DAY 10 Jan 22 - Fuerto Amador (Panama City)

Fuerte Amador is a recently developed port with a modern shopping plaza and is just next door to Panama City, as shown in the picture.

It is located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal on an artificial peninsula jutting out into the Pacific from Balboa that connects three small islands to the mainland and is separated from Panama city by Ancón Hill. It is a major port of call for cruise lines. There is also a Marina, the Flamenco Yacht Club on the peninsula, as shown in the picture.

It is now a burgeoning tourism complex where local city dwellers enjoy cycling, walking, the refreshing breeze and the incredible view of the Panama City skyline on the other side as well as the ships entering the Panama Canal. The city itself has a population of 820,000, with a total metro population of 1,200,000.

We had made arrangements with a local Panama tour company called Almiza Tours, run by our contact Mario, for us to be picked-up early in the morning at the dock. We are heading for a trip to an authentic Embera Indian Village. As usual I made all our arrangements over the net after receiving good recommendations regarding the tour and the people running it. Payment for the day's activity is only due once it has been completed.

The Embera Indians are indigenous groups that inhabit eastern Panama and north western Colombia. They live in small isolated native villages mostly in the Darién Province of Panama along the Pacific coast opposite the Pearl Islands and along the many tributary watercourses of numerous rivers, including the Chucunaque, Sambu, Tuira, Jaque, Balsas, Chagres and Sabana rivers. They are a proud people who maintain their tradition and lifestyle as it was before the Spanish colonised Panama. Panamanian census counts estimate that there may be around 22,000 Embera natives in the country.

Our planned tour was a 7 hour trip to the Embera Indian Village situated in the jungle of the Chagres National Park where we stepped back in time and observe the fascinating culture of these indigenous people that has remained unchanged for centuries. This had meant an early rise and breakfast as we disembarked the ship, taking a ship’s tender boat to land, at about 7.45. Poor Maria!!

After a short wait our tour guide Ivan arrived with a good sized mini-coach for the 5 of us taking the outing with him today. The others in our party (Lin, Lee and wife Lorraine) had received details of this tour from me during contacts made on the Cruise Critic website.

In order to penetrate the rain forest and jungle we traveled by a dugout canoe down through the River Chagres to the Embera Puru (as in the picture).

During the day we had expect to see plenty of wildlife including toucans, sloths and monkeys as well as many species of birds but I think they must have all been hiding today. Incidentally the Indians use various jungle medicinal plants to fight illness.

Immediate prior to visiting the village we continued down stream in the canoe and went to the head of one of the river's smaller tributaries to see a waterfall.

In order to penetrate right up to the starting point of this river at the waterfall end, we had to walk a trail for well over a mile.

It was quite treacherous, wet and slippery in places with many rocks and boulders to navigate over. Unfortunately Maria stretched a knee ligament during her efforts to reach our destination and was then forced to take it very easy and be very careful. Fortunately our guide and one of the Indians in our party assisted Maria over the tougher terrain. If grandson Jackson had been there he would have given her one of his stickers for bravery!!

For my part I was also looked after by one of the more mature members of the Indian tribe. He would always be there to offer his hand when the terrain looked a little uneven. It got to a stage when we were just walking along hand in hand. The others thought we had really bonded and that a little relationship was blossoming despite my lack of knowledge of the Embera language.

We had a celebratory photo taken together to comm-emorate the occasion later and before we eventually left their village. I think we were both please with that and I know he was very appreciative of a small gratuity I handed to him.

As part of the visit we ate a locally and beautifully prepared Indian lunch consisting of fried plantains (Patacones), with fried fish. Our guide had brought a selection of cold beers and soft drinks with him and these were quickly consumed.

The Indians themselves we were told are not allowed to consume alcohol in their village.

The village, incid-entally, situated on the river, has neither running water nor electricity. Our plates were green palm leaves shaped in the form of cones from which we used our fingers to consume our lunch. No washing up required?

After lunch the villagers give a talk on their culture, lifestyle and crafts all translated by our guide. The women of the village then entertain us with a show of dancing accompanied by the men playing various home made musical in-struments.

Finally, our hosts offered for sale a selection of the many craft products they had produced in their village. This is their only means of sustainable income. We spend $20 or so on some trinkets to take home with us.

We brought a selection of school utensils with us for the Indian children and presented them to the Head of the village before departure.

Here I am, in the photo below, presenting them to the head man who was please with this gift for the village children.

Shortly after this the villagers came down to the river's edge to see us off in our dug outs which were lying there awaiting our arrival from the village.

All in all the day is often described in tour books as a National Geographic experience and we would certainly agree with that.

We arrived back next to out tender pick-up point at about 2.45 after a slow drive back from the Indian Village.

It was a good opportunity for a picture with the dear old Prinsendam behind us

Fuerte Amador itself lies just southwest of Panama City, and so provides an ideal location for further exploration of the city and the surrounding islands. The nearby island of Culebra is the home of the famous Smithsonian Institute of Tropical Research.

The marina here next to where we boarded our tender back to the Prinsendam has some seriously rich peoples' toys on show going by the mega yachts lined up there.