Part Two of the Kuna Yala saga

We get a rare opportunity to
witness puberty rites

Text and photos by Jacob Ehrler

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.

A young woman crafting a mola.

The inhabited island we visited is populous with homes sprawled to the edges of the shore where boats jut out between the bathrooms built on stilts above the water. The houses have bamboo walls and thatched roofs. They form a labyrinth maze of streets.

We were received at a family home where they made us a fried chicken lunch with fried "pan de fruta" and a tomato salad. "Pan de fruta" is abundant in San Blas and they fry it or boil it as a carbohydrate accompaniment for many meals.

We began our trek to the town center with Henry leading the way. We towered above the natives who, mostly children, followed us to the center of the island in a procession format. A quick nod and a smile and the Kunas carried about their business.

Kuna girls contemplate t-shirts from presidential
candidate Balbina Herrera.

The men and the women had separate entrances to the large congress building where the ceremony would take place so we split and I entered with the men, where we sat on low log benches. Across the dim congress hall I saw my mother escorted by several Kuna women. They had given her the traditional red cloth headpiece to wear during the ceremony.

Homes border the limits of the inhabited island.

Henry pointed out that everyone was talking about our presence. I looked around and encountered many friendly faces interested by the obvious presence of two northerners at their ceremony. A Kuna man came around and painted every man’s toe with a red dye that took days to wash off. Then the men who sat in the center of the room would come around and blow burning tobacco leaves into the faces of the guests. The smoke made me dizzy.

Then groups of men got up and drank a fermented cane sugar drink that several men had been watching over for many days and nights, according to Henry. They would go to the center of the hall and dance in a circle, chanting in high pitched voices and then change directions, chant more and then all stop and slam down some more of the fermented drink.

Kuna children were excited to have foreigners on
their island.

A man came around and painted my nose and cheeks. People giggled. Henry could tell I was getting tired of sitting and waved to the Kuna women who had my mother on the other side of the building. Outside we were greeted by many people who had come from islands all over the Comarca to celebrate the puberty festival. They explained that the Kuna coming of age is celebrated in weekend-long gatherings that are funded by the sale of fish throughout many months previous to the party. Friends of the young people’s families buy fish especially to sponsor these celebrations.

The author, post-ceremony, with a painted face.

We never saw the young man and woman who were being “coming of age”, but we were thrilled to have witnessed a Kuna ceremony thanks to our Kuna guide Henry. We said goodbye to our hosts for the day and made our way back by motor canoe to our tourist island, thinking about the vast difference in life for the Kuna, just 30 minutes away from the city by airplane. The Kuna’s wish to leave their islands and culture intact without foreign influence is both apparent and noble.

Henry can arrange tours for any interest in the islands. Options include fishing, snorkeling, or even island-hopping in search of the best (and most expensive) molas anywhere. Kuna women keep their best molas in trunks and wait for mola connoisseurs from around the world to come and buy them.

Henry even has tales of finding sunken Spanish gold! Call Henry Harrison at 6749-6542.