Day 1 - Kathleen Pombier

By far, today was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. Having never traveled outside the country before, I took the chance to soak in everything I could. What stood out most in my mind was the beautiful mountains, trees and flowers. Since I have lived in south Florida for my entire life, seeing mountains was something new to me, and I am pretty sure that I now have about one hundred pictures of mountians on my camera. The entire bus ride, I looked out the window and was astonished at the beauty of the landscape in the distance. However, the one thing that upset me, was when I looked down on the ground right next to the road, there was garbage everywhere. I was bothered by how something so gorgeous could be changed into something so dirty. There were soda cans, styrofoam containers, and McDonald's wrappers covering the ground just feet from garbage cans and a garbage dump. We continued on to the national park in which the Embera reside. I was so excited to take the motorized canoes out to the island and meet the natives. But first, we went to an area to hike. We walked through a forest, climbed rocks, and eventually reached a waterfall. Without a doubt, getting to swim in an actual waterfall is one of the most amazing oppotunities I have ever had. The entire time we did all this, the tourist in me was ecstatic and enjoying every minute of it without really thinking about what all these hikes and boat rides meant for the Embera people. However, once we reached the peninsula with the actual natives on it, my views changed slightly. We were greeted by children and music. Immediately after the music finished, we were ushered into a makeshift marketplace were hand made crafts were sold. Then, we were led to a hut where we were presented with some brief history about the tribe. Afterwards, we were allowed to ask questions. The one thing I noticed was that during the questions, everytime someone asked about how te culture has changed since the people have had to use tourism to make a living, our speaker appeared slightly down about it, as though he wished they could still hunt on the land and exist without having to sell their culture. We were later taken back to the marketplace area to watch a dance. Throughout the dance, the only time the women smiled was when someone made a mistake. It was as though this was onhce a part of their culture, but now a part of a show they did as a job. We were afterwards given time to buy souveneirs, which most did, and then take a boat back to our bus. While I was happy to feel like perhaps what I had purchased was part of their culture, at the same time I felt as though maybe this was all a show, simply a tourist trap. On the ride home I noticed several more things. One thing I noticed was the amount of dogs present and how many of them seemed unable to walk on all four legs. For me, this was really upsetting. Several of the houses we passed were also in disrepair, and I even saw one with people living inside that only had three walls standing. Perhaps what suprised me most however, was the friendliness of all the people in those houses. Everytime I looked out the window, someone was waving or blowing kisses to us. For me, this was important cause it made me feel more like a welcomed visitor than an intruder. Later on in the evening, we went to a resturant to eat, and while I was excited for Panamanian cuisine, I must admit I was a little disppointed in the menu. The menu was written in both Spanish and English and there was not a single item on there I could not easily find in the United States. It was very good food, but it honestly was not the cultural experience I was hoping for. Overall, today was an amazing day filled with awesome experiences. I learned so much from seeing the city and how people lived. I can only hope that the rest of the trip will be this wonderful.

Kathleen Pombier