Experiencing San Blas with a Kuna guide

By Jacob Ehrler

Henry Harrison and guest in San Blas.

Several tour operators can arrange for a trip to the San Blas islands, but the most authentic way to discover the territory of the Kuna Indians and their hundreds of idyllic picture poscard islands is with a Kuna guide.

Henry Harrison is a smiley 50-something Kuna man, born in his native islands, raised in the Panamanian interior countryside and educated in the former U.S. Canal Zone. As a result, Henry speaks Spanish, English and Kuna. For the past 20 years he has been providing tours of the islands, telling the stories of his people, selling arts and crafts and making sure the local cooks get it right for the guests that he takes around the San Blas Islands.

By having a well-connected, tri-lingual guide who knows the islands intimately we were able to custom-design our tour. We needed the basics: a bed, a bath and a toilet. Out on the islands, some campers do without these simple amenities, so it is good to specify what level of services you require. We also wanted to experience Kuna culture by visiting an inhabited island.

Henry made some calls and found out where there was a local festival on the weekend of our visit. He found a nearby island, called Sedinup, where we could stay for $20 per person per day with three meals included and have use of the shared bathroom facilities.

We were ferried to the island from Rio Sidra airport by motorized dugout canoe. The locals who would be cooking for us this weekend ran down to the shore to pick up our luggage as we stepped off on to the bright white sand. The silence was astounding. The views went on forever. All the Panama City stress disappeared as we relaxed in hammocks sipping beer.

Meals depend on what is available from the sea. Fishermen came by with a fresh catch. We bought it and the staff began cooking. Henry would translate our culinary requests to the staff, who spoke Kuna and barely understood Spanish. Communicating with them was all pointing, smiling and nodding with the occasional“si” or “no” in between.

The accommodations were comfortable thatch-roofed bamboo huts with mattresses on bamboo bed frames that rest on the sand floor. At night the slits in the bamboo walls worked like an air conditioner, bringing the cool northern breeze into the room.

In Kuna Yala, you rise with the sun. Our day started early with coffee, eggs, ham and toast while Henry told us what our day would be like. We would travel to a nearby inhabited island where the community was celebrating the puberty of a 13-year-old boy and girl. To me it sounded like a barmitzva, a quinceaños or a sweet sixteen party.