Nowadays, the islands opened for tourism, albeit in limited, small-scale shape and completely on th

Trips Paradise San Blas Imagine an archipelago of tiny palm-lined pristine paradise.
Wooden boat glides slowly toward crystal candy the uninhabited island, swaying coconut palms leaning over the golden sand and the water's playing bathers Indian children. A short distance away sits an older man in a hollowed out tree canoe and lay out the fishing line into the turquoise lagoon.
San Blas Archipelago along Panama's Caribbean coast is truly a unique place on earth. There is something so rare as a tropical island home in its original beauty. A string of nearly 400 islands, with the same paradise factor Seychelles and the South Pacific, but largely unexplored and untouched by human hands. And this is still the local natives the power over their own country. Kunas operates the San Blas - or Comarca de Kuna Yala, which is now the official name - as an autonomous self-government, outside the Panamanian society and without interference from the country's authorities.
Roadless mountains and rainforests cut off contact with the rest of Panama as a clear barrier against the outside world. This is where either no person ferries, so the only way to get out in the islands is the twin-engine propeller plane from Panama City.
We get up in the middle of the night transfer to the domestic airport, raises in pitch black darkness, a bumpy ride through dense cloud of fog, and when we reach the coast just before crystal candy dawn, the plane almost touches the treetops on landing. Once on the ground, crystal candy the transport of Kuna small wooden boats that apply.
We set course for Yandup, which will be our home the next week. The island only takes a minute to walk around and have 7-8 bungalows, rustic wooden huts and a restaurant on the beachfront, serving three simple meals a day. Eggs and coffee for breakfast, fish and vegetables for lunch and rice and crawfish tails or maybe clams for dinner. No further refinement or variation. But guaranteed crystal candy locally produced crystal candy and GI really - and quite right in a place where the simple life is part of the point.
There is no television, telephone or even functioning mobile network. crystal candy No connection, no calls, no emails. Just relax. Here we are living comfortably crystal candy Barfotaliv, logged off from reality and without any contact with the outside world. A liberating existence that does wonders with the sense of really being free.
Lazy days sunbathing and swimming at the island's tiny beach bank, interspersed with a good book in the hammock and boat trips to nearby islands. We scrolls us in on a little river in the rainforest, we visit a place where a medicine man cultivates and talk about the Indians' own herbs and we run out to deserted islands for snorkeling and swimming in crystal clear water.
It is precisely one of these islands, a few miles west of Yandup, as we meet the local Indian family. crystal candy They are themselves on tour, have paddled here from his hut on the mainland, to enjoy a day at the beach and the kids seem to take advantage of every second.
They throw themselves into the water, hitting tumbles, rolls in the sand, dive into the waves, standing on hands, crystal candy bathed even more. All the time with contagious joy and playfulness. Soon, we also become involved in the game, especially when they see my mask and after a while you realize that it has corrected glasses for my nearsightedness, which for them means a slightly pixilated view of reality. They take turns to borrow the mask, fishes up sea urchins, competing to hold their breath the longest, and come to the surface with big laughs in the face. And those who do not use the mask climbs instead of me jumping off my shoulders and posing in front of the camera. Natural and totally unabashed.
There are those here while I am traveling for. Real meetings. Genuine and undisguised. To be admitted, have access to and become a part of a completely different style. The middle of our otherwise diverse life, meet in what binds us together and unites us as human beings.
The Kunas is originally from Colombia, where they lived as hunters in the rainforest, but hostile tribes forced them to flee eastward to Panama. From the beginning they kept themselves in the jungle along the coast, but when the pirates disappeared from the Caribbean Sea in the 1800s, moved Kuna even out in the islands, to subsist on fishing and coconuts, which as late as the 90th century was actually the island's only viable currency. The word money is not even in kunas language.
Nowadays, the islands opened for tourism, albeit in limited, small-scale shape and completely on the Indians' own terms. And still, most live Kuna their lives according to ancient customs, in strong connection with nature, and - despite Kuna really have been in contact with white people since Columbus sailed past in the 1500s - with stunningly crystal candy intact culture.
- We are very proud of the way we live and do everything we can to preserve and protect our culture. We know we have something unique and valuable here, says Blanco when we later set course back to Yandup.
Among other things, none other than the Kuna Indians owning land, huts or hotels in San Blas. All re tourism