A Trip To Embera Drua |
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| Written by Aliza Elbert |
| Monday, 30 October 2006 17:27 |
 I was asked the other day to go with my friend Gonzalo to Visit the Embera Drua of the upper Chagres River. How could I turn this down this opportunitiy? We set off on a 45 minute trip on the Transistmica and down various small roads dirt roads until we arrived at a cul de sac at the edge of Lake Alajuela. “Are you ready for Paradise,†Gonzalo shouted enthusiastically, Steve and Fiona, who accompanied us on the trip, shouted back with a quick, “YES!†I said "Hell Yeah!" though. We got out of the car and two Embera got out from under huge a Corotu tree and walked over to us.
Julio, was painted from head to toe in juice from the jagua fruit and was wearing nothing but wide silver bracelets on both wrists and a bright blue loin cloth. The other guy in much the same way. We walked with our stuff to the waters edge. It was like a parking lot for dugout canoes. They call them Piraguas and our piragua was about 40 feet long and powered by a 40hp outboard. The Embera carve canoes like the one we rode in by hand from a single tree. The one like ours takes about a month to build. We set off in the pouring rain as our driver cut through a path in the reeds like a pro. It was evident these guys know every stretch of the river by heart. Julio stood in front of the canoe and pointed the driver in the direction where the water was deepest. Along the way we passed a couple other Embera villages. As we cruised deeper into the jungle, we saw countless white herons, cormorants and Kingfishers that dove into the water like missiles from their perches to catch small fish. The jungle did indeed feel like paradise. There was no trash anywhere and everything looked so green. There was mist everywhere. As the Chagres became more narrow, Julio had to move the piragua with a long pole because the water became too shallow. After about a half an hour into the journey, we came around a bend in the river and saw a bunch canoes parked on a huge sandbar adjacent to a cliff. Upon arrival we heard drums beating in anticipation our visit. We entered the village and were greeted by most of the men. They were playing flutes and drums made from deerskin. The music actually made me want to dance, but I knew I would look like the village idiot. The village is called Embera Drua and was founded by a man named Emilio Caisamo. He came here from Colombia to find good soil for his sons to farm on. It has a central pavilion with a basketball hoop and all of the structures are built on stilts with one staircase built out of a single tree trunk. Near the center is a white concrete school house that the Panamanian Government built. The majority of the houses are located on the hill above the village. They are open on two sides to let the breeze in. We entered the communal house to dry off from the rain and set our stuff down. A guy came over and asked me if I wanted a tattoo. I said, “of course!†The Embera use a black dye from the jagua fruit to make tattoos. The tattoos are not permanent and usually last about a week and a half. He stuck a stick in a jar filled with black ink and went to work. It took him about 15 minutes to make a beautiful symmetrical design on my arm. All of the men have tattoos like this. We sat down to enjoy a little talk about Embera culture and life from a guy named Johnson. He explained the traditional way of life for the Embera. The Embera hunt with dogs and communicate with them through grunts. Once the dogs have cornered the animal they go in for the kill. These days they mostly eat fish from the river, rice, and plantains. The women are expert basket weavers and showed us the dye they use to color the reeds they make the baskets out of. Gonzalo introduced me to a man sitting quietly with another elder in the corner of the house. His name was Elias, the village shaman. He is a man of quiet strength and is one of those people who doesn't say much, but has a very strong presence. I expressed interest in seeing his garden in the rainforest where he grows his medicine. We walked up a hill and through a creek to what just looked like forest to me. But it was his garden. Elias has plants that can cure just about anything. He showed me a plant called Oroso which is used for settling an upset stomach. They grind up the leaves and make a drink out of it. He also has plants that can help a bad back, cure prostate cancer, relieve indigestion, and sooth cuts and scrapes. He gave me a plant called Burukumia which they use as a local anesthetic for tooth aches. They rub it on the gum and the tooth. He gave me the stem to chew on and I thought to my self, “yeah right, how powerful could it be.†I chewed on it for not even 5 seconds and my whole mouth went completely numb for around five minutes. I was slobbering like a dog. It was just like getting local anesthesia at the dentist minus the shot. I was humbled to be in the presence of such a man. He knew every plant and tree in the forest. He knew if they were useful to people or not and if they were poisonous. When we returned to the village, Ganzolo and I took turns churning ice cream for the kids. They went nutso! We churned it and made vanilla ice cream for them. Later we saw some traditional dances. Behind a symphony of drums, rattles, and flutes they performed a dance which they use to protect a house from evil spirits. Most of their dances mimic animals found in the forest. The clouds broke and the sun was beating down me, so I walked down to the river to take a dip with some of the kids. The current is strong, so the little guys stayed near shore. I went out a little far and almost got swept down stream. We left the villag and headed down the Chagres to see a waterfall. We came up on a small tributary which we went up until it became too shallow. After walking along the creek we came upon a gigantic waterfall which was about the length of a bus. I jumped in the cool water and swam against the current so I could get under it. It was like a taking a shower with hundreds of gallons of water being dumped on your head every second. After the dip, Johnson told me stories about war with the cannibalistic Kuna and tales of the migration from Colombia and to Panama. Riding back to the port we saw comorants drying their feathers in the sun, a fish eagle and a toucan fly across the river. Johnson pointed out to me the villages which have the hottest women and he said he would introduce me some of them. It was evident that these people live life at a different pace. Things move slower there. Nobody had watches. Who cares about time when you live in the jungle. They smile a ton and appear happy without any of the material stuff the rest of the world has. This trip reminded me that you don´t need all the toys to be happy. It also reminded me just how much I am at peace when I am in nature. I will never forget this journey. The Panama Expat Center brought me on the trip and I gotta give them props: http://www.panamaexpat.com Trackback(0)
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