Whale Shape Island ‘Pinos Island’ in San Blas

When we visited the village, we saw some village people walking together up the coast. It was far away from the village. I asked them why they walk so far away. They told me that they want to call Panama. At a certain location, they can get a cellular phone connection from the mainland. People put a nail high on the palm tree to hold the cellular phone to get the best signal. We have seen some solar panels and TV antennas in the most villages, but no internet so far.
The only way to visit this part of San Blas is by boat. This makes it hard for tourists to see this part of the world. San Blas is more like seeing the Guna culture along with views of mountains on the shore. When I visited the village, I proudly spoke in some Spanish. This is possible because I met a wonderful Spanish teacher back in Fort Lauderdale. I often thought about her during my stay in Spanish speaking countries. A couple of days ago, I found out my Spanish teacher passed away on the 7th of December, 2015, at the age of 86. She taught Spanish in the Fort Lauderdale Adult Community School for more than 50 years, until in her early 80th. I liked her disciplined teaching method very much. Long-term students loved her homework ‘Spanish Crossword Puzzle’. She left a great present to some of her students making them bilingual or multilingual. Because of her, I continuously try to speak in Spanish whenever it is possible.
*** Hiking to Radio Tower on Pinos Island; we wanted to hike to the Radio tower on the island. A local took us to the entrance of the trail. The trail was nice but some areas are overgrown with spider webs and bushes. Without knowing what sawgrass looked like, we both got some cuts on our legs and hands. We later found a stick on the trail and avoided this problem. Close to the tower, the trail was gone. We were almost there but we couldn’t find the rest of the trail. It seems the locals were trimming this area including the trail. We tried to walk around but no luck. We didn’t want to get lost in the sharp sawgrass bush. It was nice exercise though.