{"id":3181,"date":"2025-02-28T01:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T01:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/?p=3181"},"modified":"2025-02-28T10:47:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T10:47:23","slug":"up-the-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/up-the-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Up the revolution!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.acast.com\/6766f4022dc5d9b993aeca62\/67c0e345925dc5702ad8e75c\" width=\"100%\" height=\"80px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">There I was in the Swimming Pool. It\u2019s not really a swimming pool &#8211; just the anchorage to the south of Banedup Island in the San Blas of Panama.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The Swimming Pool is so completely surrounded by coral reefs and islands covered in coconut palms that there is hardly a ripple. Also, there\u2019s a nice little bar too, with swings instead of seats and absolutely the best Pi\u00f1a Coladas. You can take them to drink at a table under a thatched sunshade knee-deep in the water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">But I couldn\u2019t stay there &#8211; not on the 100<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the Guna revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The Guna are the indigenous people of this region. They\u2019ve been here for 500 years &#8211; and they continue to live just as they always have. You might find a village on an island so crowded that there\u2019s hardly room to walk between the wattle houses &#8211; or maybe just one family in one hut on an island you can walk round in 15 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">They live by fishing and collecting coconuts and selling intricately-sewn \u201cMolas\u201d to the cruising community who sail through here on their way to the Panama Canal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">They are delightful, smiling people who paddle their dugout canoes as they have for centuries &#8211; fishermen who come alongside in remote anchorages offering the Caribbean Spiny Lobster (like the European one but with no claws). At the more populated islands, whole families will come out selling molas and Guna courtesy flags. The flag takes some getting used to &#8211; it\u2019s a Swastika, but they had it first when it was still respectable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">And they do love a party. Everybody agreed: The 100<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the revolution was going to be the party of the century. After hundreds of years of \u00a0oppression &#8211; first by the Spanish Inquisition, then by the Panamanian government, they finally won their independence in 1925.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">So, where to go for for the anniversary, that was the question.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The San Blas Cruisers WhatsApp group was divided between Carti Island and Tigre Island. I plumped for Carti because there was talk of fermented sugar cane. I spent a day sailing down there with the wind behind me, only to find no other boats and the island so crowded I couldn\u2019t imagine there was space for even the tiniest re-enactment &#8211; let alone the sort of Bacchanalia you might expect from sugar cane hooch. I stayed a day, walked around the place until I realised I had wished \u201cBuenas Dias\u201d three times to the same old man sitting outside his door. I moved on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">I had to sail upwind and then downwind (to avoid a bunch of other islands apparently not in the party mood) but Tigre was the place to be &#8211; there must have been 20 boats anchored there &#8211; particularly families with young children (how many school trips feature re-enactments of beheadings and dismemberments?)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The celebrations went on for five days, with dancing and fireworks, kite-flying, more re-enactments (the Panamanian soldiers had wooden guns &#8211; the Guna, wooden machetes and wooden axes).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">But the big event was the <em>Congresso<\/em>. This was an extended version of the regular gathering in the village hall when the business of the village is discussed and the elders sit on hammocks and chant the songs and histories of the people &#8211; which in turn get translated from the ancient tongue by the not-quite-so-old elders. As you might imagine, this can go on a bit, so certain villagers are delegated to shriek periodically to keep everyone awake (Did I say this was an enlightened civilization?)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Something else that is really good about Tigre is how clean and tidy they keep the island. While some others are ankle-deep in plastic, here every house has its wastebin &#8211; a wastebin cleverly constructed out of plastic bottles. They even use plastic bottles as shades for the solar-powered streetlamps.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">I would have stayed longer but without warning (and ten days late) UPS found my new dinghy and delivered it to the duty-free zone in Col\u00f3n. Suddenly getting back to the marina at Linton Bay seemed more important than a hundred years of Guna independence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s taking two days because the wind died on the first afternoon and I found myself an island with a protective reef to anchor behind for the night. It was only the next day as the wind began to fill in from the north and I thought about pushing on that I realised the island was not deserted after all. There were two huts &#8211; one at each end. I like to think there were two families, each minding their own business, living their simple, charmed lives of lobsters and coconuts, sewing molas and singing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wonder whether just on this one special day, they got together for a party?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3182\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3182\" style=\"width: 290px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3182\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4637-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4637-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4637-scaled-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4637-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4637-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4637-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4637-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3182\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A typical island in the San Blas (there are said to be 365 of them)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3183\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4615-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4615-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4615-scaled-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4615-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4615-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4615-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4615-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3184\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005398-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005398-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005398-scaled-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005398-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005398-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005398-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005398-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3185\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005399-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005399-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005399-scaled-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005399-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005399-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005399-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005399-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3186\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3186\" style=\"width: 215px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3186\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/166e7233-b228-4540-84dd-394dbb29be24-1_all_14331-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/166e7233-b228-4540-84dd-394dbb29be24-1_all_14331-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/166e7233-b228-4540-84dd-394dbb29be24-1_all_14331-scaled-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/166e7233-b228-4540-84dd-394dbb29be24-1_all_14331-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/166e7233-b228-4540-84dd-394dbb29be24-1_all_14331-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/166e7233-b228-4540-84dd-394dbb29be24-1_all_14331-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/166e7233-b228-4540-84dd-394dbb29be24-1_all_14331-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3186\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Recycled recycling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3196\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3196\" style=\"width: 290px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3196\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gettyimages-185289842.jpg-300x228.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gettyimages-185289842.jpg-300x228.webp 300w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gettyimages-185289842.jpg-600x456.webp 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gettyimages-185289842.jpg-1024x778.webp 1024w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gettyimages-185289842.jpg-768x583.webp 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gettyimages-185289842.jpg.webp 1072w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3196\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Molas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3187\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005409-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005409-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005409-scaled-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005409-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005409-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005409-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1000005409-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3188\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3188\" style=\"width: 290px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3188\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250224_183926-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250224_183926-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250224_183926-scaled-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250224_183926-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250224_183926-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250224_183926-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250224_183926-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3188\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Congresso<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3189\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3189\" style=\"width: 215px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3189\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4623-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4623-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4623-scaled-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4623-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4623-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4623-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_4623-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3189\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Re-enactment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3190\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3190\" style=\"width: 215px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3190\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Table-in-water-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Table-in-water-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Table-in-water-scaled-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Table-in-water-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Table-in-water-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Table-in-water-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Table-in-water-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3190\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Swimming Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There I was in the Swimming Pool. It\u2019s not really a swimming pool &#8211; just the anchorage to the south of Banedup Island in the San Blas of Panama. The Swimming Pool is so completely surrounded by coral reefs and islands covered in coconut palms that there is hardly a ripple. Also, there\u2019s a nice &#8230; <a title=\"Up the revolution!\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/up-the-revolution\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Up the revolution!\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3181"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3197,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3181\/revisions\/3197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}