Continuing a series of blog posts about our recent trip to Panama.
- Part 1: Panama City
- Part 2: The Cruise Begins
- Part 3: Through the Canal
- Part 4: Into the Pacific
- Part 5: Darién (this entry)
Our last two days were spent in Darién, the part of Panama that borders Colombia. This is real jungle, an area renowned for its inhospitality.[1] Fun fact that I only recently learned: the Darién Gap is not a gap that takes you through the area (a mountain pass, say); instead, the Darien area constitutes a gap in the Pan-American Highway between Central and South America. You can walk across this gap (extremely not recommended) or, more likely, go around Darién on a boat. Let us know how that goes.
However, people do live there, and our first stop was at Playa Muerto, which is a village of the Eberá people. This visit presented some additional touristical quandaries for me — were we respectfully learning about an indigenous culture, or were we gawping at something exotic? I was initially reluctant to just point my camera at our hosts and snap photos.
I discussed this with a thoughtful fellow passenger who noted that the villagers are not culturally isolated and have made their own choice about welcoming visitors. (There's an AirBnB in the village, I eventually learned.)
An Eberá girl and a puppy in Playa MuertoI will note that our Panamanian guides seemed to have long acquaintance and excellent relationships with the Eberá people, and in fact, with everyone in all the places we visited.
For example, on one of the Zodiacs, the group encountered some fishermen who'd been out on the water for many days. The guide, who knew just about everyone, talked to them about their catch. They offered to sell some fish in exchange for sodas. We didn't buy the fish, but a case of sodas was dispatched from the Quest to the fishermen's boat.
A local fisherman offering some of his catchIn the village, many folks in the group got henna-like "tattoos" that were painted with ink made from a local plant that's said to help repel insects. I have mild regret that I didn't get one of these.
One of our guides getting an Eberá tattooThis village is where the question of religion came up again. One of the guides noted that unlike most Panamanians, the locals who were religious were mostly Seventh-Day Adventists. My thought, dunno if this is right, is that someone sure had done some successful missionary work.
Then it was time for a walk in which we learned something about local flora and fauna.
One of the guides taking a photo through the telescope, with village kids looking on
What they're seeing: a batOur walk was my first opportunity to see leafcutter ants, which I was pretty excited about. (Really)
Leafcutter ants at work. They don't eat the leaves; they grow fungus on the plant material and then eat that fungus. They then tidily dump the used leaf material outside their nest.On our walk, each of us was taken by the hand by a kid from the village. My escort was an 8-year-old named Monica; Sarah's escort was a girl named Kati. I never really got whether the kids were told to help us out or they just like hanging out with the visitors. For sure it's a touch-y culture, hence perhaps the hand-holding. The kids speak Spanish, so it was possible to have halting conversation with them.
Walking through the village with an Eberá escortAt one point our guide stopped to show us coffee plants. The kids gathered handfuls of coffee berries and popped them into their mouths. Someone told me that they spit out the red husk and suck on the inner soft part, then spit out the hard seed.
Coffee berries ("cherries")The kids were barefoot the entire time, including over some rocky sections. I asked my escort whether it didn't hurt their feet to walk on the rocks? No, she said, probably wondering about these tenderfoot tourists.
River crossing during our hike. The barefoot kids were completely unbothered walking on rocks.Our last day was a stop at Punta Patiño, a nature reserve. Long ago someone had cleared this land and set up a cattle ranch, but failed to pay taxes, oops. About 40 years ago the land was ceded for back taxes and allowed to return to its natural state. Because it was once developed land, it has a park-like quality. Our naturalists once again exhibited their remarkable abilities to spot plants and animals of interest, including this time my beloved ants. :)
Punta Patiño reserveFun fact from one of our naturalists: trees in Panama don't develop tree rings in the same way that trees do in colder climates, since they don't go through the same seasonal growth spurt.
Tree at the reserve. We forgot to ask what the odd growths were.
Overlooking the reserve from the old cattle ranch HQAnd that was it. Overnight the ship returned to Panama City, we disembarked and were bussed to the airport. (Another feat of organization.) We'd gotten up at 6:30AM (3:30AM Seattle time) for an 8:00 disembarkation. At home we finally lay down at 1:30AM, so a 22-hour day for us.
Back in the USA, connecting at Houston. The journey between Seattle and Panama was looooong, but everything went smoothly.Before we got off the boat, we'd asked the staff about whether they were getting a break or whatever. Nope. We were off the boat before 9:00AM, and they were welcoming the next group of tourists at 4:00PM that day. I can see that it would be an interesting and sometimes fun job to work on one of these ships, but it definitely is work. :)
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