ACUADUP

As we hadn’t seen a vegetable boat since we arrived, we had to go scout around the ‘village’ islands, close to the mainland.

Acuadup is a strange island because like other islands close to Cartí (a little town that is at the road that connects San Blas to Panama City) it is densely populated. 

Trying to stock up

The island is small, and people are poor. Most women wear the traditional Kuna clothes: mola, wrap around, blouse and Winnies around the legs (bracelets). Most kids were naked or wearing strange underwear. 

They live in huts rather than houses and only have muddy walkways, no paved streets. Among the huts there are small shops, but they don’t look like shops. More like a ragtag bamboo hut with an open window. You have to ask around where they are. These minishops only have the very basics like: some cans, packs of dry food, onions. One shop had some frozen chicken, another had eggs, …etc..etc. But for some reason they don’t have fruit or veg except overripe plantains and onions! 

I felt uncomfortable walking around because everyone stared at us. Also, the first day we went on the island 2 Kuna women snuck up on me and put a mola on my back and then showed the mola to me and insisted I buy it, ugh! Mom was busy paying for some things and dad was looking for other shops.

At those times I miss Bocas where no one cared really about new people and didn’t stare so much and don’t sneak up on people. 

We can’t  swim here because there might be crocodiles and the water is an unappetizing green color. So it was very annoying because if you feel hot, you can’t just jump in the water. 

It rains a lot, as we are next to the mainland. This means we can a least take showers. The weather changes from raining to blazingly hot and humid. 

Live wire Capo

Capo has become even more active because he has been locked up because of the rain. Now in his boredom he chews the electrical wires and pulls down the couch pillows to check if he can find a gekko snack for himself.  You get the idea. He still gets scared to death when Kunas come in their cayucos and whenever we leave the boat. He sure hates the sound of the outboard engine.

Trying some more

As Acuadup wasn’t great for getting extra stock, dad and I took the dingy to Carti as we heard you can buy veggies there, but hhuuggee disappointment. There was even less stuff to buy than at Acuadup. Carti was mainly made up of restaurants and shops (you can hardly call them shops). Dad thinks that the people working there didn’t even live on Carti but lived on the islands surrounding Carti. We went back to Acuadup and did some shopping getting: chicken, beans…etc..etc. We managed to get our hands on some overripe plantains (next morning’s breakfast YUM!).

GARDI SUGDUP

The next day we went to Gardi Sugdup, which only has a day anchorage. There we found a shop that sells vegetables and loaded our bags with fresh goods (yum! I was awfully tired of raisins for breakfast). We scouted around the island, which was bigger and neater than Acuadup. We found bread and some more items that were on the shopping list. One shop lady was very friendly and she pointed us to other shops that had the items on our list. It was funny to see the tiny lady in full Kuna outfit, standing next to mom and me. We were way taller!

The same day we lifted anchor and left for the Lemon cays to meet up with our friend Fernando