The Journey

“¿Sabes que va a ser difícil encontrar un taxi pa volver?”

My taxi driver warned me that it would be difficult to return on my own from where I was going. She had never been to that area before.

This was Chagres National Park, a protected area in Central Panamá which preserved a unique ecosystem that developed out of the construction of the Panamá canal.

In addition to nature, it is famous for the amount of Emberá people who live along its banks and welcome travelers. The Emberá are an indigenous people group from Panamá who mainly live in the rural jungles.

Once I got out of the taxi I expected for someone to greet me to take me upriver to a local village like I had organized but instead there were a group of younger people (like mid 20s) hanging out.

As I sat there waiting for my prearranged transit to pick me up from the dock, I got pretty suspicious that there was a miscommunication somewhere along the line.

Sure enough, as one of the men at the dock who was at some local refreshment vendor approached me and asked if I was waiting for someone so I had to explain the situation to him (after traveling through Nicaragua and Costa Rica I had become quite comfortable with Spanish). So he made a few calls and then he proposed that he could drive me in his personal raft upstream to my destination.

Without much thought I replied in the affirmative. He seemed trustworthy enough and a bunch of the local Emberá people knew him and I figured there really was no other choice.

We boarded the piragua which is the name of the hand dug canoe and embarked upriver, picking up and dropping off people living in the villages along the way.

This boat ride really was something. Far from any cell signal in the interior of Panamá with an engine that would stall at the slightest current necessitating my driver to get out and give it a push every now and then or a careful redistribution of weight.

It truly felt like I was living in a documentary like National Geographic or something.

An Unexpected Arrival

Once at the Emberá Drua village there were a few people at their dock but none expected a visitor like me so the person who drove me there explained the situation.

I showed one of the older men there my correspondence with the person who was supposed to coordinate my visit and he confirmed that the tribe were never notified but confirmed the number I had texted was legitimate.

The people at the docks went to the village with me and introduced me to the chieftess who greeted me, rang a bell and directed me to have a look around.

I walked to their small artisan market which sold handicrafts like masks, baskets and assorted jewelry and then the chieftess decided to give me a private tour around the village.

This was insane I thought to myself. I show up totally unannounced here to this tribe in the middle of the rainforest of Panamá and the chieftess of the village is giving me a private tour. Just absolutely insane—fulfilling any thought of being a modern day adventurer.

She explained the criminal code of the town, how the houses are made by drying palm leaves for the roof, showed me the school and the singular telephone that the village shared. Occasionally she would stop and in the Emberá language talk to some of the families further uphill.

Upon showing me everything she wanted, the chieftess guided me to a covered theater structure where my boat guide had settled down and a good portion of the village had assembled. She explained that usually this is the way that they usually greet guests and the village started playing music and dancing.

So now not only was the chieftess devoting the day to me but the majority of the village had come together to do this performance for me, it was truly something else.

Afterwards, lunch was served: a fried whole fish with the ubiquitous Central American side dish of patacones, fried plantains.

After eating my meal the chieftess and I began talking and she discussed that I was the first tourist in months due to the pandemic and she believes that not a single case came to the Emberá due to their personal relationship with nature. She also talked about the Emberá identity and how their farming was made illegal when the river became protected by a national park.

I think there’s an interesting conversation there about tradition and sustainability because the ecosystem of the Río Chagres is important obviously but now the Emberá can’t produce anything or sustain themselves and instead must rely on aid and the tribes in this area have pivoted to tourism. This uprooted centuries of tradition and their struggle had been further exhausted by the pandemic which cut off one of the most important revenue sources if not the only one for the villages of the Emberá around the Chagres river. She explained that I was the first tourist in weeks that her village had received. It’s always difficult to see the law of unintended consequences where well-meaning conservation laws have real impacts on real people like the Emberá of the Chagres.

To combat the extreme heat and humidity of the summer in the forests of Panamá the chieftess offered water but their small mini fridge for visitors had ran out. A soda? Nope

The solution was to offer me something more traditional. Two coconuts were knocked off a tree and the top sliced off and offered to me. That’s some good hospitality but then a ground corn drink was offered to me. I drank it and though the pulp of corn was not a pleasant texture, I appreciated it but this would come back to haunt me; let’s just say that there was unpurified water in the beverage.

My First Tattoo… Sort of

One thing that one quickly noticed about the Emberá are the distinctive tattoo markings. They are made by the jagua fruit and applied with a thin stick and last about 3 weeks.

The local tattoo artist began applying a tattoo to himself as I left and I asked him about them he offered to give me one on the arm. I was pretty anxious to have this experience and sat down next to him as he poured the ink into a water bottle cap to began applying the jagua.

The black ink was spread by a thin, flat stick along my bicep in a band pattern. It had a triangular pattern in several parts and the tattoo artist explained its significance.

It signified the turtle: not a dig at my running speed, I hope, but rather it signified some personality traits that the Emberá value. Slow and methodical thinking and inner peace are the respectable aspects of the turtle according to both my guide who was recording the whole affair on my phone.

Whenever he was done I paid for the Emberá for their hospitality (100$) and the boat driver as well (50$) despite him never asking. I was pretty generous because of how glad I was to have this opportunity especially since I almost had to cancel the day since my arrival was never properly coordinated.

Back Out of the Jungle

On the drive back, it was downstream so no stalls in the retrofitted motor applied to the piragua canoe and the cool breeze was very much welcome.

Fortunately despite my first taxis warning about getting back to Panamá there were two taxis already at the dock from dropping off Emberá from jobs and school elsewhere in Panamá. Someone else and I got in the taxi and I got dropped off at the nearest town of decent size and then another one back to Panamá City.

Now, I mentioned earlier that I think that the ground corn drink had unpurified water water in it. At midnight I woke up with the most intense stomach cramp and spent that whole morning having to deal with the outcome of food poisoning. The first time while traveling but with everything considered, definitely worth the experience. Mind you this was the day I flew out of Panamá back home but once I got to the airport the effects had largely subsided.

Update: 2023

I have now made the temporary tattoo permanent to remember the conclusion of my first solo trip and this experience in particular.

How to Visit the Emberá in Panamá for Yourself

If you want to learn how to visit an Emberá tribe for yourself, visit my page, How to Visit the Emberá for Yourself!