Many of my travels to Latin America were done on our visits by sea. We would put the boat safely somewhere and take the local “chicken buses” to cities inland. We spent quite a bit of time in the Highlands of Guatemala among the Mayan with stops to see the old Spanish Colonial towns still thriving. Along Panama’s eastern Caribbean side the San Blas Islands are home to the Kuna Indians, a matriarchal culture that still is intact despite the centuries of Spanish domination of the region. In the near future I will be adding to this collection of very personal observations of our southern neighbors.