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Peña Bijagual is a village of some 250 residents --- many of whose men had gone to work elsewhere when we visited --- on the banks of the Chucunaque River in the Embera-Wounaan Comarca's Cemaco district. It's about an hour upriver from Yaviza by motorized piragua. Peña Bijagual recovers from last year's floods story and photos by Eric Jackson At the height of last year's rainy season virtually all of the Embera-Wounaan Comarca's Cemaco district, and the black and colono settlements across the Chucunaque River and downstream all the way to Yaviza, suffered from the most severe flooding in several years. Panama's commercial TV networks and daily newspapers flew in photographers and videographers to take pictures of the destructive flood waters, and over the following few weeks there were reports of widespread privation and some problems with relief efforts. Then, as is usual with this remote indigenous region in the Darien, the affected communities fell outside the gaze of media attention. But months later, rather immediately after setting out by piragua from Yaviza, the floods' devastation is easy to see. This part of the Chucunaque is not a fast-moving river, but rather a brackish extension of the Gulf of San Miguel estuary into which Pacific tides reach. There is a lot of debris floating in the water, most notably logs. Upon closer inspection many of these logs have been cut, fashioned and notched --- months after the floods, these are the remains of indigenous-style homes that were swept away into the river. Looking over to the river's banks, here and there one sees bits of cloth or plastic bags stuck in the branches of trees, well above the present water level and in many cases topping the banks. Trees and stands of bamboo, the soil that once supported their roots scoured away by the once raging waters or the banks over which they once stood moved back by nature's forces, have toppled into the river. Floating along with the logs one finds the occasional flip-flop, plastic bottle of cooking oil or other artifact typically found in a Darien household.
Months after the floods, gardens are beginning to grow back. It won't be long before the production of plantain is back to normal. But pineapples take two years to grow, and for other crops the planting season has only recently returned with the seasonal rains. Right after the floods the government estimated that the Cemaco district would be entirely dependent on outside food assistance for six months, which are almost up. That estimate, however, underestimated some aspects of the comarca's ability to feed itself and on the other hand was unrealistically rosy about the time it would take for local agriculture to rebound. My guides and hosts for this excursion were Román Izaramá, the taciturn young political leader of Peña Bijagual, and the more gregarious Humberto Berrugate, who works for a sustainable development project backed by the United Nations Development Program and other national and international institutions. Before we headed out from Yaviza we talked about the community's main concerns of the moment. To set the context, Román noted that everybody in Peña Bijagual is a farmer, and that whatever else they may do to support themselves, agriculture is and will remain the backbone of their local economy. Thus, both he and Humberto agreed, whatever the emergency needs of the moment might be, the paving of the Pan-American Highway the rest of the way to Yaviza remains the top local priority, because only through the completion of that project will the farmers of Cemaco district have a practical way of getting their produce to the city's markets throughout the year. Flood relief, the two men said, is also high on the list. In particular, there is a shortage of medicines in the community at the moment. Román noted that the government's initial response to the flood was in many instances based upon expectations rather than information, such that Peña Bijagual, which had saved its houses and farm implements but lost its crops, chickens and pigs, was sent tools for which they had no special need rather than seeds for which they were desperate. Also among the community's top concerns, they told me, is official government recognition of and a greater international appreciation for the value of the Embera culture. Going up the Chucunaque River, one cultural and economic asset was easily enough seen above, around and among the traces of the floods' destruction. The Embera-Wounaan Comarca cuts and uses trees, but they leave their forests intact and thus the bird life along its major waterways is impressive, distinct from that found in other parts of Panama, and surely of interest to that variety of tourist who comes to watch the birds. Unfortunately I brought neither a pair of binoculars nor my trusty Ridgely and Gwynne Guide to the Birds of Panama. Some of the very impressive birds I noticed I can't come close to identifying, but there were several species of herons, egrets and hawks fishing in the river, I saw some motmots and what I think was a trogon, and although the oropendola nests seemed vacant this time of the year it was an obvious sign that there's a season to hear their odd gurgling calls as well. Humberto told me that birding is part of his community's tourism plan, pointing out that for part of the year harpy eagles nest about a two-hour walk along a jungle trail from Peña Bijagual, and when the national birds aren't at that site they can be found a short piragua ride upriver. He added that despite the hunting pressure they also have the great curassow (pavón grande) living near the village. What about the hunting and fishing? There are national and indigenous laws about hunting, so that hasn't really been considered as a tourism activity, but Humberto said that there are plenty of sainos (peccaries) and deer in the area. He didn't think that sports fishing would hold much attraction, because the fish they catch in the river tend to be neither large nor particular hard fighters. However, going upriver we saw lots of people fishing and once we got to the village the meals we were served all featured this small and tasty species of bass that has become the community's primary source of protein since the floods took away most of their swine and fowl.
Saino, or wild peccaries, can be domesticated as these are. The Embera don't herd cattle but they do raise chickens, pigs and ducks, which are supplemented by fish, mollusks and game to provide their protein. Arriving at Peña Bijagual we had to go past the ruins of a concrete stairway and boat landing and tie up the piragua next to an improvised stairway cut into the red clay. The bank that the stairway had descended eroded and slid some eight feet horizontally and six feet vertically toward and in to the river, snapping and twisting the stairs, submerging the landing and making the entire structure useless. At the top of the stairs two bohios, one somewhat smaller than the typical Embera house and one somewhat larger, were under construction next to each other on higher ground at one edge of the village. When the floods came the waters rose slowly but steadily, giving the people a chance to flee to this forested higher ground, and then when they had to make a space for relief helicopters to get in and out it was here that they cleared. After the emergency it was decided that this would be a good spot for a new communal economic venture --- the larger structure will get a second story and become a rustic hotel with room for about half a dozen people to stay, and the smaller bohio will be a venue for music, dancing and art sales. The hotel is set to be finished sometime in June, and in addition to the two buildings the tourist development will include some new jungle hiking trails cut especially for the anticipated visitors.
Peña Bijagual's new hotel under construction, with the thatched roof seen from below. According to the traditional building style that's being used, there isn't and won't be a single nail in this structure. Notches, grooves, mortise and tenon joints and lashings of jungle vines will hold the structure together. My Canadian travel companion was here to buy artwork, which she did, and that's another story in the business section. If one wants to pay for the local dancers and musicians to put on a show that can be done, but that wasn't part of our itinerary. The community and in particular the local arts teacher Diomede Guaynora --- who works for the community, but not the Ministry of Education which runs its public elementary school --- nevertheless had his students perform for us, the boys making the music and the girls doing the dancing.
When Diomede strikes up the band --- the man with the longer hair in the background, Diomede Guaynora, passes on the musical traditions that he learned from his ancestors to a new generation of Embera artists. Lunch was fish and bollos made of rice, and dinner was fish and mature plantains roasted in their peels. The fish they caught in the river and the plantains they grew, but it will be awhile before this year's corn and rice crops come in, so the rice was courtesy of the Panamanian government's flood relief program. And in a gas-fueled refrigerator kept under lock and key in the community center, there were bottles of cold beer. The Embera make their own traditional alcoholic beverages, but this stuff came from the brewery. This does not appear to be a hard-drinking community or anything close to that, but beer sales should increase once tourists start coming and increase the demand. Although Cable & Wireless would dearly like to get out of the business, the company does maintain a solar-cell powered pay phone in Peña Bijagual. Its number is (507) 299-6100, which you can call, asking for Román Izaramá, if you want to make arrangements to go to this community and buy artwork or stay at the new hotel.
Set aside, but not abandoned: since the floods, there hasn't been any corn to grind or rice to thresh. But the rains are here and it won't be too many months before Peña Bijagual farmers bring in new crops that will put the mortars and pestles back to work.
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