

Here we found another little ‘restaurant’. Any similarity to a western-style restaurant would be purely coincidental, however, we were served the ‘meal of the day’, chicken, rice, lentils and potato salad which cost the grand sum of $2.50. The potato salad was warm and everything else cold but……it tasted good and we didn’t complain – it was such a treat not having to cook.