August 5 to 11, 2013, Kuna Yala, Panama
Miriam (14-years old) and her mom, Gayle, visited us on On Delay. When Miriam got back to school she wrote the regulation “What I did on my summer vacation” story but with a couple of twists: (i) it was posted as a blog on the school intranet and (ii) written in French.
Here, we share the original French version and a somewhat different English version.
C’est été je suis allés au Panama avec ma maman. Pour une semaine nous sommes restées dans un bateau avec des copins de ma mère. Nous avons navigués dans “San Blas Islands”. Ces îles ressemblaient aux cartes postales Hawaïennes.
Dans ces îles nous avons nagés tous les jours dans de l’eau claire et chaude. L’immensité de l’océan était vraiment impressionnent. Je ne pouvais pas voir l’autre rivage. Aussi j’ai vu des animaux et des plantes exotiques. Aussi nous avons mangés des crabes et des langoustes énormes.
En Panama ma maman et moi ont achetées des textiles que les hommes dans les îles ont fabriquées.
Quel voyage superbe!
Thanks to Jane, Tony, Gayle and Pete, we had an opportunity to sail through the San Blas Islands (aka Kuna Yala). There we met the Kuna, indigenous people within Panama. We bought traditional textiles known as Molas. [See Mola Mania. Ed.]
In the San Blas Islands, we snorkeled everyday and I always saw the most exotic marine life in the clearest of water.
One of the coolest experiences of this trip was when the sailboat got stuck in large pieces of soft coral and the Kuna people came by canoe and helped literally push the boat out – screaming “KUNA YALA” over and over when they successfully moved the boat. It was a great experience and one that I will never forget.
Photos of the trip by Mom (Gayle) and Jane. Captioning by Jane
Hi Miriam, it was great to read about your On Delay holiday, en Francais! Qu’est-ce que vous allez faire avec vos molas?
Wow, when I was a kid, an exotic vacation was across the border to Canada!!! The Revolution Tower looks like a Frostee Freeze chocolate and vanilla swirl cone.