{"id":81,"date":"2007-02-21T02:23:01","date_gmt":"2007-02-21T02:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/2007\/02\/21\/kuna-yala-porvenir-and-uchutupu-pippi\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T17:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T17:03:14","slug":"kuna-yala-porvenir-and-uchutupu-pippi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/?p=81","title":{"rendered":"Kuna Yala:  Porvenir and Uchutupu Pippi"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\n.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }\n.flickr-yourcomment { }\n.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }\n.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }\n<\/style>\n<div class=\"flickr-frame\">\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/48817769@N00\/397140396\/\" title=\"photo sharing\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/179\/397140396_df4e47aaa6_m.jpg\" class=\"flickr-photo\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>\n\t<span class=\"flickr-caption\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/48817769@N00\/397140396\/\">Kuna Yala:  Porvenir and Uchutupu Pippi<\/a>.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"flickr-yourcomment\">\n\tWe are currently anchored in Chichime Cays, between Uchutupu<br \/>\nPippi and Uchutupu Dumat.  The position is N 9 degrees 35<br \/>\nminutes, W 78 degrees 53 minutes.  These are tiny little<br \/>\nislands, almost totally flat and covered in palm trees with only<br \/>\ntwo huts on each cay.  We just returned from supper at the home<br \/>\nof Raoul on Uchutupu Pippi.  Raoul and other members of his<br \/>\nfamily paddled out to us in their wooden dugout canoe this<br \/>\nafternoon and asked us to dinner &#8212; adding that it would cost $4<br \/>\nper person and that the Americans on the catamaran further east<br \/>\nwould be joining.  We had red snapper and coconut rice while<br \/>\nsitting next to his thatched hut on rough hewn logs.  Luckily<br \/>\nthe folks on the other boat (&#8220;Sol Mate&#8221;) brought plates and<br \/>\nforks because that was not supplied.  We knew the fish was fresh<br \/>\nbecause two hours before we ate, Raoul came by in his canoe with<br \/>\nthe fish he had caught. It was a great meal under the palms and<br \/>\nwe toasted Raoul and his family for their hospitality.  But this<br \/>\nis jumping ahead.  Let me quickly review that past few days.<\/p>\n<p>Our last two days on the passage from Bonaire were as great as<br \/>\nthe first two days.  It was windy on Saturday night, as<br \/>\npredicted, but that caused no problems for us as we had reefed<br \/>\nthe sails down well before the wind piped up.  Sunday morning<br \/>\nthe wind eased and shifted north, making our two head sail<br \/>\nconfiguration inappropriate.  So we took down the ballooner<br \/>\n(spinnaker) and big genoa and put away the poles. The boat<br \/>\nslowed considerably but we paid no attention since we were ahead<br \/>\nof schedule.  We did not want to come through the opening in the<br \/>\nreefs (&#8220;Canal de San Blas&#8221;) before 10 am Monday since we need<br \/>\nthe sun to be high enough in the sky to illuminate the reefs<br \/>\nhidden just below the surface.  After a big lunch we sat in the<br \/>\ncockpit reading the New Yorkers and Newsweeks that my sister<br \/>\nNaomi sent us, not really paying attention to the fact that our<br \/>\nboat speed had dropped to less than 5 knots.  Around 5 pm we<br \/>\nspotted a sailboat on the horizon off to starboard and we<br \/>\nconjectured that this could be the German boat &#8220;Vera&#8221; that we<br \/>\npassed one day out of Bonaire.  Laura called on the VHF and sure<br \/>\nenough it was Vera and she was also planning a 10 am entry<br \/>\nthough the reefs.  I  suddenly realized that as we were<br \/>\npleasantly engaged in reading we had ignored our boat speed.  A<br \/>\nquick calculation on the plotter revealed that at our current<br \/>\nspeed we would not get to the reef passage until 3 pm!! Thank<br \/>\ngoodness the appearance of &#8220;Vera&#8221; shook us out of our lethargy.<br \/>\n  We quickly put the genoa on a pole to windward so that we were<br \/>\nsailing wing-on-wing.  That gained us 2 knots immediately and<br \/>\nnone too soon as the sun was setting and setting poles on the<br \/>\nforedeck in the dark is not something I relish.  The wind picked<br \/>\nup strongly after dark and we sped along briskly, but the<br \/>\ndirection was bad and we had to sail well to the south of our<br \/>\ndesired course with the sail plan that we had.<\/p>\n<p>The wind stayed strong all night and the seas built, making<br \/>\nsleeping difficult.  Early in the morning, we rolled up the<br \/>\ngenoa in order to head north towards our destination, sailing<br \/>\nwith main and mizzen alone.  The wind was so strong, that was<br \/>\nsail enough.  We came to the reef opening just after 10 am and<br \/>\nby 11:15 am we were anchored off Porvenir Island, joining &#8220;Vera&#8221;<br \/>\nin the anchorage.  It is hard to believe that Porvenir has an<br \/>\nairport since the island is so tiny.  There is a runway the full<br \/>\nlength of the island.  The runway is a bit wider than a<br \/>\nresidential street and it seems to take up about one-third of<br \/>\nthe area of the island.  There is not only an airport on this<br \/>\nisland, but the island is an airport!  As we admired the scene a<br \/>\ntiny Cessna wove its way through the sail boat masts and landed.<br \/>\n  It is not a good idea to anchor in front of the runway, and<br \/>\nanother boat moved when they saw this.<\/p>\n<p>After lunch and a quick snooze, we started to put the dinghy in<br \/>\nthe water in order to go ashore and check-in.  There is nothing<br \/>\nelse to do in Porvenir &#8212; just check-in or catch a flight.<br \/>\nThere is no village, nor room for one.  Britta and Michael<br \/>\nAdlkofer of &#8220;Vera&#8221; came by to introduce themselves and tell us<br \/>\nnot to bother to rush ashore to check-in.  This is carnival week<br \/>\nin Panama and the boat check-in agent is off for the week.  Come<br \/>\nback on the 26th they were told.  We had Britta and Michael<br \/>\naboard for drinks and snacks. Michael is a professor of<br \/>\narchitecture at the University of Hanover, although they live in<br \/>\nBerlin.  They are also on a circumnavigation on their 1976 Swan 47.<\/p>\n<p>We finally went ashore just to stretch our legs.  We strolled<br \/>\ndown the runway, nervously looking back on occasion to check on<br \/>\nlanding aircraft. We were surprised to find the &#8220;Hotel Porvenir&#8221;<br \/>\nand its associated restaurant.  To say this was a modest<br \/>\nestablishment would be an understatement.  We ordered supper &#8212;<br \/>\nthe only dish available was fish, rice, and beans &#8212; and it was<br \/>\ndelicious, as was the local brew, Balboa. With drinks, dinner<br \/>\nwas $6 per person.<\/p>\n<p>Laura and I slept 10 hours last night.  We went to bed as Claus<br \/>\nwas starting the movie &#8220;Groundhog Day&#8221; on the laptop.  Perhaps<br \/>\nit is his youth that permits him to get by with so much less<br \/>\nsleep.  We motored upwind to Chichime Cay late in the morning.<br \/>\nThis is a very pretty place and quiet &#8212; the surrounding cays<br \/>\nare too small to have a runway even if they were completely<br \/>\npaved over.  We snorkeled the reef in the afternoon (Laura saw a<br \/>\nbig spotted ray), and then I went up the mast in the bosuns<br \/>\nchair to fix the foredeck light that had come out of the mast<br \/>\nwhen we brought the ballooner down.  It was nice to have both<br \/>\nLaura and Claus on deck when I went up since I could then have<br \/>\none of them tend a safety line.  It was a great view from up<br \/>\nthere and I got the light fixture back in its place and secured<br \/>\nwith a wire tie, but the bulb was dead from all the knocking<br \/>\naround and I had forgotten to bring one up with me.<\/p>\n<p>We will return to Porvenir tomorrow afternoon.  Thursday, Claus<br \/>\nhas a 6:35 am departure from the Porvenir airport to Panama<br \/>\nCity.  We will he sorry to see him go.  Then Laura and I will<br \/>\nexplore the dozens of tiny islands of the San Blas archipelago<br \/>\nthat lie to the east.  This area is known as &#8220;Kuna Yala&#8221; to its<br \/>\nKuna Indian inhabitants.<\/p>\n<p>M.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kuna Yala: Porvenir and Uchutupu Pippi. We are currently anchored in Chichime Cays, between Uchutupu Pippi and Uchutupu Dumat. The position is N 9 degrees 35 minutes, W 78 degrees 53 minutes. These are tiny little islands, almost totally flat and covered in palm trees with only two huts on each cay. We just returned &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/?p=81\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Kuna Yala:  Porvenir and Uchutupu Pippi&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other","category-panama"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}