Richard Detrich’s Boquete, Panama Weblog

Often we have the impression that US & Panama ties began in 1904 when the US, in need of a canal connecting the oceans, encouraged and supported Panama’s separation from Columbia and the creation of the Panamanian state. My neighbor Robert Boyd has written a very interesting article in our local weekly paper, Bajareque Times, entitled “Colombia’s Battleground: The War of 1000 Days” in which he details US involvement and intervention in the affairs of the then department of Columbia known as Panama.

After Independence from Spain in 1821, the Isthmus of Panama chose to become a department (province) of Colombia and aligned themselves with the former colonial administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (present day Colombia). In the latter half of the nineteenth century, skirmishes between the liberal party and the conservative party turned Panama into a battleground.

Between 1863 and 1886, coups d’état, rebellions, and violence were almost continuous, staged by troops of the central government, by local citizens against centrally imposed edicts, and by factions out of power. During that time, the Department of Panama experienced fifty riots and rebellions, five attempted secessions, and thirteen interventions by the United States, acting under the provisions of the Bidlack-Mallarino Treaty which had been signed in 1846 and granted the US rights to build railroads through Panama and the obligation to intervene militarily if Panama tried to secede from Colombia. During these times, Panama endured the power struggle of Colombia’s most prominent political parties “The Liberals” and the “Conservatives”. In Natá de Coclé on October 27, 1899, while the conservatives were in power, the Liberals led by future Panamanian president Bellisario Porras began their revolt to oust the Conservatives from power . . .

Panama became the battleground to see who would control Columbia proper.

The Liberal forces than took Colon and burned it to the ground at which time the US sent in the marines to protect American interests on the Panama Railroad at the request of the US Consul and the Railroad Superintendent. The US Military presence caused the Liberal forces to surrender again, and another treaty was signed on November 29, 1901, between the Liberals and the Conservatives in the presence of the commanding officer of the US Marines. On December 24, 1901, the Liberals invaded Panama for the last time, with a force of 1,500 hundred, well trained men.

With the invasion of Panama City, the Liberals learned that the Conservative government in Colombia had asked the United States, had asked for help in putting down the rebellion, so they moved the battle to Aguadulce where they soundly defeated the Conservative forces. But now with the US firmly involved in their war, the Liberals had no choice but to seek a negotiated settlement and with the Liberals in a state of turmoil over the proceedings, the Conservatives amassed a large army of veterans fighters, a force of over 5,000 men and put down the Panama rebellion, once and for all. The final blow for the Liberals was when they were defeated in the battle of Nerlandia, in Colombia, on October 28, 1902, and was advised to cease all resistance. On November 19, 1902, all sides met on board the US Battleship, Wisconsin, and a treaty was signed, ending all hostilities.

It was call The Thousand Days War. The photo is of child soldiers during the Thousand Days War in Panama

It’s 4:30AM and I am sitting here in Boquete in the living room wrapped up in a blanket . . . yes, it gets cold at night in Panama at 3,600 ft – about 61 degrees . . . writing blogs that you will be able to enjoy while I am at sea on the VOLENDAM for 19 days. (As you read this I am actually in Cartagena.)

Naturally my Internet thing is doing its usual up and down and on and off, just when I need it. I have to write these bloggy things ahead when I’m taking off on a cruise since Internet on board ship is notoriously unreliable and at 80 cents a minute . . . damn expensive of the Dam ships. What will make this trip fun is that I am traveling along with the guy who owns my Internet provider service in Boquete. I will take great glee in watching his connectivity struggles on board!

Actually Craig and his wife, Sarah Terry, are our neighbors up in Palmira where we are building our new house. I have talked Sarah into trying out the cruise lecturer thing and so for this trip both she and I are lecturing.

Sarah sailed into Panama on her sailboat in 1974 and has been here ever. Sarah got her foot in the door at the Canal working as a machinist and gradually worked her way up. She became the first woman in the US to get her Master’s license and eventually became captain of a tug boat and then became the first woman Canal pilot, and eventually one of the two Canal port captains. Her career spanned the entire turnover period and she lived through the Noriega years as well. She will have fascinating stories to share with guests on board the VOLENDAM.

Tomorrow, as we make our way through the Canal, guests on the VOLENDAM will have the best of all worlds! The usual Canal guide will be on the horn from the bridge, I’ll be wandering around deck in my wild orange and blue Hawaiian shirt answering questions, and guests in the Crow’s Nest – a cruise line first! – will have Sarah giving them a first hand Canal pilot’s view of the process. Guests in the Crow’s Nest will also be able to eavesdrop on communications between ZULU (cruise ship) S (southbound) XX (whatever number transit we are for the day) and Marine Traffic Control.

Having just returned from the third of three 10-day Southern Caribbean cruises I’m doing with Holland America on the VOLENDAM, the highlight of which is the Panama Canal, I have some observations about Panama and tourism, from a tourist’s view.  The 10-day Southern Caribbean cruise is round trip from Fort Lauderdale and visits Holland America’s magnificent Half Moon Cay (actually Little San Salvador in the Bahamas), Aruba, Curacao, Panama and Costa Rica.  It is so popular that this fall the larger ZUIDERDAM will take over the program. 

Half Moon Cay is the kind of port cruise lines and guests love: the cruise line controls everything.  It is a Disneyesque creation of the ideal beach resort with bar staff, food and bands brought off the ship.  Everything is spotless, tours and activities are controlled by the ship.  Folks love it.

People also like Aruba, not sure why, but they do.  I guess I remember when Aruba was a sleepy little island with one or two beach hotels and a few tiny, little shops with Dutch cheese and Delft.  Now it’s this huge, in my estimation kind of junky, town that screams “Just give us your money and leave!”   All the usual suspects are there - Diamonds International, Columbia Emeralds, Little Switzerland, yada yada.  I’m not a diamond shopper but bought a pair of Crocs for $40 - same shoes $35 at Miami Airport and $25 in Panama City.  Oh well.

Curacao has some of the same “Duty Free” shops but tucked away in a UNESCO village setting.  Over the years I’ve watched as many of the old Dutch buildings from slavery days have been lovingly restored and new buildings have adhered to the the same architectual style.  It’s a clean, cute, and historically significant island that is proud of its diverse heritage.   It’s an easy place to explore on foot at the Kura Hollanda museum about the slave trade is beautifully presented and a must stop.

Then we hit Panama.  The Canal is THE highlight!  At 5:30AM people are up on deck in the darkness as we enter the breakwater.  Around 6:30-7:00AM the ship enters Gatun Locks.  This is why people came and they love it!  The ship enters Gatun Lake where it disembarks about half of the passengers.  Around 800 people are tendered to shore where they board buses for various shore excursions, while the rest of the passengers choose to remain on board and return through Gatun Locks to Colon.

Observations:

• Compared to other ports of call the primary shore excursion operators seem disorganized.  The buses are definitely second rate, although certainly better than buses locals use.  The guides generally have heavy accents and speak English in rapid-fire-Spanish-style so the guests, many of whom are older, can’t understand. 
• The roads in and around Colon are hell.  The main road is filthy, under construction, and jammed with traffic.  It’s not unusual for guests to spend 1.5-2 hours on the bus each way to see anything.  Incredibly bus drivers sometimes don’t know where they are going or take what they consider short cuts over incredibly bumpy roads.  The impression many guests have when they come back to the ship is how filthy Panama is, with all the garbage and trash along the Colon area roads.
• Coming back to meet the ship in Colon, either at Cristobal Pier or Colon 2000, they drive through some of the most impoverished parts of Colon.  They have already been warned that it is not safe for them to leave the port areas in Colon.  They see what is perceived to be a third world city. 
• Colon 2000, which Holland America usually uses, is a laugh.  Presumably a project of Carnival, it consists of a few second rate shops and lots of empty store fronts.  The high spot is a Super 99 supermarket.  Cristobal is an old pier that has nicely been redone with shops and a few eating and drinking spots.  The high point is a huge selection of Kuna and Embera crafts being sold by Indians themselves.

Then comes Costa Rica which, aside from the Canal itself, is the highlight for most cruise passengers.  The shore ex people love Costa Rica because Costa Rica gets tourism!  Now I grant you, tourism is the primary business of Costa Rica, while in Panama it’s just a tiny blip on the radar.  The tourist infrastructure is well-developed with clean, modern attractions designed to meet the needs of tourists including the newest buses with PA systems that actually work, educated and licensed guides that are knowledgeable and speak understandable English, and little things tourists like such as bathrooms.  The Costa Rican roads, at least around Puerto Limon - not to be confused with roads in the rest of the country - are new and smooth, and the roadways are clean and not strewn with trash.  (Don’t underestimate the importance of “clean” with American tourists.  It doesn’t have to be wealthy, just clean.  Cleanliness is equated with personal and national pride.)

So when the ship sails from Costa Rica, and guests talk about returning indepenently, guess which country they talk about coming back to visit in depth?  Costa Rica of course!  Panama is a fond memory of the Canal itself, but when they talk about the rest of what they’ve seen in Panama it is about the filth and the horrible road to Colon.  Never mind that Colon is in many ways the “armpit” of Panama and that most of the country is much, much different.  All the negatives about Colon are what is the lasting impression.

Today is Canal Day on board the VOLENDAM!  This is what folks have come to see, so this morning, before the sun is even up, the decks will start to be crowded with guests, all eager to experience passing through Gatun Locks.  Coffee and “Panama Rolls” [a Holland America concoction I have yet to actually find in Panama] are being served up on deck.  As the sun rises and we move into position to enter Gatun Locks people are snapping pictures like crazy.  For many of these folks this is a dream come true and the trip of a lifetime.  For others, it is just another of a long series of cruises.  For me, it is fun!

You see a lot of gray hair.  Years ago, when I started going on ships, it was blue hair, now it’s gray or dyed.  We used to be the “young people” on board: now we fit right in!

The VOLENDAM does a 10-day itinerary round trip from Fort Lauderdale.  It passes through Gatun Locks early in the morning, circles around Gatun Lake for a while, and then returns through Gatun Locks to tie up at the port in Colon for a few hours.  Guests wishing to go ashore and take shore excursions disembark the ship by tender in Gatun Lake and then return to the ship in Colon.

One of the shore excursions that is offered is the trip to Portobelo.

Founded in 1597, Portobelo was the center for silver and gold exportation from the New World to Spain from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Today at Portobelo you can see the remains of the Spanish forts that were built to protect the city and a restored Customs House through which passed much of the gold and silver bound for Spain.

The forts were less than successful. In 1668 the English privateer Captain Henry captured and plundered the city stripping it of nearly all its wealth. From Portobelo Morgan marched across the isthmus to plunder Panama City. In 1739 a rebuilt Portobelo was once again attacked and captured by a British fleet.

Today Portobelo is a UNESCO heritage site. The town itself is a poor area, but steeped in history. Famous for its statue of the Black Christ, the tiny town is overwhelmed with tens of thousands of pilgrims every October 21st. The statue of the Black Christ was carved in Spain, but how it got to Portobelo is shrouded in mystery and legend. One is that a ship was carrying the statue in a wooden crate. The ship attempted to leave the harbor five times, but every time a storm arose that prevented the ship from leaving.  On the final attempt to lessen the weight and save their lives they through the statue overboard.  Fishermen rescued the statue and gave it a place of honor in their little church.

Another story is that the statue was originally destined for the island of Tobaga, but was mislabeled and ended up in Portobelo.  Attempts to resend the statue failed, and so the people of Portobelo, who suspecting the statue had magical powers, just kept it.

An interesting footnote, when Sir Francis Drake died at sea of dysentery in 1596, he was buried in a lead coffin off Portobelo bay.

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Magical words on a Canal cruise!  This is it: the reason why people book a cruise that includes the Panama Canal.

It’s still dark as people begin arriving on deck.  They want to see the entire process from the moment the pilots come on board.  The VOLENDAM serves coffee on deck and “Panama Rolls”, something which I’ve never been able to find in Panama but are never-the-less delicious with their lemon filling.  People are jockeying for space to capture the best shot.  As the sun comes up everyone is up on deck and we are entering into Gatun Locks. 

There is no one best place on board from which to view the process.  My best advice is to move around the ship so you get all the perspectives.  People are always asking on Cruise Critic which side of the ship is the best side to book a balcony stateroom.  My answer: why would you want to stay on your balcony?  Move around and get the total experience.  If you are on the promenade deck for example you can almost reach out and touch the sides of the Canal or tell if the driver of the engine or “mule” had garlic for breakfast!

The ship will cruise around Gatun Lake and then when the Canal authority can squeeze it in the schedule return through Gatun Locks to dock in Colon (somewhat like the “armpit” of Panama in terms of ambiance - sorry, Colon).  About half of the passengers will disembark the ship in Gatun Lake to take advantage of the opportunity to see some part of Panama.  Of those who remain, few will show much interest in the locking process on the return.  Those who were jockeying for the best spot in the morning will be jockeying for position in the buffet line!

My advice: take a shore excursion!  It is a unique opportunity to see a small slice of life in Panama.  And I always recommend that folks, if possible, take the Embera Village tour, but be forewarned, there are two villages.  One is best described as an “Embera Experience” that gives you a taste of Embera culture in a village created to cater to tourists.  The other, and the one I recommend, goes to the authentic Embera village on Rio San Juan de Pequini.  It is an experience out of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and well worth the hour long boat ride.  [If the tour is billed as having an hour plus long boat ride it probably goes to the authentic village, but ask . . . not that the shore excursion folks will know the difference, but . . .]

Embera “demonstration” village: someone has determined that bare male buttocks and female breasts are not tourist appropriate.

Authentic Embera village at Rio San Juan de Pequini.

Well, actually three, but the title looked better saying two!

Cruise ships calling on the Caribbean side of Panama use two different ports: Cristobal and Colon.

Usually the ships that use these ports are the 10-day “turn-around” cruises that sail round-trip from Fort Lauderdale, enter the Canal through Gatun Locks, disembark passengers at Gatun Lake for shore excursions, then stop for a few hours in either Cristobal or Colon to pick up shore excursion passengers and be on their way.   Some ships that are either too big for the Canal or are just making a port of call stop in Panama, also use Cristobal or Colon.   And there are some ships doing a west to east Canal transit who will occasionally stop at Cristobal or Colon, usually to pick up shore excursion passengers, and occasionally for a full day to allow passengers opportunity to see some of Panama.

Amador is on the other side of the Canal, the Pacific or Panama City side, and sits at the end of the Amador Causeway.  The Causeway was formed by dirt dug out to create the Canal and links together a number of small islands.   Amador is used much the same way on the Pacific side as Colon and Cristobal are used on the Caribbean side.

OK, the ports themselves.

Amador- A work in progress.  Amador was once a US fort before the Canal turnover and it is only gradually being developed . . . but being developed it is!  The new Museum of Biodiversity designed by Frank Gehry is under construction, as are lots of condominium developments.  Since the turnover the causeway has been a popular spot for jogging, bike riding, walking and just sitting and enjoying incredible views of the Panama City skyline in one direction, and ships passing through the Canal in the other direction.  Ships calling at Amador anchor out and need to use a tender to take guests ashore which is always somewhat of a pain.  Eventually there will be docking facilities for large cruise ships.  There are restaurants, clubs, bars, and marinas on Amador.  And you can get cabs to take you the short ride into Panama City. 

I predict that Amador will expand as cruise interest in Panama increases and more ships decide to use Panama as a home port for their vessels avoiding all the hassle of US immigration and “Homeland Security”.  [Changing the name of our country to the "Homeland" still bothers me with its Fascist overtones.]

Of the three Panama ports Amador would be my first choice.  It’s close to Panama City,  you can walk safely in the area around the port, cabs are readily available, and, because of freeways it is a much more pleasant drive to some of the other attractions, like the Embera Village tour and ecological tours to say nothing of tours of Panama City. 

Colon - Well it was a good idea, and it is a nice facility, it’s just that this being Panama (where folks are notorious for going into business without well-developed business plans) there are lots of empty spaces for shops and eateries.  It is in the center of Colon, but Colon is kind of the “armpit” of Panama - sorry Colon, but you know it’s true!  It is the major business center and the Colon Free Port is the center for distribution of goods around the world, and is growing at a remarkable rate.  It’s just not a touristy place.  “Free Port” should not be confused with “Duty Free Shopping” - the Free Port is where buyers come from around the world to buy wholesale goods.  Frankly, I would not advise walking outside of the Colon Port area.  First, there is nothing to see.  Second, even Panamanians are very cautious in Colon.  There is . . . drum roll please . . . a Super 99 right in the port complex.  What is Super 99?  One of our major grocery chains.  So you can walk from your ship and stock up on Coke (50 cents a can vs $2.25 on the ship!), Doritos, Chilean and South African wines cheap  and local beer (if your ship is one of those that allows you to bring wine and beer on board) and even Panamanian rum.  At Super 99 a liter will run your about $5.95 but you can buy the same bottle at the “Duty Free” shop before you get on the ship for $8.95 - go figure!  ["Duty Free" sometimes translates "Tourists Don't Think". ]  Of course your ship will probably confiscate the rum until you disembark which of course is “for your safety” and has nothing whatsoever to do with forcing you to buy overpriced drinks on board.  But $5.95 for a liter of Abuelo aged rum . . . it’s worth taking back to Fargo!

Yes, you will find some tourist-type shopping including “Made In Equador” so-called Panama hats.   And despite how an Elton-John-impersonator “shopping guide” gushed, there really isn’t much to buy. 

Cristobal - I prefer Cristobal to Colon.  They are really close to one another, both in the Colon area.  This is an old dock wharf nicely converted into a little tourist shopping area.  It feels Kokomo-cruisy.   There are places to enjoy local beer (Atlas, Balboa and Soberana), get hammered on local rum with only a few feet to the gangway, places to sample Panamanian food (chicken, rice, beans, bananas or for variety rice, beans, chicken bananas), and tourist-style shopping.  The big plus here is that there are lots of Indian vendors!  Kuna Indians selling beautiful molas.  Wounan and Embera selling baskets, tagua nut carvings and cocobolo wood carvings.  There is usually an Embera group who do traditional dances to entertain in a little “food court” type area.  Again, stay in the port facility.  There’s nothing to see outside and Colon isn’t a place for ship tourists to wander around.

And, don’t judge all of Panama by the areas you will see around the ports!  Just like you wouldn’t judge Southern California by what you see around the Port of Los Angeles, or Fort Lauderdale by the area around Port Everglades.  But you knew that.

There are three places in Panama to get a good view of ships actually in the Canal locks.  The Visitor Center at Miraflores Locks gives a spectacular view of the lock process and has a nice museum.  It’s close to Panama City as well.  There is also a visitors observation deck at the Gatun Locks near to Colon.  Just off the road to Colon there is a place you can pull off the road by Pedro Miquel Lock and get a good view of ships in the locks, for free.  If you’re going, it pays to check with the Panama Canal first to see when ships are actually in the locks.  There really isn’t much to see if ships aren’t actually in the locks, so check first.

The best way, of course, to see the Canal is to take a cruise! There are primarily two types of Canal cruises. The “turn around” cruise goes round trip from Fort Lauderdale and usually is 10 days. You see a couple of Caribbean ports and then sail through Gatun Locks on the Caribbean side into Gatun Lake, turn around in Gatun Lake, and sail back out into the Caribbean. This gives you much of the Canal experience and gives the opportunity to go ashore in Panama and take shore excursions.

The other way is a full Canal transit, usually a repositioning cruise, that goes from sea to sea. In the spring and fall the cruise lines are moving ships between the Caribbean and Alaska and offer these repositioning cruises that are generally 16 days or more and go between Florida and the West Coast. On these cruises you get to experience the entire Canal but generally just go barrelling through Panama without opportunity to go ashore.

Approaching Gatun Locks with all hands on deck.

Entering Gatun Locks.

Electric locomotives or “Mules” keep the ship centered in the locks.

Great lectures by the Exploration Lecturer have familiarized guests with the history of the Canal and what to expect.

With passengers eating all those deserts the ship has expanded and it’s a tight sqeeze!

The walls of the lock are just inches away!

Returning through the locks . . . If you’re on a 10-day “turn around” cruise, this is the best reason to get off the ship in Gatun Lake and see Panama!

We visited their home . . . .

 
So we thought they should visit our home!

My adventure in Panama began on a cruise through the Panama Canal.  At a stop in Gatun Lake I met Erito and his brothers, Embera Indians who had come to Gatun Lake to sell crafts and pose for pictures with passengers for the ship’s photographer.  Five hours and lots of beer later, we were all fast friends and I promised to visit their village.  I went back to California and started researching the Embera on line and in the process discovered all the benefits Panama offers retirees!  I not only ended up spending the night at their home deep in the Chagres jungle, but retiring to Panama!

Erito is the chief of the Embera Puru village at San Juan de Pequini. Since we had visited them in their home, we invited Erito and Sulaka to visit our home and much to my surprise they accepted!  We spent a wonderful five days together in Valle Escondido in Boquete.  As I explained to Erito our way of life is, “Different, not better.”  This was the first time they had ever crossed the Bridge of the Americas or seen most of their country.  Erito is the chief or “jefe” or “number one” man in his village and Zulaka is the teacher.  They are both intelligent and articulate people who have made a choice to preserve a culture and a lifestyle. 

Erito is patient with my tenuous attempts at Spanish and somehow we manage to communicate  . . . generally quite well.  Our wide ranging discussions included Shamanism, baptism (they are Catholic but in Embera tradition not baptized), spiritualism, world geography, healing arts (Erito is the doctor for the village), and the role of a community like the tiny Embera pueblo at Rio San Juan in our modern day world.  Interestingly people from all over the world (US, Canada, Europe, Australia, Asia) beat a path to visit Erito’s village and hear his wisdom. Very interesting!

Since that first visit, Erito and Zulaka have visited us several times.  The last time Erito spoke to the “Tuesday Morning Meeting” of mainly gringos at the Panamonte Hotel.  The response was enthusiastic with several people proclaiming him the “best speaker” we’ve ever had!

We have had lots of adventures!  These people don’t have hot water, so getting Erito into my hot tub was quite an adventure!  Boquete is a lot colder than the jungles of Chagres, and these people kept complaining they were freezing at night.  Before long they had every blanket in the house and they were still cold.  Finally we discovered the problem, and explained that you need to sleep under the blankets not on top of them. 

All of the Embera crafts on this page were created by members of the Embera Puru village at Rio San Juan de Pequini in Chagres National Park.  Most of the baskets shown were created by Zuelaka Barrigon (left), and the carvings were  by members of her family.

The Embera take great pride in their handiwork.  Baskets are woven from natural palm fibers and colored using natural dies.  Wood carvings are carved from cocobolo, a rare and extremely hard wood.  Tagua nut carvings are carved from the tagua nut (uncarved, lower left of the photo) and for permanence of necessity use regular paint for coloring.

Sale of craft items is a primary source of revenue for the San Juan de Pequini Embera Puru pueblo.  Cruise passengers can purchase Embera craft items on shore excursions to the authentic Embera Puru at Rio San Juan de Pequini or at the “demonstration” Embera village. Members of the Embera Puru often offer their crafts for sale at the Christobal Pier. In Panama City at Old Panama there is a craft market with items for sale by the Embera, Wounan and Kuna.

No trip to Panama is complete without the adventure of visiting the Embera Puru village at San Juan! It amazes me that most Panamanians have not made this trip and know nothing about this group of indigenous people who live very much the way they did when Columbus arrived.  They are intelligent and articulate people who are struggling to preserve a way of life that is threatened on all sides.

Civilization has encroached again and again on the Embera.  The Embera are closely related to the Wounaan, but with different languages.  In all of Panama some estimate that there are less than 30,000 remaining.  The folks of the Embera Puru  live in the Chagres National Park.  Great, we’re all for national parks, but the Embera have had to pay the cost of the creation of the park.  Since 1984, these Emberá have had to abandon agriculture as a way of eking out an existence due to park regulations.  They were virtually starving when they turned to tourism as a form of communal income.  The Embera Puru community of San Juan, with only 123 people, is the least touristy of the Embera villages, probably because it is a little more difficult to reach, but these are wonderful people, warm, hospitable and anxious to share.  It is well worth a visit!

Passengers on cruise ships stopping in Panama often have the opportunity of visiting an Embera village. But, be aware, there are two villages often used. One is best described as a “demonstration” village, or what I would refer to as an “Embera Experience”. This village was created to give cruise passengers a taste of Embera life. Yes, people live there, but the village was created as a tourist attraction and during the cruise season will have visitors 4 or 5 days a week. It’s a couple hour bus ride from the ship and then a 5 to 10 minute boat ride by dug out canoe to the village.

The other village, at San Juan de Pequini is also a long bus ride, but then an hour ride by dug out canoe. This is an authentic Embera village that may see 2 or 3 groups of visitors a month. Shore excursion staff on board ships often don’t know the difference. The way to determine which village they are using is to ask questions about the length of the dug out canoe ride. 15 minutes or so - its the demonstration village.

I recommend visiting the real thing!

You can also make the journey yourself.  From Panama City you take the road to Colon, outside the city past where Corridor Norte intersects the road to Colon, you turn off to the tiny village of Nuevo Vigia, on Lago Alajue or Madden Lake.  From here you take a dug out canoe across the lake and up the river for a spectacular 1.5 hour trip.  On our most recent trip we saw amazing birds, turtles, even a monkey and a huge alligator! 

Anne Barrigon [http://www.emberavillagetours.com/] does conduct independent tours to the authentic Embera Indian village at Rio San Juan de Pequini. You can contact Anne directly for information. Hers is an interesting story. In 1956 five missionaries were killed in Equador and their story was immortalized in a book written by the wife of one of the martyred missionaries called, “THROUGH GATES OF SPENDOR.” In 2004 a Christian movie company decided to make a movie about that story and used the Embera village of Rio San Juan de Pequini as a setting for filming, using the Embera to play the role of the Ecuadorian Indians. The movie was eventually released in 2006 as “THE END OF THE SPEAR.”   Anne Barrigon worked on the film . . . and ended up falling in love with and later marrying one of the Embera men.

And and her husband live in Panama City and she conducts tours to the village.  Prices depend on the number of participants, but for 6 to 8 people run around $75-80 per person. 

I recommend getting to Nuevo Vigia about 9:00am which will put you back about 4:00pm.  The Embera have spectacular baskets and carvings that they offer for sale at the village.  Tourist  money is pooled and this is the only way the Embera can survive since the park does not allow them to grow food.  You will be amazed to learn of the many plants the Embera use for natural healing and to hear the stories of modern pharmaceutical companies who have visited to learn the secrets of jungle plants.