How to Visit an Embera Indian Village in Panama

Do you enjoy experiencing local cultures when you travel? What if I told you that you could visit the indigenous Embera Indian tribe while you’re in Panama?

Taking a tour is a great way to help preserve Panama’s indigenous culture because it provides a living for the country’s native people.

You can either take a tour from Panama City or visit a village in the remote Darien province for something a little more off-the-beaten-path.

Our trip to the Embera village

In this article, I’ll tell you what to expect if you take an Embera Indian village tour in the Darien Gap. As I understand it, the tours that depart from Panama City are much the same.

Our experience began with a motorboat ride up the winding Mogue River.

The thick Darien rainforest grows right into the water around here. The jungle is so dense that the only sensible way to get from place to place is by boat.

Mogue (MOE-gay) is a traditional Emberá village in the Darién. I assume it was named for the river.

Well, it may be traditional, but every Embera home has electricity, thanks to free solar cells provided by the government. I don’t know if those cells can emit enough energy to power a refrigerator, but we could see satellite antennas everywhere.

We also heard radios all over the village, and they were being switched off as we entered. Perhaps the Embera were trying to give us a more “authentic” experience, ha-ha.

Yes, even though the village is isolated, it is still connected to the outside world.

Traditional Emberá dress

Our tour began with a walk through the village with some of the local women. All were dressed in traditional outfits … with a modern twist.

Their traditional bark skirts have been done away with, mostly due to external pressure to “save the rainforest.” These days, their brightly patterned skirts are made with a special $25-per-yard fabric. It’s made just for them … in China.

That said, most still adhere to traditional ways. Many of the older women there were comfortable topless, wearing nothing above the waist but a smile. Others sported wide necklaces or halters made of plastic beads. The outside world has influenced the younger girls, it seems, because many of the topless ones hid behind their arms and long hair.

Our best guess is that perhaps they would prefer to cover up, but their mothers won’t let them. My kudos to the girls for doing as requested.

Sorry, kids, mamas make the rules no matter where you live.

Embera handicrafts

Trips to these villages are marketed as cultural experiences, and they are. However, a great part of Embera Indian Village tours is focused toward giving them an opportunity to sell their handicrafts. This is the best way to support their tribe and the local economy.

Emberá men craft detailed carvings out of cocobolo wood and the women weave beautiful baskets of palm fibers. The most intricate ones will sell for hundreds of dollars, because they can take weeks—sometimes months—to create.

An Embera basket is the perfect souvenir of Panama: it’s a local, handmade item created for practical use. Unfortunately, baskets are very expensive in Panama City because the middle-man and shop add a markup. For us, buying a basket directly from the tribe meant that we could get two for the same price as one in the city!

Even though our guide said we could negotiate, I finally chose to pay the asking price. For one thing, the two women who had woven them would keep all the money. I have no idea how much they get for baskets that are sold in Panama City.

For another, those baskets take a lot of time to make. After doing the math, I realized that they would be making pennies per hour. And yes, I did end up buying two. My makeup brushes live in one of the baskets, and other receives Dan’s spare change.

Tour the Embera indian village through our photos

Have you heard the saying that “getting there is half the fun?” Well, if that’s true, then these warm and friendly people must make up the other half.

Dan took a lot of photos from our trip to the Darien. You can see our photo album here. Here are a few shots from our adventure.

Want to visit the Embera Indians yourself?

If you’d like to help preserve the Embera way of life, book an excursion to one of their villages and consider purchasing some hand-made items while you’re there.

You cannot visit on your own, though. The only way to visit the Embera is on a guided tour. The reason for this is that all visits are planned and evenly shared between the tribes. This helps preserve their culture and distribute the revenue from tourism fairly.

Several combination tours are available that include a stop at an Embera village. However, this tour is probably the most in-depth.

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