Embera People & The Chagres River

At the crack of dawn 06:00am which feels impossibly early these days, we were up and buzzing with excitement, as we were about to embark on an indigenous experience deep in the Panamanian jungle. This proved to be nothing short of fantastic.

After a long drive, we went gliding up the Chagres River in a motorised wooden canoe,  for a good 30 minutes, where a rocky and hilly hike awaited us, there was a good stretch of the hike that was both rocky, and some shallow riverbed.

The jungle was extremely dense and thick with humidity, but beautiful. So much untouched nature, the trek was more than worth it, as we arrived at a beautiful waterfall with crystal clear water, where we spent a good hour just enjoying swimming in the very cool water, which as you can imagine was very welcome after a jungle hike. We hiked back to the canoe which thankfully had some ice-cold drinks in a cooler waiting for us. We continued further up the river, to arrive at a very tiny village that has little more than 50 inhabitants, they are known as the Embera people. Here we were welcomed by beautiful and colourful dancing. They taught us about their lifestyle, and how their little communities are managed.

For lunch we were served a buffet of fresh fruits, plantain served in a variety of ways and fresh tilapia served in folded banana leaves as plates,

The official government leaves them pretty much to their own devices as they are an integral part of protecting the jungle and the Chagres River, which incidentally feeds the Panama Canal. The Embera people are an indigenous group found both in Panama and Colombia and they have been in these areas since centuries before European explorers, though these tribes are ever decreasing in their numbers, there is still a relatively significant number between both Panama and Colombia, that have managed to resist colonial control and to date still live their lives under their own rule including dealing with their people for crimes committed without any outside interference, this is all due to their own very effective leadership. 

We headed back down the river in our canoe for a good 40 min before we arrived back to our vehicle. It was a beautiful and satisfying day. Something I would certainly do again and would recommend to anyone going to Panama.

Now we are exhausted going to have a glass of wine and head for club duvet.