A Visit to the Embera People

On Wednesday we took a field trip to visit a village of one of the indigenous people of Panama, the Embera.  The Embera have lived in Darien (the easternmost province of Panama) for hundreds of years at least--their Pre-Colombian history is unclear--but one (extended) family moved westward to make a better life for themselves. They settled along the Upper Chagres River in 1975 and supported themselves with subsistence farming and hunting until 1984 when the watershed became the Chagres National Park. Since 1996, the community has been running its own tourism business. Our visit was a typical tourist visit, but our professor had been visiting this particular village with the class for over ten years and was able to provide some interesting perspective. (She noticed the village in a bit of disarray, asked how things had been recently, and was told there had been a disagreement in the tribe leading to some people, including many of the elders, moving elsewhere.)

We began by journeying up the Chagres River into the forest. We were in traditional dugout canoes, but powered by motors. There was also a man in the front with a long pole, however, to navigate the shallow areas--of which there were many, it being the dry season.

The view downriver from the point of embarkment.

A group of classmates in one of the boats.

The man in the front of our boat.
(I told you the pole was long...!)

The river was gorgeous and there were lots of interesting sites and creatures along the way.

Striated heron (Butorides striata) standing on the shore...

Jumping into the air...

And flying off!

Juvenile Great Blue Heron,
dug out canoe in the background.

Great Blue Heron on a mission...

Lizard!

More canoes!

An abandoned canoe on the shore.

You can see the layers of sediment in the embankment.

The river just beneath the village.

Interesting rock formations.

There were lots of sand bards and logs blocking parts of the river.

We also passed some other villages along the way.

Musicians welcoming a tourist group.

The women wear many beads and bright colors. Originally shell and rock beads and palm cloth were used,
now plastic and cloth woven in China and printed in Guatemala.

A village.

Thatching a roof.

Under a thatched roof.

Kitchen. They fed us local fish and fried plantains. Yum!

Musical instruments.

They sang traditional songs and danced for us. It was really interesting, but it felt rather strange to be watching them.

Handmade crafts.

Each family had a table of crafts. You could tell that some families specialized in certain things: masks, bracelets, wood carvings, etc.

Woman fixing a headband.

And most of us got painted tribal tattoos!

Lastly, the tribal medicine man showed us his "pharmacy", that is his forest plots of useful plants.