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Buildings cover Gardi Sugdub Island, part of San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast, Saturday, May 25, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
ISBERYALA, Panama (AP) - Hammocks began appearing this week in the doorways of 300 new houses built in what was previously a yucca field along Panama's Caribbean coast for families from the country's first low-lying island evacuated due to rising sea levels.
Indigenous Guna families from the island of Gardi Sugdub ferried stoves, gas cylinders, mattresses and other belongings first in boats and then in trucks to the new community of Isberyala.
They quickly saw some differences.
"Here it's cooler," said 73-year-old Augusto Walter, hanging his hammock on Wednesday in the tidy two-bedroom house with a backyard. "There (on the island) at this time of day, it's an oven."
He was waiting for his wife who had stayed a bit longer on the island to prepare food. They will share the government-constructed house with three other family members.
Most of Gardi Sugdub's families had moved or were in the process of moving, but Isberyala's freshly paved and painted streets named after historic Guna leaders were still largely empty.
New homes stand in Nuevo Carti on Panama's Caribbean coast, Monday, May 27, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate from Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago, to new homes built by the government on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
The Indigenous community surrounded by jungle is about a 30-minute walk from the port where a few more minutes aboard a boat brings them to their former homes. Government officials said they expected everyone to be moved in by Thursday.
However, that doesn't mean everyone is leaving the island. Seven or eight families numbering about 200 people have chosen to stay for now. Workers were even building a two-story house on the island Wednesday.
Among those staying was Augencio Arango a 49-year-old boat motor mechanic.
"I prefer to be here (on the island), it's more relaxing," Arango said. His mother, brother and grandmother moved to Isberyala.
"Honestly, I don't know why the people want to live there," he said. "It's like living in the city, locked up and you can't leave and the houses are small."
He didn't think climate change was responsible for the move, but rather decisions made by people. "Man is who harms nature," Arango said. "Now they want to cut down all the trees to build houses on solid ground."
Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago, stands off Panama's Caribbean coast Saturday, May 25, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Tiny Gardi Sugdub is one of about 50 populated islands in the archipelago of the Guna Yala territory.
Every year, especially when the strong winds whip up the sea in November and December, water fills the streets and enters the homes. Climate change isn't only leading to a rise in sea levels, but it's also warming oceans and thereby powering stronger storms.
The Gunas of Gardi Sugdub are only the first of 63 communities along Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts that government officials and scientists expect to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades.
Ernesto López, 69, moved Tuesday with his wife Digna. Two more relatives were expected soon.
"We feel like we're more comfortable here, there's more space," López said, sitting on his own hammock Wednesday. "On Gardi Sugdub we were really squeezed in houses with a lot people. We didn't fit anymore and the sea was coming in every year."
Like most of the families who had moved in, López, a Guna leader, and his wife still didn't have electricity or water. The government said electricity was available in the community but families had to set up their own accounts. They made do their first night with a battery-powered lantern and the gas burners they brought from the island.
A pig stands in a pen on a walkway on Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast, Saturday, May 25, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Mangos, unripened bananas and sugar cane that López had brought that morning from his farm plot some two hours away lay in a pile on the house's floor. Like most families, they didn't plan to completely abandon the island where generations had spent their entire lives.
"Once in a while we are going to cross to the island," López said.
Late in the day, many of Isberyala's new residents did just that because their new homes didn't yet have electricity.
Betsaira Brenes, 19, moved with her mother, grandmother and an aunt Wednesday. Carrying two gallons of water into the house that they brought from the island, she said it would be enough space for their family after living on the crowded island.
They planned to continue straddling between mainland and island too, she said. "The good thing in all of this is that now we have a new house and the other one where the other aunts stayed."
Iker Preciado peers through plastic bags that divide the kitchen from the rest of his grandmother's home on Gardi Sugdub Island off Panama's Caribbean coast, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Preciado's family is one of about 300 who are moving to the mainland as government officials and scientists expect communities along Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A woman grates coconut in Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast, Saturday, May 25, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Evelio Lopez tries to get cell phone connection on a dock on Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast, Saturday, May 25, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A youth prepares a rope to hang a scale at a school to weigh bags of collected soda cans as part of their end-of-the-school-year activities on Gardi Sugdub Island off Panama's Caribbean coast, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. About 300 families are moving to the mainland as government officials and scientists expect communities along Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Residents from the island of Gardi Sugdub walk to their new homes on the mainland in Nuevo Carti on Panama's Caribbean coast, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. About 300 families are moving to the mainland as government officials and scientists expect communities along Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Betsaira Brenes waits to move containers of water to her new home, behind, on the mainland in Nuevo Carti, after moving from the island of Gardi Sugdub off Panama's Caribbean coast, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Brenes' family is one of about 300 families moving to the mainland as government officials and scientists expect communities along Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Cecilia Henry paddles a boat along the shore of Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast, Saturday, May 25, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A youth walks past belongings being moved from the island of Gardi Sugdub to the mainland, in Nuevo Carti, on Panama's Caribbean coast, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. About 300 families are moving to the mainland as government officials and scientists expect communities along Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Civil protection officials move residents' belongings on a boat to the mainland from Gardi Sugdub Island, top, off Panama's Caribbean coast, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. About 300 families are moving to the mainland as government officials and scientists expect communities along Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Cruise ship toursits photograph locals performing during their tour of Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast, Sunday, May 26, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Residents from the island of Gardi Sugdub rest inside their new homes in Nuevo Carti, on the mainland off Panama's Caribbean coast, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. About 300 families are moving to the mainland as government officials and scientists expect communities along Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Students attend class on Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast, Monday, May 27, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Women display traditional dresses for sale to tourists in Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast, Sunday, May 26, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families will relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Civil protection officials, left, load a family's belongings on a truck to move from the island of Gardi Sugdub, located off Panama's Caribbean coast, to Nuevo Carti on the mainland, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. About 300 families are moving to the mainland as government officials and scientists expect communities along Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
