Boldly Going Where No Tourist Goes, Darien, Panama

Darien, Panama

Population : 48 378

First Discovered by Europeans in 1501, Then Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage on 1503, not much else is known about Dariens history. It is inhabited by the Embara Indians who fiercely take pride in there independence.
Daily Budget : 20 - 30 US dollar per day.
　

　

　
Everyone looks at you as if you were a mad man when you mention travelling to Darien.

Some say the Colombian drug cartels will get you, others fear of long lost tribes who still use blow dart guns protecting lost cities of gold…..

It was like a seen from Jurassic Park, I boarded a small bush plane in Panama city connecting to a town near the Colombian border. Here Roads are replaced with small water channels that barrelled out canoes rip through, and colonial houses are replaced by grass huts held up six feet of the ground because of the numerous deadly snakes who try to bunk with you.

My plane first flew over blue waters then dense jungles spotted with volcanoes all over the country side. It truly felt like going back in time. Out of the jungle what appeared to be a half dirt half concrete landing strip. The plane made some shaky noises but all was well on the decent. As we landed all the bewildered chickens scattered off the landing strip fearing for the life from the giant metal bird landing. Planes only come here…. Well sometimes come here twice a week, and the plane only holds four passengers, so its kinda a big deal when a plane lands, the whole village comes out to see. What’s even more exciting is when a foreigner gets off that plane. I was greeted by the entire village… o and also a military police who felt the need to bring there machine guns and escort me to the police station, on the way there I watched my last way back to civilization fly into the sky.

“What’s your name“, “what’s your passport“, “what’s your point in coming here“, these are the questions I think I understood from the police, only problem is I only speak half ass Spanish and so do the locals. The locals all speak a language called Embara, it sounds like Canadian Cree mixed with Chinese and the odd Spanish word. After being interrogated the police finally gave up speech and pointed at a map, every area on the map that reveal dense jungles with small towns they pointed at saying no good. Then they taught me the word, “Beeua Beuu” wich in Embara means “thank you”, and I was on my way.

I managed to find lodging in Sambu, well it was more like a villagers house who made some creaky wooden rooms on top of the first floor of his wooden box. He charged me eight US dollars a night, which included a hard bed, a fan, and a hole in the wall that spurts brown water from it, ( The Shower). I ventured into the village and attracted many people who just starred in awe at the sight of a foreigner, but when I glanced at them they all greeted me with a big smile and wave. In the hot sauna like heat of the afternoon I was enjoying a local fruit thinking I will not speak English for another week, when to my amazement two American explorers showed up in a barrelled out canoe, equipped with giant SLR cameras and travel gear to take them all the way to Colombia. There names were Paul and Joice, they were professional explorers who have been doing hard core trips around the world for the past thirty years. They hired a guide to take them up river to here, but this was there final destination. I became good friends with the two, I think because we both spoke English, and the fact I was spellbound by the stories they told me. I purposed we stick together and go further up river to where it only gets more remote, more dangerous, and of course it would piss the police off…. Done deal we were going. The next day I hired a local man for fifteen dollars to take me to what he called a “Mystical Crocodile lagoon”, that was further into the jungle. After about three hours hacking through the jungle we arrived to this lagoon. It was absolutely amazing, there were hundreds of crocodiles filling this lagoon. I have never seen anything like this before, it made no sense why there were so many crocodile, and not even my Embara guide could explain this phenomenon. Our guide showed us survival techniques of the Darien jungle afterwards, several different medicinal leaves and insects to make life less hard. We retired for the evening checking out Sambu’s bar…. Yes there is a bar but its just a hut on stilts in the river serving two kinds of booze and blasting salsa music so loud it could blow the town away. That night we met a school teacher named Marco, we quikly became his friend for he could speak English and Embara, and after a few beers he happily agreed to take us further into Darien as a guide…. Under one condition!! And that was only if he gets to practice English with us… we accepted. After a short sleep filled with many midnight bug attacks from the biggest bugs I have ever seen we awoke early to hop on the only mini bus to follow the only road in all of Sambu and probably the whole Darien province. The road went deep into the densely thick jungle and spotted farmlands to a town called Bayamon. Bayamon is inhabited by a couple hundred Embara who only speak Embara, and where the traditional grass skirts and no tops…. The men where even less, Bayamon really feels as if your reliving your Indiana Jones dreams. The Village elder greeted us and asked for a small fee of ten US dollars, after we paid he gave us a tour of his entire village, we entered homes and he showed us Embara life. Later in the evening he invited us to come again tomorrow and his son would take us further past Bayamon. We spent the last of the evening watching the town play soccer before we retired into our shack for sleep.

The next day The Elders son took us deep into the jungle towards unexplored territory. The jungle was intensely thick and noisy from the monkeys birds and strange insects. He brought us to a bright blue river for us to swim in, although it was full of tiny piranha like fish who constantly snack on your dry skin. After we arrived back to the village and I was brought into the boys mothers house. She had prepared traditional Embara body paint for me and I was getting painted in the Embara style today. The elderly women painted my chest, back and arms in all kind of designs, apparently the dye is created from the Jagua nut and it’s a natural bug repellent. In the evening we walked around the village and I noticed all the villagers creating bowls and masks out of reeds, we politely asked if we could purchase some and they agreed…. I bought a really sweet crocodile mask!!!!!!.

The following day was going to be a adventurous one. We hired a canoe to take us so close to the Colombian border you could see it. The canoe trip was amazing our small barrelled out tree found its way through the tight water channels with jungle canopy hanging over the river banks. At times we jumped out of the canoe and had to walk because the river tide was so low, scary because these waters are crocodile filled. After about four hours we arrived at a small settlement called Boca De Trampa. The village consisted of seven small grass huts and a small handful of Embara families. Marco who had tagged along explained this was the village he grew up in, he had not been here in twenty five years. Not much has changed he said. The people gathered strange animals for us to see and numerous strange types of food that only grow right here in this village. We ate a nut that tasted like an egg, and a square banana that tasted like cream pie, best of all was the Bodohol. There is no way to explain how Bodohol tastes like, but never the less… its really good, not to mention its medicinal and apparently cures everything from upset stomach to near death diseases like malaria. The best part of being here was just thinking in your mind how far out you were, as you look around you realize you’ve ventured to where only the most extreme adventurers go to. The experience is like nothing else!. The sun dropped quickly and so did we for the night.

The next day my American friends departed back to Panama, and it was me and Marco left to explore some more. Marco found me a peddle bike and we road on a dirt road towards his school where he teaches. To my surprise I was promoted to teacher for the day. It was a great experience and honour teaching the kids how to speak English. These kids devoted much hard work into there learning more than I have seen in any North American school. After a hard days work we rode our bikes to Marcos farm. Here I was promoted to farm hand. We climbed trees and gathered fruits of all kinds. Then we visited the sugar cane smelter and Marco took me too one of the best views in all of Darien from here you could see volcanoes and small settlements dotted though the jungle. Exhausted we went to Marcos parents house, and his family made us dinner, the food was great, fried plantains and some kind of deer meat only found in Darien.

 

 The next morning I packed my stuff and stood by the airstrip wondering if today was the day a plane was going to land. Sure enough after about a five hour wait a small two seated plane landed and I hitched a ride. As the plane ascended I watched the dense jungle with its snake like rivers turn into pristine blue waters then the high rise landscaped city of Panama city. This was an adventure like no other!.