Farsighted Fly Girl

I'm a big fan of rain forests. I love the lush terrain and the creatures that flit in the trees, lurk on the ground and splash in the water. Rain forests are synonymous with adventure and I'm always up for that. So when I learned that we had to traverse Panama's rain forest to reach the remote Embera Indian village, I was excited. Hiking and climbing through a jungle of greenery is my idea of great exercise. I've done it lots of times, in many places. Except, not typically in a maxi dress and sandals. I knew I'd have trouble when our guide gazed at my getup and shot me an incredulous stare. Not a,  "oh my, that's a pretty dress and it might get dirty look" but a "mujer, esta una probelema,"  look. I don't know what I was thinking, except that it was really, really, hot and maxi dresses are cool. Only, when rains flood areas of the rain forest that used to be dry land, and you need to walk over them, then it's not so cool.  The only...

Deep in the Panamanian rain forest, on the shores of the Chagres River, an Embera Indian Village welcomes visitors interested in learning about their centuries-old traditions. We had traveled in a hand-carved canoe,  and scaled makeshift bridges to reach the village. Before I entered into the village's circle of thatched roof huts and glimpsed the laughing children and heard the flute trills of their instruments, I knew that I wanted to connect with the Embera. After a demonstration of cooking, plant medicine and weaving techniques, I requested a traditional tattoo. A village's elder was enlisted to do the honor for me. The Embera paint their bodies with the juice of the jagua  plant. The black etchings are semi-permanent tattoos that last up to 3 weeks. The elder wiped the sunscreen off my arm and pressed sharply into my skin with the tip of a bamboo stick. He slowly created my design, scrawling the lines carefully. Each symbol has a specific meaning and I...

If the eyes are the window to the soul, then children are the mirror for the soul of a culture. Wherever I travel, observing children supplies me with more information about a place than any guidebook. The Embera are one of 7 indigenous cultures in Panama and they maintain traditional villages with raised, thatched-roof huts with no walls. Peeking out from one of the huts, I watched children play in the rain. No adult cautioned them or called them into a hut, as they squealed with the delight of feeling the raindrops splatter on their little bodies. The joy and unrestricted freedom to play and explore (We caught a few peering through a hole in the village outhouse as we took turns using rain forest facilities.) that these children expressed reveals a lot about Embera culture. They are clearly valued and encouraged to discover the world around them. Although the children only spoke their native dialect, they communicated their happiness to me very strongly.