This is a small tribute to the real sailors in the San Blas Islands, the Kuna indians, who keep sailing among the archipelago with their wooden canoes (called “ulu” in Kuna language), in the same way their ancestors did hundreds of years ago.
The “ulu” are simple but perfect boats, hand carved from a tree trunk by skilled Kuna, with two cotton sails, main and jib, and a fundamental tool, a paddle, used both as a rudder when sailing and as a propellant in no wind.
Keeping the balance inside the narrow canoe is, in itself, a big achievement. We are amazed every time we see a Kuna sailing, sitting in the stern of the “ulu”, holding the mainsail’s sheet in one hand, using the paddle as a rudder with the other, draining out the water from the canoe and, on top of that, fishing at the same time with a nylon line… an impossible mission by the rest of the non-Kuna-mortals!
