We Visited The Embera . . . So They Visited Us!
(http://richarddetrich.wordpress.com/) So we thought they should visit our home!
My adventure in Panama began on a cruise through the Panama Canal. At a stop in Gatun Lake I met Erito and his brothers, Embera Indians who had come to Gatun Lake to sell crafts and pose for pictures with passengers for the ship’s photographer. Five hours and lots of beer later, we were all fast friends and I promised to visit their village. I went back to California and started researching the Embera on line and in the process discovered all the benefits Panama offers retirees! I not only ended up spending the night at their home deep in the Chagres jungle, but retiring to Panama!
Erito is the chief of the Embera Puru village at San Juan de Pequini. Since we had visited them in their home, we invited Erito and Sulaka to visit our home and much to my surprise they accepted! We spent a wonderful five days together in Valle Escondido in Boquete. As I explained to Erito our way of life is, “Different, not better.” This was the first time they had ever crossed the Bridge of the Americas or seen most of their country. Erito is the chief or “jefe” or “number one” man in his village and Zulaka is the teacher. They are both intelligent and articulate people who have made a choice to preserve a culture and a lifestyle.
Erito is patient with my tenuous attempts at Spanish and somehow we manage to communicate . . . generally quite well. Our wide ranging discussions included Shamanism, baptism (they are Catholic but in Embera tradition not baptized), spiritualism, world geography, healing arts (Erito is the doctor for the village), and the role of a community like the tiny Embera pueblo at Rio San Juan in our modern day world. Interestingly people from all over the world (US, Canada, Europe, Australia, Asia) beat a path to visit Erito’s village and hear his wisdom. Very interesting!
Since that first visit, Erito and Zulaka have visited us several times. The last time Erito spoke to the “Tuesday Morning Meeting” of mainly gringos at the Panamonte Hotel. The response was enthusiastic with several people proclaiming him the “best speaker” we’ve ever had!
We have had lots of adventures! These people don’t have hot water, so getting Erito into my hot tub was quite an adventure! Boquete is a lot colder than the jungles of Chagres, and these people kept complaining they were freezing at night. Before long they had every blanket in the house and they were still cold. Finally we discovered the problem, and explained that you need to sleep under the blankets not on top of them.
