Up the river (Tuesday)

Today, we went up the river - literally - to visit an Embera village.  The Embera are one of the 3 primary indigenous groups (the others being the Ngobe-Bugle and the Kuna) here in Panama.

We started very early.  We were downstairs at 7:30, but unfortunately, the traffic was horrible, and Archie, the tour guide, didn't get there until 8.  From here, we went on to pick up other people and eventually, we hit the road.

We turned off at Chilibre.  The name comes from the area that soldiers complained had a "chilly breeze" in the morning.  Many names here have similar derivations.  For instance, Arraiján, a suburb north of the city, comes from "At right hand" and the name for a trash can here, a "tinanco" comes from the maker of the trash cans used by the US Military here - "Tin and Co" and a side job, "camaron" comes from "come around."  Kids also have names like "Usarmy," and "Usanavy" with similar derivations.

We arrived at Vigilente, the settlement at which we disembarked from the bus, after about an hour.  Here, the road ended at the river, where dugout canoes were pulled up onto the shore.  Tadpoles swarmed in the muddy water.

  

There, too, were the young men of the village who had come down river to fetch us.  They sported red loincloths and temporary tattoos that act as both sun screen and bug repellant.

  

The village is another 1 hour up the Chagras river (as well as several others) by dugout.  Once we were all aboard, off we went, the bow man using his pole to get us off and into the river and the stern man with an outboard motor to power us onwards.  We passed through several rivers after skirting Lake Gatun, the enormous lake created by the Panama Canal builders to provide adequate fresh water for ships to pass.  Each ship requires 52 million gallons of fresh water to transit the three locks of the Panama Canal.  There are 38 ships per day - so you do the math.  Bottom line:  The Canal takes a lot of water!  That is a problem this year in particular, because there has not been sufficient rainfall to fill the rivers and the lake.  Indeed, as we motored along, it was evident that the river was at least 10 feet below the normal waterline.  As a result, we had to navigate around submerged trees and sand bars that would ordinarily not have caused a problem.  

We made our way up and up the river until we arrived at a large sand bar below the village, Embera Puru (which means "Village" in Embera)  Here, the villagers were playing instruments and singing a welcome to us.  

It started to rain just as we arrived, but we happily clambered up the rough stairs and into a palm branch thatched building where the community was gathered.  And so began the real adventure!


The Embera originate in the Darien.  This group moved to this location in what later became Chagres National Park about 55 yrs ago.  The roughly 130 people in Puru live in 28 houses, each of which houses a family.  The houses are thatched with palm - either Royal Palm (which lasts about 3 - 4 yrs), Rooster Rail (7 - 8 yrs), or Uagara Palm, which lasts the longest (13 - 15 yrs) but which only grows in the Darien.  They are built on stilts to help against termites and animals of the rainforest.  Each has a kitchen that has 3 large logs as the hearth, both for cooking and for heat when it's chilly.  The village has both a botanical healer and a spiritual leader who cures with music and dance primarily.  There is no electricity, no cell phones, no computers and no internet in the village.  There are 3 midwives and the government comes 3 - 4 times a year to check on their health.

There is also a multi-grade school with 2 teachers who travel up river each week to teach the kids up to high school.  For high school, students must move into Panama City - and what a culture shock THAT must be!  The noise, the traffic, the lifestyle all must make it a very difficult transition for them.

As we entered the community gathering place, we had a chance to see (and buy) handicrafts made by the different families.  These were incredible!  Baskets woven tightly and colored with natural dyes like ginger for yellow, young teak leaves for red, and tauga shavings for brown.  Tauga nut carvings, beaded jewelry, and slingshots filled the tables.  It was like being in an art museum for indigenous art.
There were also lengths of cloth.  These are designed by the women and then taken to the city where they are sent to Japan to be printed and then back again to Panama where they are sold.  These are the brightly colored skirts, or parumas, that the women wear.

After looking at the wares, we sat and listened as we learned about the life of the Embera today.  They showed us how they carve tauga nut, and how they weave the baskets so tightly that water won't even seep through.  They told us how the Embera did survival training for the Apollo mission because the astronauts had to be able to survive in the jungle should they land there.

Meanwhile, the rain poured down.  And the kids continued to play football (Soccer to us) in a muddy clearing.

  

Then, we climbed up into a nearby house where we were served luscious tilapia, fresh from the river, along with patacones, and for dessert, pineapple and passion fruit.  Utterly incredible!  It was all cooked on a fire in the corner by a lovely woman and her daughter.

 

After lunch, we gathered again in the community house for a demonstration of dancing and singing.

  

   

As our time there grew short, some people in our group got temporary tattoos while others showed photos from phones and digital cameras to the curious children.  I love that kind of cross-cultural sharing!

  

And then it was time to leave.  We donned our rain gear and tromped down to the dugout, accompanied once more by the music of the village.

Sewellyn in her "Garbage bag raincoat"

We had to hurry because the rain had swollen the river and the current threatened to take the dugout away.  We called our thanks and our goodbyes as we got aboard and then we were taken by the current downriver.  No sandbar this time!  And the current was strong so our passage was swift!

En route, we saw many birds - Ring kingfisher, black vulture, black-bellied whistling ducks, green herons, blue herons, great white herons, great blue herons, cocoy herons, cormorants, black crown headed night herons, mangrove swallow, osprey and yellow headed cara cara falcon.  It was incredible!

Ashley, me, Sewellyn, Archie (Guide), and Ashley's Dad
(Sylvia and Rolando stayed overnight in the village)

I hope to come back again with Anna Rachel.  Soon!  And I will be glad to see people who feel like old friends - Estanilao and his wife, Flor, who weaves amazing baskets, and their 7 month old son, Brandon, who I got to hold and bounce on my hip.  It will be a wonderful reunion!