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In many was this really was the back of beyond. The Darien Gap is a 100 mile gap in the Pan American Highway that links Alaska with Tierra del Fuego. The gap exists because it is impenetrable. Dense jungle, climate, wars and environmental concerns have meant that a road has never been built. To cross the gap you would have to carry a machete to cut a path through the forest, and a rifle to guard against people or drug traffickers.
The Explorer anchored quite a long way offshore, as the area round the river mouth was shallow. This meant that there was a long ride in, using a mixture of zodiacs and local boats, to reach the shelter of the river, then up river through mangroves with the river narrowing perceptibly as we motored upstream. Eventually we reached the Embera village of Rio Mogue. They get comparatively few visitors here, and only 2 expedition boats like ours each year.
The tribe had scrubbed up well to welcome us, cast of the jeans and baseball caps, and put on their traditional dress. You could see it was not normal attire through one small boy, who was definitely uncomfortable in his loin cloth. One or two of the girls were wearing lipstick. It was difficult to know how much contact the tribe really had with the outside world. There were no roads, so to reach the nearest town for supplies was a journey by boat of several hours, and from that town to get to the rest of the world , a further journey of several hours more
They put on a "traditional" dance when we arrived, but it was somewhat spoilt by punters being invited to make charlies of themselves by taking part. I would doubt that such "audience participation" is part of Embera culture. Chris and I walked down to the actual village, where life was more normal, and the people dressed in shorts and T-shirts.
Perhaps I am being too cynical, and certainly these people are moneyterising their culture in a way that is perfectly understandable. The day was enjoyable, and the adventure in getting there up the river was part of it all. When we returned to the ship there was a strong headwind that made progress very slow, and when we eventually did reach the ship, there was a log jam of returning zodiacs, so we spent quite some time waiting our turn to re-board. A heavy swell was running and it took much longer than normal to get guests out of the local boats and zodiacs
Click on any of the thumbnails to get a bigger version of the picture
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