The beach life, Embera-style

But Playa de Muerto is also ready to take on the Decameron and all comers for their small share of Panama's "beach tourism" sector.

The community suffers from the usual Darien disadvantages --- not much liquid capital, the logistical problems inherent in being on the transportation and communication periphera, a culture whose relatively recent association with the money economy might best be shown by the fact that in the Embera language, numbers go up to five --- but it is mercifully also well away from the places where Colombian paramiltary and guerrilla forces cross over into Panama. The people who live here count on this place's remoteness, and its not coincidentally unspoiled natural attractions, to bring in just enough visitors to improve their standard of living without bringing in so many that it ruins everything.

The main operating word is "remote," but then you may exactly the sort of visitor who makes travel decisions on a values matrix that has being this far removed from the rat race that passes for civilization on one side of the balance and days or hours to get there from the United States on the other. First you have to get to Panama --- consult a travel agent or the various air carriers for those options. It's much cheaper, quicker and safer to get to Panama and meet the Embera than it is to, say, vacation with the Mbuti in the Democratic Repubic of the Congo, or go blowgun hunting with the Jivaros in Ecuadoran Amazonia. But you do have to get to Panama first, and that's the easy part.

You will want to fly to Garachine from Albrook. (For those of you who don't know Panama, the international airport is at Tocumen and the domestic one is at Albrook, more or less on different ends of the Panama City metro area.) The planes only fly three times a week --- on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays --- but it's only a 40-minute flight, which costs $75 round trip.

Then you continue by sea in a large motorized cayuco, a two and one-half hour adventure that costs $100 round trip. Generally these boats set off in the morning, when the sea is usually calmer. If you have to do overnight at Guarachine --- and you probably will --- there's a $6 per night hotel there and a good restaurant nearby.

The police want foreign visitors to check in with them when traveling to this area, and will check your ID when coming back into Guarachine from Playa de Muerto. You need to carry your passport and tourist card, the latter which you may want to laminate in plastic against water damage from travel in an open boat. You can and should rent USCG Type II standard life preservers at the hotel in Guarachine, or else bring your own.

You want to bring sunscreen and insect repellant with you on this trip.

If you do something so rash as to contract a sunburn, you may get to know one of the basics of Embera traditional medicine --- they treat such cases with aloe vera that they grow in their gardens.

The bugs come with the rainforest, but it seems that the mosquitoes are a major annoyance in Guarachine but usually not much of a problem in Playa de Muerto. Around Playa de Muerto you may run into the coloradillas, which can dish out a mighty bite as you brush past them in the grass. The creams (not shampoos) used to treat head lice work as effective repellants for these.

They don't speak English in Playa de Muerto. If you are a native English speaker and speak to these people in Spanish, you will be conducting business with someone who also uses Spanish as a second language. The native tongue here is Embera, a language of the Chocoan family, which originated in the Amazon Basin.

The "hotel" is two separate rooms with a comfortable double bed in each, run by Mama Grajales, the cook shown above. It's $8 to $12 per night, including the food. They do lots of lobsters and river shrimp here, and also eat a lot of fish, shellfish and chicken, with plaintains, rice and tubers as the carbohydrate staples. One of the variations in your hotel price is that lobsters and langostinos cost you a bit more.

You may not take to the basic methods and assumptions of a standard Embera-style privy. However, arrangements can be made to usethe standard international-style bathrooms in the local school.

Jungle guides are $20 per day for a group of four.

These are things you should bring to Playa de Muerto:

• Plastic garbage bags to put your packs or bags in to keep them dry for the boat trip

• Two pairs of shorts

• Two T-shirts

• Two sets of underwear

• A swimming suit (or just use your shorts)

• Sandals for the beach, whose sand can get very hot in the afternoon

• Tennis shoes or hiking boots, but sandles are better as other footware WILL get wet!! & in the winter months they will never dry!!

• Two pair of socks if you take tennis shoes or hiking boots

• First aid kit, including a cortisone cream (5% or 1%)

• A hat

• Sunglasses

• Two handkerchiefs (for wiping persperation mostly)

• A towel (in the summer you may want to use it in the canoe to keep off the sun)

• Shampoo (if your hair is long) & bath soap.

• Camera and lots of film

• A hunting knife would be a help

• Binoculars

• Treats for the kids (there are 100 of them)

• Money for artwork (cocobolo carvings, basketry, etc.) They are priced about one-third to one-half of what you would pay in Panama City.

• If you have in excess of what is described above, consider that lugging too much stuff, especially on an open boat, may not be the most comfortable way to travel.You may want to leave the excess in the care of the hotel in Guarachine, who will guard it for your return trip.

Make arrangements for a hotel stay in Guarachine and transportation to and from Playa de Muerto through the hotel proprietor, Gisela de Olmedo. The problem is that there are only two phones in the village, both pay phones, which are often out of order and often busy when they are working. You want to arrange your trip at least a week in advance, by calling 299-6428 or 299-6477 and if you luck out, asking for Señora de Olmedo.