Page 223 - The Rough Guide to Panama (Travel Guide)

Bocas del Toro 221
25
VERAGUAS
Bocas del Toro in 1826. Following construction of the Panama Railroad and the French
Bocas del Toro HIGHlIGHTs Tour an organic cocoa farm Relax in a secluded eco-retreat Cocktails in Bocas Isla Bastimentos Cayo Crawl Humedales de San San Pond Sak Stay in a Naso village CARIBBEAN SEA Golfo de los Mosquitos Río Chucará 0 kilometres The banana trade
canal effort, West Indian migrants continued to drift into the area.
For the last two centuries, the ebb and flow of the banana trade has most clearly
defined the province. By 1895 bananas from Bocas accounted for more than half of
Panama’s export earnings, and Bocas Town boasted five foreign consulates and three
English-language newspapers. Around 6500 were employed by the United Fruit
mainland railroad system and constructing canals, hospitals, telegraph networks and
Isla Escudo de Veraguas L Company in its heyday, and the company was responsible for building the now-defunct 6
entire towns. But following repeated devastation by disease early in the twentieth
N A century, the banana harvests failed, causing the archipelago’s economy to languish.
When the banana trade started up again in the 1950s and 1960s, Guna and Guaymí
R T N E C workers were also integrated into the workforce, many suffering serious ill-health from
BOCAS DEL TORO
noxious pesticides. Now, with the trade in “oro verde” (green gold) flagging, the
business is confined to the plantations round Changuinola, the headquarters of Bocas
Península Valiente Río Criamola L L E R A Fruit Company, the current incarnation of “the company” and part of Chiquita Brands
International. With almost four thousand employees it is still the most important
employer in the province, though workers now earn pitifully low wages.
o Río Manatí D I Tourism and real estate
r
o R In recent years, tourism and real-estate speculation have soared, generating employment
T
O and income for some residents while leaving others behind to struggle with the inevitable
l
e C
d PARQUE NACIONAL rise in the cost of living, increased pressure on services and the threat of being thrown
ISLA BASTIMENTOS
s
a off their land. Foreign investors have been allowed to purchase huge portions of the
c MARINO Cayos Zapatillas
o Cayo de Agua Laguna de Chiriquí archipelago for luxury resorts and holiday homes, despite local opposition. Given the
B
complex ecosystems involved and the lack of infrastructure on the islands due to years of
e Isla Bastimentos
d Cayo Crawl
Isla Popa Chiriquí Grande government neglect, much concern exists over the sustainability of such developments.
o Interamericana, David & Panama City
g Old Bank (Bastimentos
a Town) Lago Fortuna
l
é Isla Solarte THE NGÄBE AND BUGLÉ
i
p Silico Creek
i Gualaca The province’s highest-profile indigenous peoples are the Ngäbe (pronounced “No-bay”)
h
c Isla Colón and the Buglé. These two related groups speak mutually unintelligible languages, and are
r Swan Cay (Isla Pájaros) Bocas Town Isla San Cristóbal
A probably the oldest surviving ethnic groups on the isthmus, descended from the great Guaymí
warrior tribes, whose best-known chief, Urracá (see box, p.292), graces the 1¢ coin. Forced into
Finca 60 Canal de Soropta Almirante BOSQUE PROTECTOR DE PALO SECO Río Changuinola A Boquete remote and mountainous lands by the Spanish, where many have remained, the majority live
within the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, a semi-autonomous area established in 1997, covering
almost 7000 square kilometres in the eastern half of the province and pockets of Veraguas and
Chiriquí. With poor access to potable water, health care and education, the comarca suffers
Humedales de San San Pond Sak Guabito Changuinola El Silencio L A M A N C Cerro Punta Volcán Barú (3475m) Rí o Piedra Río Majagua David Panama’s highest levels of poverty.
Most Ngäbe and Buglé practise subsistence agriculture, supplemented by hunting,
fishing and limited cash crop cultivation. Struggling to survive in an increasingly cash-based
they do the harshest jobs for the worst wages. A few produce traditional handicrafts – the
Sixaola Río San San PARQUE INTERNACIONAL LA AMISTAD D E T A PARQUE NACIONAL VOLCÁN BARÚ Volcán economy, some make seasonal migrations to the banana, coffee or sugar plantations, where
distinctive colourful cotton dresses (nagua), necklaces (nguñunkua) and woven bags (kri) – to
sell to tourists; others have abandoned the rural areas altogether.
Puerto Limón Río Sixaola Río Teribe Cerro Echandi (3163m) R A CHIRIQUÍ with dirt or wooden floors, though coastal communities prefer rectangular lodgings built on stilts
Traditionally, both groups have lived in small kinship groupings – half a dozen thatched huts
Las Tablas Cerro Itamut (3279m) L L E – which control access to land and work in cooperation. These, and other cultural practices, such
as the Ngäbe custom of polygamy (the Buglé have always espoused monogamy), have been
Cerro Fábrega (3336m) D I eroded by missionary and other outside influences. One of the traditions that clings on in some
COSTA RICA San José I N T E R A M E R I C A N A wooden pole at their calves. The contest is a core part of the four-day chichería, which involves
O R Río Sereno Paso Canoas places, despite attempts to outlaw it, is the krün (balsería in Spanish), a violent “sport” in which
members of two teams take turns to try and knock their opponent off-balance by hurling a
C
plenty of its namesake, the potent maize-based chicha fuerte brew, alongside dancing and music.
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