Nargana, Capital of Kuna Yala
We lifted anchor from the Lemon Cays around 8.00 oclock in the morning and
arrived at Nargana at 14.00 hours. Distance covered: 21 miles. We had some
wind the first few hours. The sky was clouded but the sun was shining.
Big City, big City Prices?
We were walking around in Nargana. Trying to figure out what was available,
what time the bank was open and if there might be a restaurant to drink a
cold beer.
Suddenly somebody shouted and we had to come into a kind of ‘officialdom
office’.
A “hello, how are you, you have to pay” in Spanish.
“For what do I have to pay?”, I asked to this old gentleman.
“For the services”, he said.
“What services?”
“The anchorage”.
“I put down my anchor and my chain, nothing from you there”, I said.
“Ahh, well, for the children. The school, you know?”, he said, waiving this
paper what I would get after I paid with a stamp on it.
I was not at all impressed and I didn’t want to give 25% of our last money
we had away to something that was no more then a sophisticated way of
begging for money.
Vivian got a bit nervous. “Please, pay, Paul”. Now that I hadn’t had any
bargaining power any more, I just had to pay. Six dollars for the boat
valid for a month in Nargana and a dollar a person.
Later on we figured out that if we would have anchored 100 meters more to
the next island, it would have been for free.
The bank that isn’t a bank
The next day we went to the bank, the Banco Nacional de Panama.I
first came with my credit-card.
“No, no good”.
My debit-card. “No, we don’t do that here either”.
Vivian’s credit-card. “No, no cards here”.
We then tried to change our Colombian money. By all means , Nargana is the
capital of Kuna Yala and one of the spots where the Colombian
“Coconut-boats” come to buy coconuts. “No, we don’t change Colombian money”.
“Do you change Euro’s”, I asked a bit desperate.
“No sir, we don’t change and we don’t do cards.”, said the gerente of the bank.
It took me half a minute to realize there was no way I could get any valid
money in this bank.
“No cards, no money-exchange. What do you do in this bank?”, I asked.
I never heard his answer, as I walked out, realizing that there is no place
in Kuna Yala to change or get any money. We still had 30$ US to go and 200
miles to Cartagena.
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