Emberá Communities of the Chagres

The dugout rounds a bend of the Chagres and the village lifts into view: thatched roofs on stilts, children in the shallows, a musical greeting already sounding from the landing. No road reaches this bend; the river does that work, and Emberá boatmen run it like a main street.

The Emberá are one of Panama's seven recognised native peoples, and the communities of Chagres National Park host visitors on terms the communities set: the canoe, the welcome, the meal and the day's shape are all theirs. Ask and an artist will draw a tattoo in jagua, the rainforest fruit whose blue-black dye holds on the skin for ten to twelve days. The villages are also serious craft centres, selling woven baskets, carved masks, cocobolo hardwood and tagua-seed figures directly from the hands that made them, and tourism income buys the practical things village life runs on, from school supplies to outboard motors. Between the dancing and the lunch, many river days include a walk to a jungle waterfall clear enough to swim.