A Shotgun Wedding! That is what will happen when a young Kuna man gets caught in a young Kuna woman's hammock in the morning. The rumor spread quickly among the Isla Elefante's inhabitants and we cruisers heard about it soon after.
The tradition among the Kuna Indians is such, that the woman will choose her husband and after the wedding he will move in with her. Now, as it happened just a couple of days before the New Years Eve celebration here on the island, the unmarried daughter of Alberto, the island's owner, was discovered sleeping with a young Kuna Indian in her hammock. As a result, preparations for a quick wedding were being made and relatives were invited to come to the island.
For the New Year's Eve party a buffet, which included a big roasted turkey, was set up for the cruisers and the Kuna Indians on the island. Alcoholic beverages were freely being consumed in large quantities. The music played over the loudspeakers had a lot of beat in it as well as volume and everyone had a good time. An hour before midnight a saila (chief) and shaman (medicine man) were brought in from the mainland in a lancha (boat with outboard). The groom asked the bride's grandmother for her consent to marry her granddaughter. Afterwards, as tradition calls it, the groom has to sneak away three times and the village young men have to chase the groom, catch him and carry him to a hammock, where the marriage ceremony will happen. The bride, of course, will also sneak away three times and has to be caught and carried back to the hammock to lie beside the groom. Finally, when both, the bride and groom are united in the hammock, the saila (chief) will lecture them the rights, what to do and what not to do. The shaman then performs the marriage ceremony. After this, the hammock with the newlyweds gets covered with a large blanket and the grandmother will be sitting next to the hammock making sure that the marriage will be consummated. (Although they skipped this last part for us attending cruisers!) And the happy and laughing couple escaped the 70 or so pairs of eyes to spend some time by themselves.
At midnight Alberto had organized some fireworks which almost blew up all at once, but thanks to a courageous sailor who took over from the slightly drunk Kuna Indian in charge, the firing up of the fireworks went smoothly among a lot of bangs.