San Blas - Ev's 5!!

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Adventurers like Robinson Crusoe

A few weekends ago we finally made it out to San Blas to Island Kugmidup. San Blas islands have been photographed and featured in many travel magazines around the world for its rustic and simplicity of the untouched world. There are 368 islands in San Blas all owed and governed by the Kuna Indian people. The Kuna's are very simple people where woman still dress in the traditional garments and they still sleep in hammocks vs. beds. This was going to be an interesting weekend.

The kids had a long weekend at school so off we were to venture out. There are two options to take to get out to San Blas... fly from our domestic airport here in Albrook or drive. We chose the adventure of driving. To take the road less traveled we headed south to the Darien (towards Colombia) for the first hour of smooth driving. The following hour proved to be a bit more interesting.

(Our good friend John (bagel shop John) joined us for the fun trip. After we turned off the main highway onto the dirt road to make the trek over the mountain towards the Caribbean Sea, John's truck started to act up. When John climbed a hill his truck stalled and started to roll backwards, this made for a long trip getting to Carti our pick up point. After numerous running starts up some very big inclines (which was really funny at the time) we finally made it to the river we had to cross in our 4x4s. The picture above was a very small incline compared to some)

(John in front of us ready to tackle the river)

(we made it ACROSS...YA)

(a fun picture of us speeding down the old runway nearing Carti)

(Two hours plus some, we made it to Carti to catch our ride out to the island! Out of the trucks... excited kids jumping around and a flat tire to boot. Somewhere along our trail crossing the river or there after we punctured our front tire. The decision was made that the tire would still be flat in a few days and we would deal with it then... it was time to hit the beach!)

Miguel and his fellow Kuna's picked us up at the dock and by Johns estimation the island was a 10-15min ride away. Well we realized that was Panama time the actual ride took 40min, good thing our kids like boats and are excellent travelers.

Welcome to our island Oasis

(this is Island Kugmidup or Kuanidup, 10 small sand floor huts to relax in.
About as large as a soccer field, Isla Kugmidup is fringed with palms strung with hammocks that look picture-perfect in their symmetry)

(here in this Travel & Life 2002 edition this island was featured... pretty awesome)

(our little hut. This is one of the bigger ones as it has three beds. We also had a quaint foyer which turned into a clothes line)

(our three cozy foam mattress beds. It consisted of a double bed and two singles. Emma is the least restless so her and I cozied up in a single bed while East and Trent shared the double and Ev (our mover & shaker) had a single to himself. I am not sure if they ever wash the sheets and if they did it would be a quick rinse in the ocean.... so I came prepared with our own sheets and a blanket for each of us to keep warm. You can see the blue tarp inside, that is to help keep us dry when it rains)

(now these are really nice washrooms compared to many other islands. Do not let the toilet deceive you there is no running water. After you are done your business you take the orange bucket from this big blue drum and pour water down the toilet to help flush it down. No paper products of any kind can go down the toilet. This brought back memories of Thailand for us. Emma our princess did not particularly like this setup)

(for us to have a non salt shower the Kuna's go to the near by river and haul back fresh water (from the river) for us to rinse off. As you can see the big blue drums high up are full of water they hoisted up)

(a nice view of the small cabins that have 2 beds in each)

(a small glimpse of island life & Emma sharing her thoughts)

(I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture. Not to many places in the world you can take a pic like this. I am not sure who's idea this was but I came out of the shower and I found Easton climbing the palm tree. He did it twice, he sure loves to climb like my dad used to)





DINNER TIME

(the bell rang and we all came-a-runnen! It was pretty cool, when the grub was ready they rang a bell and everyone congregated in the mess hall. On this island you get three square meals a day. BREAKFAST consisted of 2 pieces of toast, two eggs and a piece of cheese. LUNCH a healthy portion of rice, a pretty good salad and what ever seafood they caught that day. DINNER a repeat of lunch. I brought a cooler of food for our kidlets (they like to eat a whole lot more often than 3 times/day)

(after dinner it was time for the ENTERTAINMENT. We brought out ALOT of fireworks. Trent was like a kid in the candy shop at the fireworks store. It was a great show, everyone loved it. I think it will be most memorable for the rocket that got away.. JOHN!)





(this is what $20 buck will buy. My hubby was in his glory)

(here is John exhausted from a long day in the sun with our three kids. John is a single guy with no offspring so weekends like this really wipe him out... it is hilarious)




(a live view from inside the fort)

EMMA IS REALLY AN AMAZING SWIMMER

This island was the closest uninhabited island to island Kugmidup. By Trent's estimation it was a mile way. Guess who swam there and back?

PICTURE 1... Look closely at this island you can see there is no civilization at all on it. There is palm trees, coconuts and hundreds & hundreds of conk shells)

PICTURE 2... Emma, Trent & John waving goodbye before their big swim into unfamiliar waters... some report seeing sharks recently but they were on an adventure. Bye... bye, bye, bye)

PICTURE 3... now look to the left of the picture and you will see a clump of bodies. YA they made it, the only people on this little island with all the time in the world to check it all out. How cool is that?

PICTURE 4... I pulled out my big zoom lens and was able to capture the three explores. Emma found some amazing sand dollars and a huge, HEAVY I might add, conk shell. To Trent & Johns surprise Emma swam the whole way back against a much stronger current carrying this shell with NO assistance. I am so proud of her for pushing herself for something she really wanted, way to go babe)






A FEW FUN PICTURES OF THE DAYS

(an easy playground for the kids. The island was a great size, big enough to play but small enough to not get lost. East our big boy who is now 7)

(all Ev needs is a shovel to dig to China he says then he is a very content boy who just turned 5..)

(the water was beautiful... exactly the way you envision the Caribbean ocean. Panama has a unique geographical situation to have access to both Pacific and Caribbean. It is easier for us to head to the Pacific but we much prefer venturing this direction)

(Em was so happy to have other girls on the island to play with, she is growing up so fast)

(the boys have the whole beach to themselves)

(my three "pee pee wa chiquita" as you say in Kuna... We know that most likely they will never be able to fathom where they have been and how cool so many places are but I think they will remember we were always together and their mom liked to take a lot of pictures..lol)

(they loved this swing. One afternoon Everett was playing on the swing & out fell a coconut just missing Ev's head. A logical event, but it still would of put a dent in his noggin)

(these conk shells were everywhere on the island. There were alot gathered by the palm trees)

(Me & Easton's favorite place to read. I even came out here at night in the pitch dark reading with my flashlight, it was so peaceful)

(the catching of the minnows with great success rate until our boys got a hold of them that is. Trent was determined to go fishing. It is pretty cute how a grown man can still get so excited like his little boys to go fishing)

(Trent and his fishing! Here he convinced a local to take him and the boys out to see what they could catch. Notice Trent's cast off NO FISHING ROD! This is fishing the old fashion way... a spool of fishing line with a hook on the end. Good thing he is a seasoned vet at this kind of fishing from all the other crazy places he has had to do it)

(not much fish action was happening but Everett took it upon himself to bail some water as it leaked in. Good thinking pal, Easton looks about ready to jump ship if the water came in any faster ... haha)

(a nice picture of my guys waiting for the dinner bell, everyone was h-u-n-g-r-y)

(thanks for the picture Emma you did great)

(hey cuties... enjoying a PB&J sandwich for a bedtime snack... all these kids do is eat. Everett never did warm up to the seafood mix we were served at dinner)

(east wanted me to show everyone the crazy Canuck... the kids are now telling me what picture I can and can not put on our website... before I know it, it will be their project)

(I LOVE this crazy family)

(I woke up to the sounds of the ocean and opened my eyes to this amazing site. My family was up and at it already and I just had to lay back in bed to take this picture to catch a few more minutes of some peace & quiet)

(Trent enjoying a relaxing hammock. It was pretty funny because when you sat in this swing you just hit the ground. It made for a good picture)

(All three of us climbed aboard the swing-less hammock for a good morning cuddle before we made our way back for our afternoon adventure... GOING HOME)

(after breakfast Easton went for a walk down the beach for one last swing. I love the simplicity of the picture of him still in his jammies and how peaceful his surrounding are for him)


ON OUR WAY HOME!

The day we headed back home was the Presidential Election Day. This was a pretty historic event in any country. Running in the race was a forward thinking, foreign friendly, already very rich man named Ricardo Martinelli vs. Balbina Herreraa reportedly very corrupt (but then who in politics isn't) non supporter of foreigners and reported to have had ties to Hugo Chavez (Venezuela's scary man). The Kuna Indians and were very big supporters of Balbina because she was the only one who took the time to visit the Kuna's they said.

In case you did not hear Martinelli won... a very good thing for the future of Panama in our eyes. His slogan on signs around town was "I am rich already, I do not need to come into office to steal to make myself rich!" However we live in an extremely corrupt country so time will tell.

(it started to rain on our boat ride back to the mainland. You can see a Kuna laying under a green poncho and under the orange life jackets is his brother... it was good for a laugh as you can see the captain pointing and having a good chuckle himself. )

(me with my man East. East loves to explore and takes every situation in stride for the most part. Love you buddy!)

(boys will be boys. One thing about I love about my husband, he keeps it light and is always trying to get me to laugh. Emma caught us on camera)

(back in Carti. This is the wash up point as the ocean hits the mainland. How sad it was to see all the debris scattered along the shore. It is awful to think about the amount of garbage the oceans contain and the effects it really does have on the ecosystem of our earth. Unfortunately we had to go through filth to get to paradise)

(my little soldier trucks on)

(very relieved to see that our truck was still there in one piece but as you can see we now had to deal with our very flat front tire)

(as Trent was dealing with the tire the tension started to heat up in the village. The rain started to come down and increasing in intensity. This was not a good situation because if the water rose to high we would not make it through the river and be stuck on this side until it was passable again. Who knows how long that could be. The Kuna's were very anxious to get out of there, they were all paying for seats in the trucks that pulled up. I was amazed at how many people were piling into these SUV's)

(the situation was not going so well. The jack was not going high enough... then they put bricks they found under the jack which then crumbled, the rain was coming down faster and Trent was very worried about the river. Long story short we finally got the spare on and had space for two Kuna's to join us on our ride back to the city. The river was pretty high when we crossed it BUT WE MADE IT and the road was pretty muddy which made for some interesting corners)

(this was a very unusual sistuation. We had a lady Kuna in the truck with us as well as her male cousin who just stepped out when I took this picture. Our kids were to excited for words LITERALLY... they did not speak for over an hour. It was pretty cool to have been able to help these Kuna's make the river and cross to safety. I think the kids will always remember this day. Kuna's have their own language which was fascinating to listen to)

(Emma LOVES Kuna's, even in the city she gets excited to see them. So to have this lady in our truck made Em so happy. Everett was not such a fan as he politely tried to tell me that he was getting sick because the Kuna's stank. Yes they had an interesting aroma and it was pretty cute how Ev was communicating with me. My truck went in for a deep cleaning when we got home)





THE KIDS GET WORKING!

Our church bought a building in the slums of all slums here in Panama City. It is in the neighborhood of Curundu where 7 of the most violent gangs reside, deaths occur daily and most people have less than a dollar/day to live on. This is as bad as you get.

The building was purchased last year and is now in the transformation stages of starting a local school and to help serve the community. Last Saturday it was a family work day and we all piled in the truck to lend a hand. It was fantastic for our kids!

(here the boys were helping me paint a new school room. They were great helpers as they loved to be expressive with the paint)

(upstairs was going through a demolition. Easton was helping haul some very heavy bricks and was a working machine. Trent was complimented numerous times about how hard the boys worked. Awesome guys!)

(after work comes play. The kids joined in on a soccer game with some young kids from the neighborhood. The local kids were tough and took a few rounds out of the boys but they had fun)

(Ev is filthy... but loving life)




HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY EV!

Another one bites the dust... Oh how everyone is growing up. Everett is officially 5 now, definitely no more baby. Ev is a really fun kid, always has a smiles on his face and definitely has gusto for life!

(Everett and his best buddy Sebastian - Ev gets so mad because I do not say his name properly... my accent gets in the way)

(Ev and his new Spidey get up)

(Emma and I had a tough week. I got into a fight with my truck hatch and Emma with the corner of our dinning room table. Ev thought it would be nice to photograph our injuries)

It was May long weekend for everyone back home. I hope you had a fantastic weekend and enjoyed your days relaxing or at least doing something you enjoyed!



Until next time
All our love
Jody. Trent. Em. East & Ev
xoxoxoxo