Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A Guna woman in traditional attire - hair bound in a scarlet headscarf, colourful blouse
tucked into a sarong-like patterned skirt, her forearms and calves bound with intricate
beadwork and her nose pierced with a golden ring - is a sight that has launched a thou-
sand travel brochures. Yet the Guna's relationship with tourism remains ambivalent,
and their suspicion of outsiders ( uagmala ) and determination to ensure that tourism is
conducted on their terms has been borne of bitter experience. This can make a trip to
Guna Yala fairly challenging, though the benefits more than outweigh any frustrations
or inconveniences. A visit is an opportunity to engage with an evolving, unique indigen-
ous culture, to experience village life first-hand, to loll on heavenly white-sand islands
and to explore the little-visited, rainforested mainland.
The Guna (pronounced “Kuna”) - or the Dule (pronounced “Tule”), as they call themselves
- are Panama's most high-profile indigenous people. They inhabit a vast semi-autonomous
region (or comarca ) along the eastern Caribbean coast, which stretches some 375km from
the Gólfo de San Blas to Puerto Obaldía and comprises almost four hundred islands and a
swathe of land whose limits extend to the peaks of the serranías de San Blas and the Darién.
Around 33,000 Guna live within the Comarca de Guna Yala, with a further 47,000 predom-
inantly spread among two smaller inland comarcas in eastern Panama and Panama City. For
the most part the population is packed onto a chain of 36 low-lying coral outcrops close to
the shore, with eleven communities established on the coast and two further inland.
The waters of the western archipelago, in particular, are sprinkled with near-deserted cays
covered in coconut palms, surrounded by dazzling beaches that shelve into turquoise waters,
whose coral reefs provide great opportunities for snorkelling (diving is prohibited across the
comarca ). Trips to the luxuriantly rainforested mainland are equally magical, whether glid-
ing upriver in a dugout, visiting a Guna burial ground, or seeking out the spectacular birdlife.
These attributes make Guna Yala a wonderfully idyllic location for a holiday, but to appre-
ciate its unique nature, engaging with Guna culture in all its variations, complexities and
contradictions is essential.
There are basically two types of islands of interest to the visitor. The palm-topped deserted
islands , surrounded by white-sand beaches, are predominantly distinguished by their accom-
modation, ranging from simple cane cabañas to more comfortable rustic lodges, all owned by
particular families or communities from the more densely populated village-islands . Chock-
full of cane and thatch buildings interspersed to varying degrees with cement structures -
schools, medical centres and the occasional shop - these overcrowded coral outcrops gener-
ally lack beaches. To the casual visitor, they are very much alike: jetties hold tethered dugouts
and traditional over-the-water toilets, with litter often floating among the pilings, while sandy
streets gravitate towards the centre, where meeting and chicha houses and the basketball
court stand out. Only by spending several nights in different places will you begin to appre-
ciate the subtle differences between communities.
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