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EQUATOR TO

PANAMA IN

7 DAYS

+

KUNA YALA

TRIBE

Captain Keith Plaskett Peruvian Amazon

30 Oct, Sunday - left Salinas, Ecuador at 11 am - 5 Nov - arriving in Panama

Captains Log: KUNA YALA, PANAMA

Kuna Yala, formerly known as San Blas, is an indigenous province in northeast Panama (Official Gazette of Panama). Kuna Yala is home to the indigenous group known as the Kunas. Its capital is El Porvenir. It is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, on the south by the Darién Province and Emberá-Wounaan, on the east by Colombia, and on the west by the province of Colón.

 

KUNA YALA INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY

Guna Yala in Kuna means "Land Guna" or "Guna Mountain". The area was formerly known as San Blas, and later as Kuna Yala, but the name was changed in October 2011 to "Guna Yala" when the Government of Panama recognized the claim of the people that "Guna" was a closer representation of the name in their mother tongue than "Kuna".

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Among the most important traditions of the people mentioned Guna: "Ico-inna" or Feast of the needle than for a more accurate translation is the feast of puberty or what the Western world is known as the party or wedding. where a young girl after her first menstrual period is made a party where it pierces the septum of the pubescent female placing a ring with coconut oil as an antiseptic. In childhood between 4 and 5 takes place the ceremony of "inna-suit" or baptism is performed in the first haircut, which was attended by all the people in the community, she is assigned a name in the language Guna to the female.

 

This name is next to the name given the country's official language. The Night festival or "inna-mutiki" is a party where all the people involved to celebrate a wedding or a new marriage in the village or community, this festival usually lasts for several days until the end of the whole liquor that has garnered the families.

El Captain Keith Plaskett
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