San Blas Islands

Archipiélago de San Blas
Islands entirely covered with dwellings
Geography
Coordinates	Coordinates: 9°34′N 78°49′W / 9.57°N 78.82°W / 9.57; -78.82
Total islands	378
Major islands	49
Country
Panama

The San Blas Islands of Panama is an archipelago comprising approximately 378 islands and cays, of which only 49 are inhabited.^[1] They lie off the north coast of the Isthmus of Panama, east of the Panama Canal. They are home to the Kuna Indians and a part of the comarca Kuna Yala (also spelled Guna Yala) along the Caribbean coast of Panama.

Tradition and legacy[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Cayuko "dug-out canoe"

The inhabitants used to wear few clothes and decorated their bodies with colorful designs. When encouraged to wear clothes by the missionaries, they followed their body painting designs in their Molas, which they wore as clothing.

The Kuna Indians worship a god named Erragon. They believe that this god came and died just for the Kuna people. The Kuna Indians were driven off Panama during the Spanish invasion and they fled in their boats to the surrounding 378 islands. The chief of the Kuna lives on an island called Acuadup, which means rock island. The Kuna are hunters and fishermen; they are a very clean people. On some of the islands they have opportunities to attend school. Most of the men now speak Spanish, although the women carry on older traditions.

On these keys, William Dampier started and ended his first journey with privateers and pirates 1679-1681. He calls them "The Samballoes," a rendezvous-place for pirates, convenient for hiding and privacy.

See also[link]

• Provinces of Panama
• Guna Yala

References[link]

External links[link]

• San Blas Islands travel guide from Wikitravel
• Frommer's Travel Guide: Comarca Kuna Yala

Additional reading[link]

• Lecumberry, Michel. San Blas: Molas and Kuna traditions. (2nd ed., rev) [Panama]: Txango Publications, 2006.
• Humphreys, Sara and Calvo, Raffa. The Rough Guide to Panama. London: Rough Guides, 2010.
• Baker, Christopher P. and Mingasson, Gilles. National Geographic Traveler: Panama. (2nd ed.) Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2011.

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San Blas, the Spanish name for Saint Blaise, can refer to:

Argentina:

• San Blas, La Rioja
• San Blas Department

Costa Rica:

• San Blas, Costa Rica

Ecuador

• San Blas, Quito

El Salvador:

• San Blas, El Salvador

Malta:

• San Blas, Nadur

Mexico:

• San Blas, Nayarit
• San Blas, Sinaloa
• San Blas Atempa, Oaxaca
• San Blas, Baja California Sur

Panama:

• Kuna Yala, an autonomous territory, formerly called San Blas
• San Blas Islands, off the Caribbean coast
• Gulf of San Blas, an inlet of the Caribbean Sea on the northern coast of Panama east of the Panama Canal

Peru:

• San Blas (Cuzco), a neighbourhood in the historic city centre of Cuzco

Spain:

• San Blas (Madrid), a district of Madrid
• San Blas (Tenerife), a new urbanisation in the South of Tenerife

United States of America:

• Cape San Blas, part of a peninsula in Gulf County, Florida extending westward from the mainland of Florida, separating St. Joseph Bay to the north from the Gulf Of Mexico to the south

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