embera people — Blog — Jessica Haydahl Photography

Playa Muerto- Continued......

Here is the continuation of the Embera people in the Village of Playa Muerto.

If you come to this page first then here is the link for the other Playa Muerto Post: Playa Muerto, Panama

The view of Playa Muerto from a small hill beside the village.

A group of girls managed to snag some of the stickers from me. I gave up trying to give them out individually. The kids where better at picking them off then I was.

This is the Mother and Father of our Captain Adolfo. His mother is over 90 years old, while his father is over 106 years old. They are incredible people and where very gracious to allow me to take some photographs of them.

To see him walk out of his house to say hello at the age of 106 is humbling.

I got my own coconut to sip on. It was delicious!

This man was making some art work carving a very hard wood called Cocobolo.

The view looking down at Playa Muerto.

I was told that they make bread in this out door mud oven.

A typical village house. You can see they collect a lot of things that wash up on the shore. Anything that can be used will be used.

Outdoor bathroom. All the cloths laying around look kinda like a typical kids thing to do.

A lot of the people keep chickens under their homes. I also saw a small pig pen set up under one of the homes as well.

A nice looking roof on this house.

Doing laundry!

There are some solar panels through out the village and fashion and style never take a holiday!

My fellow tourist, Susie!

Playa Muerto, Panama

I think the best Part of heading down to Panama to go fishing is when we get the chance to go and visit the Village of Playa Muerto, Panama. (Dead Beach). The Embera (meaning people) live in Playa Muerto and getting to go and visit with them is truly something amazing. It’s hard to describe the Village; homes build mainly on stilts, open family concept with Hammocks for beds. The Darien Jungle surrounds the Village, while the Pacific Ocean provides access and food for the Embera. The white sandy beach and Palm tree's greet visitors as you come ashore. Kids from all over will come running as fast as they can to come and great you (secretly hoping you have a sweet treat for them). The people of Playa Muerto are always friendly and go out of their way to perform their traditional dances and play their traditional music.

With school supplies, stickers & candy in hand, we headed up the beach to meet with the Chef of the Village. The Chef and the Elders will generally formulate a nice little list for us of things that the village really needs, like wheels for their wheel barrel, soccer balls, batteries and various other things. Helping out is just a small part of going there to visit, but getting a chance to photograph these beautiful people is really an honor.

I have separated this bog post into two different posts, because I had so many images that I wanted to post.

Here is the first post of images. The shots where taken with a Nikon D800, Sigma 35mm 1.4 Lens (sharpest Wide open lens I have ever shot with) Some pictures where also taken with a Nikon D600 70-200mm 2.8 lens as well.

This child is wearing the traditional dye on her body. The Dye is similar to Hena, but comes from the Genip tree berry. This is not only traditional, it also helps to keep the bugs away.