After spending 10 days in two quiet mountain locations, we drove to Panama City dropping off the car we had rented for the previous week, and found our next lodging, a rather quirky hostel for the next few nights. The city seemed noisy, stiffling and hot after the cool mountain air and we were thankful to have a small pool we could dip into. Our first day in the City we did our usual "hop-on/hop-off" Bus Tour in order to get a feel for the city's sights, and then explore on foot the areas which appealed. Naturally, one of the highlights was visiting the locks of theCanal, which as most people I'm sure, we found to be really intriguing. Another nice area we walked was along the city waterfront, which ended up being an 8 mile walk, and our aching legs certainly confirmed that.
Amazing Day Trip to the Embera' Village
We were picked up at 7:30 by Anne Gordon - who was an animal trainer for film & TV for over 20 years when she was hired in early 2004 to work on a film "The End of the Spear" which was shot in the jungles of Panama. The production company had contracted to use the Embera' tribe as their actors for this real life story. During the months it took to film this movie Anne became friends with many of the Embera' people and fell in love with their quality of life and how warm and open hearted they are, and as fate would have it, she is now married to one of the Embera' men from the village, so we really felt fortunate as she was the perfect guide.
Anyway, to get back to our memorable day, after picking up another couple of Americans the 5 of us drove for an hour out of the city, before climbing into a hand dug out canoe with an outboard engine for the 90 min ride up the river, we were told it would have taken a day to paddle the same distance! It was really quite a challenge for our 3 native men to navigate the river against a strong current and in places the river was so shallow it was necessary to lift the outboard engine out of the water while we all climbed out and pushed the canoe through several of these low spots. That in itself was fun, and all so peaceful, seeing turtles gathered together warming themselves on rocks, and various birds gliding overhead.
There were about 100 total, counting the many children, living in this simple village consisting of about a dozen or so round open huts on stilts, with tree bark floors, and palm frond roofing. Each 'home' had it's own open wood fire set on a sand bed, simple pots for cooking, and a few hammocks for sleeping. Access up into the hut was by a log propped against the side with wedges cut for steps, when a family were away for the day then the log was simply turned round to show the smooth side!
Clothing for the women were brightly colored lengths of cloth just wrapped around their waist, the men wore only loin cloths, and all barefoot. No drawers or closets required for clothing, only a clothes line to dry the lenghts of cloth.
The river was used for bathing and washing their 'clothing' - with downstream as the bathroom area. Everywhere was tidy and picked even though there were kids, dogs and chickens everywhere.
We were able to roam the village freely, taking photos of the children swinging on woven ropes, playing kick ball, pretending to ride a horse, which was just a stick or pulling each other on a plastic 5 gallon container cut in half, which was their 'sled'. They all had big smiles and always wanted to see the photo you had just taken on your digital camera. The women weave
beautiful hand crafted baskets, or made jewlery from various pods/ seeds/ while the men wove monkey masks or did amazing carvings of birds, turtles, hummingbirds made from wood or hard nuts.
The men would also fish (meals were not set times, and as Anne said, you could never be quite sure what you would be served, she has learned to eat many things an American would not normally consider). Much of their time was spend 'body painting' each other with elaborate designs using the juice of a special fruit. These designs only last 10 days so it was a constant upkeep.
We were introduced to an elder who was the herbalist and took us on a tour informing us, via Anne as our interpretor, of the properties of the various plants, he was a gentle, quietly spoken man.
We were given a simple but delicious lunch of cooked fish/plantains/fruit, served in large palm leaves formed into a pouch, and afterwards treated to some traditional dancing, singing and the playing of simple handmade instruments. Our return trip down river was much quicker but just as enjoyable.
It was easy to see why Anne fell in love with these warmhearted friendly people and their easy going lifestyle, and we were all a little sad when it came time to leave.
Note: The majority of this tribe lives about 300 miles further into the jungle.
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