Heading upriver. The canoe is motorized, and on the open river, gets up to 20km/h (12.5 mph). I know, because I'm a geek and pulled out my GPS to find out how fast we were going. The gentleman in the hat is Christian, our guide from Ancon Expeditions.

We took a side river to go visit a waterfall. When the water got shallow, we stopped the canoe and walked upstream.

The waterfall. The man in the loincloth was the village herbalist, who pointed out various plants to us.

The village was on this hill by the river.

View back to the canoe while walking up the hill

Welcome sign at the entrance to the village of Embera Drua. If you look closely, you can see the basketball hoop at the far side of the court

The roof of the big hut

The Embera women are known for their weaving of baskets and similar items.

Children playing in a toy canoe.

Flying a kite

School (the concrete building in the background) was out of session for a few weeks between semesters. These kids were playing some game that involved two groups standing some distance apart, facing away, and calling or counting out something, then turning around and pointing at the others

The Embera here wear the traditional garb mostly when tourists come to visit; at other times, it's a mix of traditional and modern, depending on what the individual wants to wear.

The women tradionally wear a colorful wrap skirts.

The men wear loincloths. Smart choice, given 90F weather.

The women showed us some of the traditional dances

The band

The fellow in orange here spoke a bit of English, and had gone to school to study accounting. The one in blue was quite a good dancer.

Leaving the village

These people were going upstream the hard way, with paddles. You can see the mix of modern and traditional clothing.

Back at our launch point, time to head home.