Guna Yala — "Guna land" — is the proper name of the archipelago almost everyone knows as San Blas. It is an autonomous indigenous comarca of Panama: some 365 cays and a strip of coast governed by the Guna people, with their own authorities, their own rules and their own language. It is not a nature reserve, and it is not a tourist destination run by the State.
"Kuna" with a K is the old spelling. The people formally asked for the G in 2010, because their language has no equivalent of the hard Spanish K. Guna is the correct form today.
Guna Yala has governed itself since 1925, when the Guna revolution ended Panama's attempts to impose another way of life on them. The agreement that came out of it still stands: the territory is theirs, and whoever enters does so under their rules.
That is why there is an entry fee at the comarca border, going straight to the community and not to the State. That is why there are no chain hotels, no buildings above one storey, and nobody from outside can buy an island. And that is why the accommodation is cane-and-palm cabins run by Guna families.
Decisions are made in the Guna General Congress, where every community has a voice. A tour can change route from one day to the next if the local congress says so, and that is not improvisation: it is them being in charge.
The mola is the Guna textile: layers of coloured cloth stitched and cut back by hand until a design appears. A simple mola takes days; a good one takes weeks. Women wear them on their blouses, and the ones sold to visitors are the same pieces they use every day.
Haggling over a mola is haggling over two weeks of wages. If you take one home, take the good one and pay for it: it is the most direct way your trip leaves money on the island.
Older women especially. Many charge a small tip for the photo, and that is fair: to them this is not scenery, it is home. If they say no, it is no.
There are no ATMs or card machines on any island. Nobody can break a fifty.
It comes from rain or is brought from the mainland in drums. A long shower on an island is water somebody else does without.
There is no collection service. What comes in on a boat has to leave on a boat.
The Guna language is called dulegaya and is spoken across the comarca; Spanish is the second language. These four open a lot of doors:
Our guides are from the community. That is not a marketing detail: it is the difference between being shown an island and being told whose it is.
Yes. San Blas is the colonial name given from outside and still used by tourism; Guna Yala is the comarca's own and official name since 1998. Both refer to the same archipelago.
Yes, a comarca entry fee: $22 for foreigners and $7 for Panamanian residents, in cash and once only. It is paid at the Guna border checkpoint and goes straight to the community. It is not included in any tour price.
No permit beyond the entry fee, but travelling independently is complicated: you need a 4x4 for the last stretch of road and a boat arranged, and inhabited islands are visited with someone from the community.
Around 30,000, spread across some 50 inhabited islands and several mainland villages. Most of the cays visited on tours are uninhabited.
No. Comarca land is collective and is not sold to outsiders. The lodgings you see on the islands belong to Guna families, even if an agency markets them.
Yes. The comarca is one of the calmest parts of Panama: small communities where everyone knows everyone. The real risks are the sun, dehydration and the sea, not the people.