Living like National Geographic

Panama City .... The Embera people

We arrived in Panama City the afternoon of Monday, January 28th, after spending all day coming through the canal.  On Tuesday, we tendered over from the ship to Panama City.  Today was another day of stark contrasts.  The skyline of Panama City is big, shiny and modern.  Think the Jetsons!  We overheard one guy say that it was "the best city drug money can buy!"  We didn't see anymore of it than the skyline as we had an adventure in the Rain Forest.

We boarded a bus that took an hour and a half back into the tropical rain forest.  Our tour guide was "Escobar."  The native people we visited called him "Heet" which means "excitement."  He was exciting, and very patient, and very informative about these original Americans.  

The Embera are thought to be the first settlers to the Americas (North and South).  Their village is a 25 minute boat ride (dug out canoe powered by Suzuki).  Each canoe held about 14 people or so.  Long, skinny canoe (hand made).  The Embera men drove our boats down the river to where the happiest, most beautiful people greeted us with music played on drums and flutes. The women and children had on colorful skirts (and no tops) and flower wreaths in their hair.  The men were in loincloths of bright colors.  Each one had something like tattoos on their skin.  As it turns out, the ink from natural seeds, lasts for two or three weeks.  They re-apply them pretty quickly as the ink also serves as sunscreen, bug repellant, and decoration!   

There are about 120 people in the village from 2 months old to 85.  They did a demonstration of how they made the various items they sold. There was an interpreter who helped us to understand how each one was made from natural and organic items ... like trees, bamboo, grasses, dyes, etc.  Each table represented/supported one family.  We bought a beautiful hand carved turtle from one family, a bracelet from another, and a basket from a third. 

They live in elevated bamboo huts - elevated because it rains 9 months of the year in the "rain forest".  We may have been one of the last tours of the season as the river was very low.  Our canoe got stuck once.  Americans on cruise ship are not the fittest bunch.

  

They served us lunch of fried fish and fried plantains in a banana leaf envelope like dish.  Very tasty!  Fish was incredibly delicious!  We watched the women in the "cooking hut" - it looked just like the kitchen women at home at church.  At this point, I have to give a SHOUT OUT to the Trinity Kitchen Ladies!  And seeing how there was fried fish, here's a shout out to Charles and all of the Trinity fish fry gang! The food was "hot, brown and plenty of it", as Dolly said in Steel Magnolias!  

At the end of the day, the people did some traditional dances.  As we left, the women and children gave the ladies in our group their flower wreaths, and they helped us all into our life jackets.  The kids were in a hurry for us to leave as they wanted to go swimming!  It's hot and humid in the rain forest.

In summary, we felt like we were walking through a National Geographic magazine.  Very surreal, very privileged, and very blessed to have witnessed such a lovely group of people.  It is difficult to believe that it's 2019.  Prayers for the wonderful people of Embera!