Edi and I left Panama City shortly after seven o'clock in the morning. Edi is my niece's husband. This was our second trip to the Darien together.
Edi's family has been tied to the Darien for generations. After Panama gained its independence, his great-grandfather played a key role in establishing Darien as a province. His father (now deceased) represented Darien Province in the Panama legislature. Although raised in Panama City, Edi spent a good amount of his childhood on the family farm in the Darien. Back then travel to Panama City was by a rough dirt road. Edi remembers Choco women in the small towns along the road dressed in the traditional manner, meaning they wore only a skirt. Road conditions improved over the years, and a few years ago the road from Panama City to Yaviza was completely paved. With the road improvement came modernity. Today one must go far off the roads to reach the traditional Choco villages.
On our first trip, Edi and I went to Yaviza, where the road ends, and then traveled by piragua to two traditional villages. Now travel beyond Yaviza by outsiders is prohibited. The Panamanian military, SENAFRONT, prohibits it.
Panama technically has no military, but its border security force, Servicio Nacional de Fronteras, or SENAFRONT, performs military duties, hence I refer to SENAFRONT as Panama's military. The United States military provides SENAFRONT some equipment and training.
SENAFRONT has a major presence in the Darien because Panama has decided it will no longer tolerate incursions by Colombian FARC guerrillas. The Darien is still a very wild place, some areas not yet even mapped, and FARC guerrillas would cross into Panama for a respite from fighting or to get supplies. Panama turned a blind eye to this until it saw that things were getting out of control. The guerrillas were running drugs and illegal immigrants (including Middle Easteners) through Panama, and they were getting the Indians in remote villages to help them. Those who refused to help were threatened or killed. Panama created SENAFRONT and sent in the troops. Meanwhile, Colombia has stepped up its military activities. The United States has provided assistance to both countries.
The pressure is on and FARC is hurting bad. Hopefully in a few years we can again travel beyond Yaviza.
Two years ago we passed through two military checkpoints between Agua Fria and Yaviza. This time there were five. Last time I could engage in conversation with the troops, and get their photographs, while they examined my passport and wrote down my information. This time their bearing was very official, and after my first request for a photo was denied, I decided to ask no more. As in the first trip, we were asked our purpose for visiting Yaviza, but this time we were told we could not go beyond Yaviza.
The SENAFRONT troops did not object to me taking photos of their posters.
 |
| SENAFRONT poster at the Meteti checkpoint |
 |
| SENAFRONT poster in Yaviza |
 |
The same FARC wanted poster we saw in Yaviza in 2010, only the Colombian
military had since killed the terrorist on the left, near the Panama border |
At Meteti we traveled the side road to Puerto Quimba, where we took a boat to two islands in the Gulf of San Miguel with ruins of 18th Century Spanish forts. These forts were part of a defense network to protect against English and French attacks. Spain had gold mines up the Rio Tuira and elsewhere and it shipped the gold to Panama City. The forts on the two islands we visited covered the approach to Rio Tuira.
Before leaving Puerto Quimba, we had to process through the SENAFRONT office by the dock. After leaving the inlet and entering the Gulf proper, we had to pull alongside a SENAFRONT boat and show our identification.
Somewhere here in the Gulf of San Miguel, the Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa first stepped foot in the waters of the Pacific Ocean, called by him the South Sea, and he claimed possession of all the lands it touched for the king and queen of Spain. In his honor we drank Balboa beer.
 |
| Balboa beer |
The first stop was Isla Boca Grande. A sign at the landing gave the fort's name as San Lorenzo, but I don't know if that is correct. It was a typical hot and humid Panama day, and with the steep climb combined with my out of shape leg muscles, I was breathing hard when we reached the summit and the fort. We poked around the ruins. Trees blocked sight of the ocean, but back in the day the Spanish had a 360 degree view. There were numerous small gun ports and some larger openings where the cannon were positioned. One of the two towers had collapsed, and a large tree grew within what remained of the other tower.
 |
| Ruins of the Spanish fort atop Isla Boca Grande |
Our next stop was Isla El Encanto. The climb to the top was steeper. The ruins were smaller. We had a view south to the ocean.
 |
| Ruins of the Spanish fort atop Isla El Encanto |
This website, in Spanish, provides a history of the two forts we visited.
After stopping at the provincial capital of La Palma to pay for the boat trip, we headed to Puerto Quimba. We encountered a heavy rainstorm and I had to cover myself with a tarp to keep my video equipment dry. We met the SENAFRONT boat. The troops recognized us and waved us on without checking our documents. We reached the dock and I tipped our two guides. We again provided our identification to the SENAFRONT troops by the dock, and then continued our journey to Yaviza.
A light rain was falling when we reached Yaviza. We arrived at the house of our host, an elderly gentleman who had been a good friend of Edi's father. He was a prominent member of the Yaviza community, having lived there almost his entire life. It was he who secured the piragua for our 2010 river journey and introduced us in the villages.
We visited with our host for some time, and then we took a walk. We crossed the footbridge over the Rio Chucunaque. We passed numerous Chocoes. The women of this tribe are easily recognized by their colorful skirts. The Choco extend from Panama to Colombia, and are linguistically divided between the Embera and Wounaan. It is polite to ask upon a first meeting if the Choco person is Embera or Wounaan, but to later mix up the distinction is a faux pas.
We returned to our host's house and went together to a restaurant for dinner. Back at the house we talked a while more, and then watched CNN en Espanol. Many residences here have satellite dishes for television reception, and the citizens talk by cell phone to their relatives and friends in the distant villages. The Darien is connected to the world.
It had been a long day and we all turned in at the same time. I took my malaria pill. I had my own room, one of the best in town. There was no air conditioning and I doubt that any house in Yaviza has air conditioning. Sleep did not come quickly. My face was sticky from sweat. It was uncomfortably warm and humid. I heard salsa music, likely from the bar down the street, outside which a prostitute had propositioned us on our earlier walk.
 |
| Morning in Yaviza |
I awoke to the sound of roosters crowing. It was still uncomfortably warm and humid. Our host was already awake. Edi soon joined us.
Nearby were the ruins of Fort San Geronimo, which was built as part of the defense network of which I wrote earlier. Erosion by the Rio Chucunaque has claimed part of the fort. While I took videos of the stone walls, three piraguas with SENAFRONT troops passed by. With all the gear on board I figured they were going off for an extended time.
 |
| Ruins of Fort San Geronimo |
Edi and I went for an early morning walk. People were now out and about. We crossed the footbridge over the river. At the opposite bank, close by the bridge, where stairs carved into limestone went down to the river, a Choco woman was bathing herself. She was in the river up to her stomach. Upon seeing us approach, and recognizing us as outsiders, she protected her modesty by covering herself with her hands. But we did not stare at her and I kept my video camera at my side, and she dropped her hands and continued bathing.
 |
| Views from the bridge |
We stopped at the house where two years earlier I had taken the video I titled
Yaviza Monkey. We met the house owner and he told us the fate of this unfortunate primate. The monkey's visits into town for free food had cost it its freedom - one day a resident captured it and placed it in a cage. The house owner pointed up the hill to where we could see the monkey.
 |
| The monkey, no longer wild |
We reached the hospital, named for Dr. Manuel A. Nieto. On an evening visit two years ago, we roamed the virtually empty halls at will. Conditions were spare back then. The pharmacy's drugs were stored on shelves behind a small counter, and with nobody around we could have taken any of them. There were odd looking tropical insects attracted to the fluorescent ceiling lights, and small lizards in search of insects to eat clung to the walls. But since then the hospital had been extensively renovated under the auspices of the 410th Contracting Support Brigade of the United States Southern Command, as told on a large sign outside. SENAFRONT troops on duty denied our request to enter.
One SENAFRONT troop did tell us that US Army medical personnel sometimes arrived to treat patients. The overt involvement of the US military in the improvement of the hospital and in the treatment of the Darien population is undoubtedly part of a strategy to win the hearts and minds of the people and lessen support for the FARC guerrillas.
 |
| Yaviza hospital |
 |
| Sign outside the Yaviza hospital |
Continuing on the main concrete footpath through this neighborhood, we reached a sign about a nature trail, located somewhere uphill in the jungle beyond the houses. We walked up the hill. After a short distance, we asked a Choco woman sitting on her porch about the trail. It turned out she had built the trail, and a small lodging, on her land, with the idea of drawing eco-tourists. She encouraged us to continue on. Her son, about age eight, accompanied us, meaning we now had a guide. The woman followed. Soon we were all atop a small hill, where a small one room dwelling with a thatch roof sat on a concrete slab foundation. The woman (I forgot to ask, but I bet she was Embera) said that this was her land and she intended to keep the jungle untouched save for the trails and lodgings. This was the first lodging. It needed more work outside, and the inside was virtually empty. She wanted to draw eco-tourists - bird watchers and the like. I think once the FARC situation is dealt with, Yaviza will open up and she will be in business. I wish her success. Before we left, we tipped our young guide.
 |
| Choco woman at her fledgling business project |
We crossed the bridge and returned to our host's house, but a neighbor told us he had left on an errand. We then went to get breakfast. I sort of stick out in Yaviza, and near the town dock, the driver of a SENAFRONT truck stopped us and asked what we were doing in Yaviza. Edi replied that he was visiting a family friend. He explained who I was. The troop told us we were not allowed beyond Yaviza. He drove on.
We stopped at the dock. SENAFRONT troops were there. I bet troops are always on duty there.
 |
| SENAFRONT troop at the Yaviza dock |
 |
FARC wanted poster at the Yaviza dock,
a bit faded from 2010 |
We stayed a bit to watch the activity at the dock. Poultry and produce were being unloaded from trucks and carried to the many piraguas. Passengers were waiting to board. Although the river is wide, it is very shallow, and we watched two women use long poles to move their piragua from the opposite shore to the dock.
 |
| The Yaviza dock |
Breakfast consisted of a slice of boiled beef smothered in gravy, a fried slab of dough, and a thick fried tortilla made of ground corn. The cost was $1.50 and the meal was pretty good. We brought our own bottled water as we didn't trust the local water supply. The five or six employees at the restaurant were black. A good number of Yaviza residents are black. Most are descendants of the Cimarrones, escaped slaves who established communities hidden in the jungle. The Cimarrones hated the Spanish and were feared fighters. They often allied themselves with the raiding English forces.
 |
| Breakfast in Yaviza |
The Yaviza cemetery was on a small hill by the dock. We arrived as a burial service was about to begin. Citizens, many of them Choco women from their colorful skirts, were walking to where a group was already standing around a small casket. I heard the cries of grief by some women. We kept our distance out of respect. Our host later told us the deceased was a five year old Choco boy, killed in an automobile accident in distant Veraguas Province. The boy's father was still hospitalized from the accident.
 |
| View of Yaviza from the cemetery |
Near the cemetery was the public school. This was a large school in a small town, so I think it had all grades. The grounds were empty for it was Semana Santa (Easter Week). Panama's constitution provides that the Roman Catholic faith be taught in public schools. This accounted for the bulletin board explaining the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Another bulletin board had various postings on conducting one's life properly. To emphasize the dangers of drug use, a photo of Whitney Houston in her prime was followed by one taken shortly before her recent death.
We met our host, who was going about his errands, and we took him to breakfast. We then walked back to the main part of town with him. He had things to do, and we wanted to take one last walk across the bridge. We told him we would return to his house later. But when we returned he was not at home, so we did not have a chance to say goodbye. He would be in Panama City in a few weeks, and Edi would thank him in person then for the visit.
On the return trip, we noticed the SENAFRONT troops got friendlier at each checkpoint. Perhaps they reserve their stern demeanor for the folks headed to Yaviza.
We stopped at the farm that belongs to Edi's family. Edi collected some plantains to take home.
 |
| Collecting plantains |
We made one last stop, at the village of Arimae, a fairly large Choco community next to the highway.
We walked to the Rio Sabano, really a large creek. Two women were washing clothes. They sat at the edge of a tilted shale outcrop with two main layers. I examined the sedimentary rocks. The lower layer consisted of a dark brown shale so thin and soft that it crumbled to the touch. It was overlain by a tan shale with thicker layers. This top layer was a hard rock, and in it I found the imprint of a deciduous leaf. Who knows how many million years old this fossil was, but being now exposed to the sky, it has only a few years left. While I was absorbed with the local geology, a third Choco woman came down the hill to join the two others, not to wash clothes but to bathe herself.
 |
| Shale outcrop with fossil |
We met a Choco man who was raising tree seedlings to sell for reforestastion. The completion of the paved road has played a big role in the destruction of the jungle, and here was one person doing something about it.
Our last stop was the Hospedaje Ibisu Piez. Hospedaje has two meanings in Spanish, a place for lodging and a place to meet guests. I saw no bedrooms, only rooms where functions could be held, so I think the latter meaning applied. The building was constructed with funds from the United States Agency for International Development, so said a sign on one wall. Again, winning hearts and minds. One room contained local handicrafts for sale. I bought a small basket. I asked the woman who took my money where the basket was made. She said in this village, by her sister, the basket was Embera.
In walked three others looking to buy handicrafts, a woman and two men. I spoke briefly with the woman. She was Jeanne Cook, from Indiana, and for thirty years she and her husband have run Vida Ministries in nearby Santa Fe. They operate a Christian radio station that broadcasts in the Darien. The two men with her were missionaries from Europe temporarily serving in Panama.
And it was on that note, a brief conversation with a fellow American, that I ended this visit to the Darien.
Here are links to my videos of the Darien trip:
