We visit the village of the Embera people
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We survived our first night spent sleeping underway. The swaying of the boat didn’t bother me too much but Marion has already put on the wrist bands that are supposed to help with motion sickness. We woke up offshore from the Darien Rain Forest and the village of the Embera. It was a beautiful strip of coastline shrouded in morning fog. The light broke through during breakfast but I resisted the urge to race off for the camera (but shouldn’t have).
I covered the camera gear in plastic and donned the life jacket. Six people to a zodiac and hang onto the ropes. Coming in turned out to be no problem. It was not bouncy at all and we came up right to shore. We were met by villagers in colorful outfits. The men were wearing just a piece of red fabric in front (going commando) and the women were topless but with colored necklaces. They had on very colorful wrapped skirts. We were met by the local band. They are very friendly people, very willing to have their pictures taken (part of the deal I guess).
There’s a little blond boy, who is about 2 or 3, on the trip with us. He was a major source of fascination for the village kids. They immediately surrounded him and followed him everywhere. 10-15 of them at all times. I got some great shots. They moved as a unit, wherever he went, they went. We headed from the beach into the village, which was made up of about 10-12 huts, plus a central meeting area and a cement school.
On the way we passed a couple of camouflage-wearing men carrying very nasty looking machine guns. It turns out they are state police, patrolling for terrorists/bandits from Colombia who like to hide out in the Darien forest to escape Colombian authorities. And since it’s hard to live in the forest, they tend to come in and ransack villages. Hence the protection. But Marion, who had gone on ahead, did not hear this story from our guide. All she saw was a guy in camo carrying a gun appear out of the forest, then seem to slink back in. A bit unsettling to say the least. We were never clear if the police were there to protect us tourists or if they were always there.
The village men carve native hardwoods and “vegetable ivory” (a large white nut) and the women make baskets out of “stuff” colored by some other stuff. Sorry I can’t remember. In some cases they use fruits to make dyes, in other cases shavings from the carvings that have been boiled. The basket colors are beautiful. The crew said they are some of the best made baskets in the world.
The huts are up on stilts to be out of the water (lots of rain) and to get away from the bugs. They also keep a fire burning to keep bugs away. I guess it rains most days there (it is rain forest after all) so the water can get pretty high. The river near by had changed course recently and washed out a few homes. This after 2 months of steady rain.
We wandered around and took it all in. Snapping photos every few seconds. It felt a little weird to just sort of barge in and wander around taking pictures of everything. Both the adults and the children seemed very willing to be photographed. And seemed to enjoy seeing the pictures on the back of the camera. The faces were great.
We were all brought together for an exhibition of dancing. First the little girls. The dances are based on animals — there was the butterfly dance, the snake dance and the swallow dance. Then the women, who not only danced but sang a bit. They did the jaguar dance and a few other animals. Then the “tourist dance” where they came and grabbed us and we hopped around a bit. Audrey and I got pulled out to dance, but Marion and Hugh missed out. Audrey danced with a little girl of about 5. I got one of the older women (the first time) and a girl of 14 or 15 I’d guess the second time. A little weird, especially since they’re topless, but fun.
While the dancing was going on it began raining quite hard. A very warm rain though and no one seemed to mind, except the photographers trying to keep their gear dry. After the dancing then the selling. They all brought out their baskets and carvings and spears(!) for sale. We bought a few things as did most other people. And just like that the rain stopped.
All in all it was a fascinating look into another culture. I felt like I was living inside a National Geographic article.
We headed back to the beach to return to the boat. It started raining again and things on the ocean had picked up quite a bit wave-wise. Not so much that they made us go to another spot (which they had talked about) but enough to make it interesting. The crew members and men from the village waded out to pull the zodiacs out past the initial breakers, then it was up to the driver to try to time it right so he’d go over the foam and not into a swell or have a swell crash on you.
They did pretty well. When it was our turn (Audrey, Hugh and me) we got in, with Hugh on one side and Audrey and me on the other. Audrey was in front. Within seconds of me telling her that her job was to block any waves from me (it’s the code of the sea I told her), our driver mistimed a wave. I don’t think Audrey realized it but I could tell and said “uh-oh”. She said “what?” and as she said it, we got a pretty good splash. Well she did anyway. Whether she intended to or not, she blocked it pretty well for me. The rain and water were quite warm so it wasn’t really a problem. In fact we were quite warm and it had felt great while we stood in the rain waiting for the boats. We really wanted to swim back actually. But anyway, no further water incidents. And the zodiacs are quite fun to ride in.
The boat then headed west across the Bay of Panama to our next spot, right into the setting sun. 22 hours to our next destination. We sat in the Observation Lounge (deck 3) looking out. There wasn’t too much to see except birds and listening to the “birders” on board who were quite excited about seeing a couple of species. They repeated the names over and over but now of course I can’t remember any, except of course for the boobies which for some reason stick in my mind.
But what’s interesting about the birds is how they glide along skimming the surface of the ocean. They’re very fun to watch. Marion said they look like penguins swimming underwater. And we discovered at the evening talk, that they are very closely related to penguins in DNA. So chalk one up for Marion.
Actually, chalk two up for Marion. She spotted a dolphin. I managed to see it jump a few times but couldn’t get to my camera in time to catch it. All the birders from the other side of the boat came rushing over but he never showed up again.
As I said, we were sailing into the setting sun, so all the photographers gathered in the bow to take pictures. Nothing too dramatic as it turned out but some interesting clouds and a bit of pink. We had dinner with Audrey and Hugh and the friends they met on the Alaskan cruise, Alan and Barbara. They’re a lot of fun and interesting to talk to.
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