Embera Indigenous Group
Patricio Roca - PanamaRide.com

In the early 1980's a group of emberas from the province of darien decided on moving closer to the city, mainly for medical reasons. This first group established in the nowadays protected forests

of the upper Chagres River, a very important part of the Panama Canal watershed. These lands are simply breath-taking as their dug-out cannoe enter the river and we are surrounded by pristine tropical forests.

The embera indians inhabit the majority of the province of Darien, the last piece of amazon forest in the northern part of south america, specifically Panama.  This is one of the many ethnic groups we have still, struggling to maintain their heritage as the western cultures get closer and closer to them.

These people still have all their autoctonous beliefs, such as medicinal plants, botanical doctors and shamanistic practices in order to cure them from common illnesess in the forest, such as snake bites, headaches, rheumatism and others much more serious diseases. They are a river basin culture, they depend on water masses in order to eat,  their main source of nutrients are fresh water fish together with plantain or rice. thier language is also called embera, and it is a spoken language, passed from generation to generation, it is not a written one.  They probably have the most intricate work as far as handcrafts.  the boys start at the age of eight and by the time they are twenty five years old the carvings on wood simply seem to be made by machines.  The women weave baskets (originaly made to carry water from the river) these water tight baskets and plates are adorned with all sorts of natural colors from plants and roots, woven to make designs of tropical animals.

Everytime we take people to these areas and they share a day with the embera indians, the common denominator on the visitors is "...why worry and stress about things?..." come and witness something totally diferent from your everyday experiences, right here, two hours away from panama city.

Book a trip right now

Photos by: Jean-Philippe Soulé
Related Link:
http://www.nativeplanet.org/indigenous/embera/emberafr.htm