Welcome to the Darien

August 2013

The Darien is Panamá’s largest, easternmost and least developed province.  It is home to one of the world’s densest and most ecologically forests, some scientist claim that the Darien rainforest is denser and more difficult to navigate than the “deepest” sections of the Amazon.  The due to the region’s geography and biology, the Darien rainforest is the only place from the top of North America to the tip of South America where the Panamerican Highway does not connect.  In fact there is not a single drivable road that connects Panamá to Colombia. 

Due to it’s inaccessibility and history the Darien has an almost mythical reputation.  Was written about in great detail when western powers were searching for the best path to build a canal through Central America.  Numerous survey parties went to explore the area and all of them returned unsuccessfully and in horrendous condition or never returned at all. Without an incredibly experienced guide anyone venturing into the Darien is almost guaranteed to become lost and die of starvation, dehydration, jaguar attacks, snake bites, or encounters with poisonous plants and insects.  More recently the Darien has become infamous the numerous narcotráffico (drug trafficking) routes flowing through it, and at times housing FARC guerillas that are hiding in the jungle from the Colombian military (due to this there are certain regions of the Darien that Peace Corps Volunteers are prohibited from visiting).  The Darien is home to the Wu Na’an and Embera indigenous groups (including Colombia Wu Na’an and Embera people that have fled to Panamá as political refugees due to FARC guerillas operating in their communities in Colombia), Latino ranchers, Afro-Latino communities, border control police, and Peace Corps Volunteers.  The Darien is also one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, and my favorite part of Panamá!

In August of last year I had my first opportunity to visit the Darien.  I went to visit three Peace Corps volunteers that live in different Embera communities in the Embera Comarca (protected lands owned by the Embera, where Embera laws and customs hold precedence).  The Embera are one of Panamá’s three major indigenous groups, and the largest and most powerful indigenous group in the Darien.  The Embera people were able to survive through the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors and have managed to preserve their culture in an increasingly globalized and homogenized world.

Traditional Embera communities are built along rivers that serve as the primary routes of transportation and as an important source of food.  Due to the proximity to rivers and Panamá’s perpetually rainy climate, most Embera homes are built on stilts and are at least 6 ft. off the ground to protect them from flooding.  The traditional dress for women is called a Peruma, which is a skirt covered in bright neon colors and various designs.  The men traditionally wore loincloths.  Today it’s much more common to see women wearing Perumas on a daily basis than men in loin clothes.   Loin clothes are usually only wore by small children or by older men during certain celebrations.  Both men and women traditionally would be topless, which is still very common to see in Embera communities.  However when women go out of the comarca and visit Latino communities they almost always put on tops. Embera men and women in the comarca usually wear elaborate body paint on their legs, upper bodies, and faces.  This body paint is a black dye that comes from a plant called jagua.   When the dye is first applied it’s almost clear, but once it has dried for a couple hours the wearer takes a bath in the river and within minutes the dye turns to a deep black and stays that way for the next 3-7 days. 

Embera Boy Covered in Jagua Showing Off His Brother

Drying Out Perumas

The Embera are known throughout the country for their intricately woven baskets, plates, mats etc.  These products are almost always woven by women using fibers from native plants and are colored with dyes made from berries and roots found in the region.  Some of the largest Embera baskets take months to weave and can be sold for over $500 in Panamá and for over $1000 abroad.  Due to the beautiful and unique part of the world where the Embera live and their superb artisan work the comarca Embera is slowly becoming a place of interest for tourists.  During the busy season (Dec.-April) cruise ships that come to the bay near my friend’s community of La Chunga, and take tourists on smaller boats on day trips to “experience Embera culture” and buy artisan goods.  

  

I traveled to the comarca Embera from Panamá city with four Peace Corps volunteers, Kramer, Nate, Bridget and Zach.  To arrive in La Chunga, the first community where we stayed, we first took a 6 hr. bus ride to Metetí, Darien and spent the night.  The next morning we woke up at 4 am to drive to Puerto Quimba and take the 5 hr. boat ride to La Chunga.  From the edge of the river it was a twenty-minute walk to the community along a beautiful palm tree lined path through the tropical forest.

Time for Breakfast in La Palma

Stopping For Gas

Arriving in La Chunga

Relaxing in La Chunga

Cooking in Kramer's House

When arrived to Kramer’s house in La Chunga his host mom came over to greet us and inform us that we were lucky to have arrived that day because it was the school’s Coronation (anniversary).  In La Chunga the anniversary is celebrated by a few different events that are a hybrid of Embera and Latino customs.  Following Panamanian-Latino tradition the Riena y Princesas  (queen and princesses) of the elementary school were presented, but they wore traditional Embera outfits (which in my opinion are much more attractive than the typical Latina riena dresses).  The teenage and young adult males from La Chunga and five surrounding Embera and Wu-Nan communities played in a soccer tournament that was only open to indigenous players (and Peace Corps volunteers living in those communities).  In the evening a sound system was hooked-up to a generator (many of the communities in the comarca still don’t have electricity) and everyone ate, drank and danced to típico music until dawn. 

The Riena Makes Her Entrance

Nate Enjoying a Beer with the Kids After His Soccer Match

The next morning we visited Kramer’s host mom so that she could use jagua to paint Zach and I with traditional Embera designs.  I was painted with the symbol of the jaguar and Zach was covered in the condor design (I believe).  Kramer’s host mother seemed to enjoy the opportunity to pop our jagua “cherry,” and she also used it as an opportunity to teach us about the Embera traditions and language.

While in La Chunga I experienced the happiest moment as a Peace Corps volunteer.  A couple hours after receiving our jagua bodypaint we went down to the river to bath ourselves in the waterfall.  On the way there we passed a house where Lina, the 5-year-old daughter of Kramer’s friend, called out to Kramer to find out where we were headed.  Upon hearing that we were going down to the river she climbed her little jagua covered body down the ladder from her house and ran after us.  When we arrived to the waterfall Lina couldn’t stop smiling and laughing, she was so happy to have found us and have an excuse to come to the river.  She immediately showed us her favorite rock to jump into the river from.  The rock was at least 10 ft. above the level of the river, but Lina jumped off it without hesitation and than swam over to splash us.  It was in that moment that I realized how truly lucky I was to be there right then.  Very few things have ever made me feel so happy and at peace.   There I was floating under a waterfall in the middle of a tropical forest surrounded by a community that is so beautiful and drastically different from any place I had ever been before, and yet I felt so at home and accepted by everyone around me.  I realized that only as a Peace Corps volunteer in Panamá would I be able to do have that unique and profound experience. At that same moment most of my friends were staring at a computer screen in an office counting the hours until they got off work, while I was watching a beautiful little Embera girl swim in the river outside her home and be delighted by the opportunity to spend time with gringo neighbor (Kramer) and his two large pale visitors.  I don’t think I’ve felt so lucky to be alive and experiencing something as I did in the river that day.

Lina the Day Before During the School's Coronation

After spending four nights in La Chunga, Kramer, Zach and I took a 2-hour boat ride further down the river to the communities of Sambu and Puerto Indio (Indian Port).  Although Sambu and Puerto Indio are technically two different towns, in many ways they appear to be the same community.  They are most famously known as the destination that Anthony Bourdain flew into on his trip to the Darien in the Pamaná edition of No Reservations.   Puerto Indio and Sambu are two separate islands that are connected by a small bridge, and although the lives of people in both towns are interconnected there are some important differences between the two.  Sambu is an Embera community and the capital of the Embera comarca.  When we were there they were constructing buildings to host that year’s Congreso Nacional (National Congress) meetings.  Most of the structures in Sambu are built in the traditional Embera style and the residents are exclusively Embera, except for Nate the Peace Corps volunteer living there.  Sambu is the first place that I’ve ever visited that still uses stockades.  While I was in Sambu I saw two different teenagers sitting in the stockades from sunrise until sunset.  I was told by Nate that these days the stockades are usually only used for disobedient teens whose parents have asked the city council to put their child in them as a punishment.  Although use of the stockades are considered to be a civil rights abuse by certain international NGOs, their concerns haven’t gained much traction with the Embera cacique (chief) and Congreso Nacional who are in charge of the laws within the comarca.  Sambu is the hub for interactions between Embera from different communities, and is the most “metropolitan” part of the comarca.

On the other side of the bridge in the community of Puerto Indio things have a much more Afro-Caribbean influence.  The houses look similar to those that are found along the Panama’s Carribean coast, the people are physically much darker than their Embera neighbors, and Spanish is the predominant language.  Puerto Indo has a large police headquarters where many of the border patrol police in the area are stationed.  Although it is difficult for Latinos to live in Sambu or any part of the Embera comarca the residents of Porto Indo and Sambu are still intertwined in many ways.

           

Heading Out of La Chunga 

Waiting for the Boat to Sambu

Relaxing in Sambu

Border Police Boat

This Store Isn't Used to Having Customers as Tall as Zach

For the last leg of the trip we took a two-hour walk from Sambu to the community of Atalaya where Bridget, a sustainable agricultural systems Peace Corps volunteer, lives.  Of all the places that we visited on the trip to the Darien, Bridget’s community is the farthest removed, least developed, and smallest (around 80 people live there).  Everyone there was very friendly but a bit shyer than the people in the previous communities where we stayed, everyone except the kids.  As soon as Bridget’s 11 year-old host brother saw Kramer, Zach and I walking to the river he came running after us.  Before we knew it we were being accompanied to the river by a troop of 8-14 year olds.  When we arrived to the river I made the mistake of picking up on of the boys and throwing him in.  It sparked a chain reaction of Embera boys jumping on our backs so that we would throw them in the water.  For the next hour Kramer, Zach and I wrestled with around 20 kids in the river.  In the end they tired us out so much that we had to surrender. 

Walking to Bridget's Community

Preparing Lunch For Our Wrestling Partners

            In the afternoon Bridget, her host family and I went to pick zapote fruits.  The Embera family was surprised and pleased that I want to go with them and climb up the trees to pick the fruit.  However what really seemed to please them was teaching me an Embera phrase once I reached the top of the tree.  Bridget said that her host mother really wanted to hear me say “Mu cocatoe turo (I am white monkey),” so naturally I obliged her.  When they saw me covered in jagua at the top of the tree yelling “I am a white monkey, I am a white monkey,” they all exploded into laughter.  It was another one of those unique moments that you often have in the Peace Corps where cultures interact with one another in unexpected ways.  Doing something that seemed strange to both them and myself immediately created an unexplainable bond between us.  For the rest of the evening people in the community came over to Bridget’s house to ask her about the afternoon, and I frequently heard kids saying “I am a white monkey.” 

I Am a White Monkey

That evening the four of us slept in hammocks on Bridget front porch and looked out into the stars.  In the morning we got up with the sun, made breakfast, and started the 2-day trip back to Panamá City.