Photo of women selling mola's from their dugout.

"Firefly" Bill and Mandi swung by and introduced themselves shortly after they arrived. They were on their way to take a look through the village of Nalunega. We thought it was a brilliant idea and decided to chase after them once we had finished our late lunch. As we approached the island we noticed two dinghies on a small beach, pulled ours along side and headed down the only path into the village. As we passed through one Kuna's yard(?), we met a Canadian couple (from the catamaran "N'orthern Lights", Edmonton) sitting around with a Kuna family (two women and several children). No sooner had we started to chat with them (and the children), Steve and I were offered a chair to sit and join them. They were waiting for the return of the "man of the house", who was out catching their dinner. Evidently, they had sailed/brought a battery for this man's family from Colon and in appreciation, they were asked to return as dinner guests. The husband/father soon returned (I didn't see any fish) and we explained that we had not invited ourselves for dinner and we were moving on. We left as they were guided inside the families thatched roofed home.
We walked through a gate and found another path which lead us to a large flat area, right smack in the center of the village. It was a basketball court (Kunas love basketball and volleyball) and a few kids were dribbling a ball about the dirt floor. On the other side we noticed Mandi and Bill and shouted to them. They were quite happy to have us join them and take the attention away from Mandi, who had just finished purchasing a mola. Now that we had joined them, many mola's sprang from within the Kuna homestead and slung onto the wooden stick fence where we had congregated. To make a long story short, I bought a Mola (Steve's was just thrilled to part with the money) and the four of us moved on. As we chatted, we found that we had a few friends in common. They had just come from Bocas Del Toro and had met Isabelle and J.C and their two girls (Alexe and Milla) aboard "Shaka" and Bill knew Charlie from "Kaya". As the sun set, we headed for the "congresso". Bill was of the understanding that we had been invited to join the meeting but we were turned away as we tried to enter the large hut. Peeking through the walls of twigs, we saw two hammocks billowing of smoke and a dangling leg or arm from each and a dull, uniform mumble. As I looked around, a few heads were bobbing, with eyes closed and those awake, looked board to death as they shuffled from cheek to cheek. It gave the impression that it would be a long evening. Thank goodness we couldn't get in.
In the dark, Mandi and Bill joined us for a very bad example of Butter Chicken and basmati rice (it had lost it's punch being made a months ago and stored in the freezer) but fortunately, they brought Cevechi (a fresh tuna, pickled in lemon, that they caught on their way down to the San Blas). We enjoyed the evening, becoming acquainted with their "story" and sharing ours. They will be here for about three weeks and we hope to spend more time exploring and playing in the water with them (35 and 22 years of age) if they don't mind.