Watch the Bachelor Monday night!

[mickym]

Monday night on the Bachelor they will be in Panama. Should be fun to watch if you are going or have been there. We just got home and took the dug out canoes to the Embera Indian Village. It looks like they might be doing that too.

[BillB48]

Gracias.... will watch for it!

[Idahobaker]

I've never seen it, but Courtney apparently is known for her antics. Please refer to an article about her posted on panama-guide.com (http://www.panama-guide.com/). I don't know if she acts this way all the time or it's just trying to get more publicity.

[mickym]

I am hooked on these shows. Don't ask me why but being the hopeless romantic that I am I am always hoping for a happy ever after. This Courtney is one of the jerks that have to surface each season to make for more of the drama the producers love. Anyway, having just been to Panama and the Indian Village I am looking forward to watching the show and reliving some amazing memories. This was such a great excursion!

[can'tcatchup]

This Courtney is one of the jerks that have to surface each season to make for more of the drama the producers love. Anyway, having just been to Panama and the Indian Village I am looking forward to watching the show and reliving some amazing memories. This was such a great excursion!

 

And isn't it amazing that a guy like Ben, who's supposed to have some degree of intelligence, can't see her for what she is when it's so apparent to all of us! :D

 

I noticed on the episode that they were on the Chagris river & when they approached the Embera Village, it said "Embera Puru" across the screen. Was that the village that your excursion took you to? Or if not, which village did you visit? If I'm understanding everything I read accurately, the Embera Puru is supposed to be one of the most authentic of the various villages.

 

Did you book through the cruise line (? line), or privately? Thanks!

[mickym]

And isn't it amazing that a guy like Ben' date=' who's supposed to have some degree of intelligence, can't see her for what she is when it's so apparent to all of us! :D

 

I noticed on the episode that they were on the Chagris river & when they approached the Embera Village, it said "Embera Puru" across the screen. Was that the village that your excursion took you to? Or if not, which village did you visit? If I'm understanding everything I read accurately, the Embera Puru is supposed to be one of the most authentic of the various villages.

 

Did you book through the cruise line (? line), or privately? Thanks![/quote']

We booked through My Friend Mario which was a lot cheaper then booking through the cruise line and we were really happy with them. Not sure the name of the village we went to but the old guy from the tribe that was on the show was at our village. Our friends bought a craft that he made and took his picture with it. I think all the villages are authentic. The one we went to was the closest so that is why we went there so we would have time to go to the canal also. It was a great tour!

[can'tcatchup]

Glad you enjoyed the Embera & had a good tour. I didn't realize that you could combine it with something else & still get back to the ship in time. I have read a number of posts on here & also in the Richard Detrich book about some villages being less authentic than others, and if you scroll way down on the Panama board, there is a long thread about someone visiting one that was believed to be totally "staged". The poster apparently wandered a small distance outside the village & found a road & parking lot with trucks & buses from which she believed the food & crafts had been delivered.

 

But the important thing is that the one you visited, which is farther up the river, is apparently the most authentic & actually functions as a residential village.

 

Did you have lunch in the village & then proceed to the rest of your tour? Did you do the ferry thru to the Pacific, or mainly visit the locks observation deck & museum?

[RSF Cruiser]

I did the Embera tour with Anne Gordon from Fuerte Amador. We went by van to the Chagres river, and then took our dugout canoe to the village, with a short side trip to a water fall for some swimming.

 

We went to the village shown in the Bachelor episode since Princess took their tour to Anne's husband's village. I thought the tour was great - yes, we had lunch with fried tilapia and plantains, and then fresh fruit for dessert. The villagers explained how they make their baskets, performed some traditional dances for us, and gave us time to walk around and buy crafts. They are able to continue living in their more or less traditional ways through the funds raised from tourism. I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

[mickym]

I'd say there wasn't any doubt this was authentic but the women did wear small beaded tops like those on TV. Some of the farther out villages the women are topless. There were no roads coming in to the village. Everything was brought in on canoes and the children were taken in to town in canoes for school. No one spoke English but the children did learn Spanish at school. Our guide was an Embera Indian who had left the village after he finished school so could speak English, Spanish and the Embera language. We were allowed to ask a lot of questions about their culture, watch a bunch of dances they did and also dance with them if we wished, and we were allowed to wonder around the village and look at their huts, etc. We ate a lunch of fish and some kind of root that resembled potatoes. The had beautiful hand made crafts for sale. After the lunch we got back in the leaky canoes (be prepared they do leak and need some bailing as you saw them do on TV) and headed back to shore. It is a fairly long ride and you get quite wet but it's very warm there so it feels good. After we got back to shore we boarded the small bus and headed for the canal. We didn't go on the canal at all just watched from the observation deck. We were then taken back to the port. The cost was $80 a person vs. $155 for the similar tour through Carnival. There were aprox. a dozen of us in our group.

[BillB48]

We ate a lunch of fish and some kind of root that resembled potatoes.

 

Probably yucca also called cassava. It's always boiled, often added to soups or hearty stews, also great substitute for french fries:).

[mickym]

Probably yucca also called cassava. It's always boiled, often added to soups or hearty stews, also great substitute for french fries:).

It was pretty good. There was also a big tray with fresh fruit and melon laying there and I was excited to have that but I think they forgot to serve it. They were also in the process of roasting a whole pig over a fire while we were there.

[can'tcatchup]

On the tour I've booked they said they'd be serving patacones (fried plantain) with the fish.

 

Also fresh fruit .... which brings me to ask the question, is it safe to eat the fruit?

[Richard in Panama]

[BillB48]

I am always a little hesitant to just say yes it is safe to ..... etc. Let me just say over the years I have eaten a lot of local fruit in Panama and have had no ill affects. I'm sure that the cruise lines make some effort to ensure that some rudimentary standards are in place, at the same time you are not under the watchful of the CDC, FDA or some other agency with a bunch on initials;). Anyway most of the fruit that you would have would have a peel, bananas, citrus or various melons.

 

Even though this is in the you did not ask department, patacones also know as tostones in other parts of the Caribbean are the greener plantain which are fried. They are then removed from the oil, smashed and then fried again. Back when I was there, the test for a real authentic patacones was, the smashing could only be accomplished by the old thick returnable 6oz. Coke bottles. Now those patacones were the real deal! I'm sure they will be enjoyable no matter what the smashing implement:D!