THE GUIDE - The Rough Guide to Panama - page 418

VISITING AN EMBERÁ OR WOUNAAN VILLAGE
Staying the night (or preferably several nights) in an Emberá or Wounaan village is a
great way to interact with villagers, and learn about their day-to-day activities, as well as
venturing into the rainforest. Communities used to tour parties tend to have slightly better
facilities (showers, flush toilets and maybe even mattresses and mosquito nets), whereas
others may provide little more than a wooden floor for you to sleep on, possibly with a
family, a fire to cook your own food, and a bucket of water for washing.
The location of many settlements on tidal rivers only accessible at high tide often entails
a lot of hanging around by jetties waiting for the water level to rise - generally, you need to
be flexible yet more organized, taking food supplies with you where possible, since many
communities expect you to provide the food to cook and village shops are thinly stocked.
While bottled water - or the means of purifying it - is both necessary and scarce, beer is
more widely available, though check on the village etiquette before indulging and be dis-
creet in your drinking, except when the whole village is having a party.
Most visitors head for villages round the Golfo de San Miguel or in the Distrito Sambú
section of the Comarca Emberá-Wounaan , where you first need to report to the comarca
office in Puerto Indio and pay the $10 entry fee . Mobile-phone signals are fickle, so it
is sometimes better to ring the village public phone and ask to speak to the coordinador
de turismo - you may need to ring back again while the person who answers the phone
goes to fetch them. The tourist coordinator (or president) is also the person to ask for on
arrival. They can tell you the prices and whether money needs to be paid to them (to be
disbursed later to the relevant people) or directly to anyone who provides a service. They
will also allocate you a personal tourist coordinator (usually $10/group/day), who will or-
ganize all aspects of your stay. Accommodation will either be in a traditional communal
house (raised, thatched, open-sided structure) or with a family. Families usually take turns
in hosting visitors to ensure that wealth is distributed across the community, but it is es-
sential to sort out what's to be paid to whom from the outset to prevent misunderstanding.
Costs are generally charged per person and itemized separately - village community fee
(usually $5-10), accommodation ($8-10/night), meals ($3-4), services of a cook ($10),
guided hikes or fishing trips ($10), jagua dye body painting ($5) and dance performances
($40/group) - so assuming one excursion and three meals a day, you should budget around
$40-50 per person per day, plus transport ($15-25/person, depending on the distance and
the number of people, if you manage to catch a colectivo piragua ; $80-150 if you hire a
boat privately).
Sales of handicrafts are also an important aspect of village visits, displayed in a small
shop or by the artisans themselves, and at set prices (usually from $20) that are inevitably