Panama: A place where life moves as slowly as the boat that got you there 3.6

¨God does not rest the night on the soft clouds in the heavens above, but on the white sand beaches of San Blas¨

Paradise is a place that has nothing – and makes you feel everything. I had fallen asleep on the white sand as the tide tickled my toes and the sun sizzled my face. I heard nothing except the waves dancing gently with the shore – a perfect sound. When I opended my eyes I was blinded by the sun and the sand.

As I adjusted I sat up – I could see through the palm trees to the other side of the island – one hut – and not another soul except my brother and the family that lived there.

A man worked on his tiny boat, his son cutting coconuts for juice. The mother must be inside the hut avoiding the hot sun.

O´neil paces the shore, wading ever so slightly in the turquoise blue water. He was reading a book.

I began to remember how I got here. Driving toward Columbia, on the last miles of the Pan-American Highway – a sharp left turn up a steep dirt hill. Cross a river, and over a mountain to the shore of the carribean sea. On to a small boat to the first island you see.

Don´t forget…otherwise you could get stuck in Paradise.

Kuna People

We were living in a village on an island the size of a football field. We slept in Hammocks sheltered by palm leaves and bamboo. Geckos scurried the structures side, and other things scurried on the ground. At dark there is only candle light – and the rooster warms us of sunrise by 6:00am.

We ate fish, rice, and oranges. We ate three times a day, only. Beer was fifty cents.

The locals dressed in traditiona attire while sweeping dirt off the dirt streets. During the day they fish for dinner, and I don´t really know what else they do.

Their children play with pure excitement and joy. Always laughing and smiling – always eagar to say hello – without putting their hand out for a dollar.

They govern themselves and though dabble in the business of the Panamanian Society, they exhist in on of themselves – in a place that feels like the only place on earth.

These are the Kuna People of the San Blas Archipelago – 300 perfect island on the south carribean coast of Panama

…quite literally the center of the earth.

We stayed here and relished in their paradise until…we needed some reality. A boy did we get it.

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