The U.S. warship happened to carry a fellow named William Markham. Markham had been petitioning for the Kuna for years, and was friendly with Marsh’s quest. He swiftly helped broker a peace that would allow Marsh to leave Panama without incident. If hostilities would end, the Kuna would be allowed to live exactly as they always did. By the end of World War II, the area now known as Kuna Yala would be entirely under Kuna control.

The next day, I wake to two young boys fishing outside my hut. I wonder what they are fishing for, stabbing into the sea with spears. This is what they will do for the rest of their lives - a life that rich people all over the world spend fortunes trying to re-create. Gustavo and I motor out with Romerio to the barrier reef to take a look around. We plunge into the water and swim for a mile along the barrier. Corals like you wouldn’t imagine, and green anemone carpets, dancing to the pulse of the current. What’s absent is clear – you don’t need peace corps boys to tell you that something is very wrong with this place: where are all the fish?

When we return six hours later, the boys are still out by my hut. I ask them what they caught. They don't understand, so I wade out to their cayuco to take a look. One boy holds up their sole catch. It's a four-inch lobster, squirming in his hands.

The Kuna have conquered every human onslaught against them. Now they are facing the same problem as industrialized worlds, as Asia and Africa and Europe and America. They are overtaxing their own resources. They are destroying the sea upon which they feed. Their simple fishing practices are mostly quite ecologically minded. But overpopulation negates even the good of good practices.

I reread the notes in my journal:

Peace Corp Boy: “…the lobster problem is drawing a lot of international attention right now…the problem is they see the ocean as this big hole from which everything crawls out.” I tell the American about how in Bahamas, the lobster regulations are harsh. You can only spear a lobster without Scuba equipment. You can only take a lobster of certain sizes. You can only take a lobster during a certain season. You can only take lobsters in certain geographical locations. The law is strictly enforced and the penalties include jail time. Peace Corps boy familiar with Bahamian laws. Says, “Belize is attempting to duplicate those laws. Kuna has a long way to go.”

That night, Gustavo the Colombian tells Geronimo that we must have a great celebration, and a bonfire under the stars. He says we must have rum. The Kuna oblige, and the next evening they bring cracked dry coconuts and some cayuco gas.