While anchored briefly in Colón, the finishing point of our transit of the Panamá Canal, we went on an expedition to an inland Hunaan Indian village. We have great pictures of this day, and we will be adding them as we complete our trip pictures.

Below, a cute girl from our hosting Hunaan Indian trip, in inland Panama, near Colón.

COLÓN, PANAMÁ:

After our transit thru the Canal on Friday, 4/4, we rested on Saturday, then visited a rainforest and an Indian village on Sunday. We took a colorful bus, with loud music, for an hour north of Colon, with about 25 other cruisers. The Sunday trip was announced on the VHF Ch 74 during the morning Colon cruiser's net. It was $25/person plus a $1 bus ride each way. We would find out that it was well worth it. We would visit a settlement of the Wounaan tribe 20 miles from Colón, identical in culture and customs to many other remote Wounaan and Emberá tribes, found deep into the largely uninhabited Eastern province of Darien, in Panamá. We strongly recommend this experience to cruisers visiting Colón. Currently it is scheduled for Sundays, but the schedule can change.

We all walked (not recommended except in a group, during the day) from the Panama Yacht Club to the bus stop in Colon, starting at 9am. We all crowded into one of the local, brightly-painted "chicken" buses. Our fragile ears listened to the loud, really LOUD, base notes of Caribbean rap music. Our guide, Benton, stopped the bus on the main road with nothing around. We walked about 100 yards with him and came to a river. The area was dense, tropical, lush, humid forest. There waiting along side the river were 3 dug out canoes (no kidding, real dug out canoes, very used, but really neat). The Darien Indians were only dressed in a short, skirt-like cloth, similar to Tapa, but no marking on the bark-like material. They also had large but simple-lined painted tatoos across there chests and arms. And we were off on the canoes into the jungle. They pushed 7 of us in each of these canoes using a long stick/pole. The water was cool and we could see fish. We went about a mile up river and continued to see more lush forest. The guide told us to look for monkeys but we didn't see any.

As we neared the village, we heard drums beating (we thought, wow, the war drums are beating and maybe we were lunch!). Me Tarzan, you Jane! But....as we pulled into shore, little kids came to great us. The little boys also in the Tapa-like skirts, and the little girls in cloth skirts, brightly colored with a design on the cloth, and beads around their neck. Then as we climbed the bank, a group of 25 met us. Once again, all the men in Tapa like skirt and large painted henna tatoo's. And just like the little girls, the women were in bright colored skirts with designs on the cloth, and they wore beads around their neck, and nothing else. Even the elder women of the tribe, 75 years old, was topless (not a pretty sight!). But they were all smiling, all very sweet, and all the kids were beautiful as well as the younger women. They marched us about 1/2 mile their camp. The rest of the tribe was playing their native music as we approached the village, across a lumpy clearing that had been set up as a soccer field for the young ones. Once there, we went under the largest hut, open on all sides, and thatched palm for a roof. Benton introduced us all to their chief, and the major families of the tribe. Then they had the children dance for us. Very cute, boys and girls aged 3 to 10 or 11. Then the men danced including the chief. Then they played music only for 1/2 hour. Varied instruments like drums, flutes, a turtle shell, a cow bell, and a bull's horn with carvings on it. Then as the music played, we were invited to dance with them. First by the children then the women.

After that we were escorted to another hut where they had baskets and carvings for sale. Right next to it, there was a handmade wooden device that the men turned (2 on each side) while the women put sugar cane stalks into it. Under this device, they spread 3 huge banana leaves to catch the sugar water from the sugar cane. And as they crushed it, the children scooped it up in coconut shells and gave us each a coconut bowl of sugar cane water. Really neat. They we sat down in a different hut and were served fish, coconut rice, and bananas. Very good. They gave us plastic forks but they all ate with their fingers. Then we took a hike with most of them to a waterfall, along the river for about a half mile. Some of us went swimming. Then, back to the village, into the big hut, some stories and questions, then more Indian dancing and finally we left. We shook hands and bowed. In our native Spanish, we thanked them all, on behalf of the cruisers, for letting us into their world - a world that was truly a step back in time but not necessarily a lesser lifestyle in many ways. As we were poled down river in these great canoes, we came up to a main road, with the typical road noise. We awoke from our temporary Indian world. We were back. It was a bit of a shock to re-enter civilization. What a really wonderful day!

Below, a view of the Panamá Yacht Club in Colón:

Below, Hank and Ed posing in front of the Panama Yacht Club entrance in Colón.