"Darien National Park" Jon_lyall's photos around Sambu / Pavarando, Panama (sambu river panama)

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• published: 23 Nov 2010
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Preview of Jon_lyall's blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon_lyall/saausnz/1102848240/tpod.html This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Sambu / Pavarando, Panama Entry Title: "Darien National Park" Entry: "Darien National Park - From Panama City we flew to Sambu in the Darien Province in a 10 seater place. Sambu is a small town/village set in the middle of the rainforest. Not having spoken Spanish for a number of years it was always going to be an adventure. The Darien Province has a reputation of being dangerous as it is used as a drugs route from Columbia to Northern America. After leaving the plane the first job was to find somewhere to stay. The Lonely Planet had only half a page of information on this is part of Panama so were very much alone. After wondering around for a little while we ended up speaking to the local Priest and found some space in the Church Hall. We wanted to get as deep into the nearby Darien National Park as possible, and we quickly found somebody who could get us information on a possible trip. To arrange this we had to go and see the chief of the village and discuss possibilities with my very rusty Spanish. After a couple of hours we had agreed a trip of a week up the river to the last village outside Darien National Park. The next day we met our guides, shopped for food and headed off to the Sambu River. The trip to the furthest village of Pavarando was about 8 hours up the Sambu River in a small canoe. We stopped at a number of villages along the route to stock up on fresh pineapples and to get some shade from the strong sun. The village of Pavarando was a bizarre mix of traditional with a splash of modern. The people still very much lived in traditional buildings, risen a few metres of the ground. But there was a basketball court, brought by previous missionaries, and a telephone box which hadn't worked for years. Some of the villagers wore traditional dress with natural made tattoos, but also there were lots of donated western clothes. We stayed in the the guest hut. We were told about 30 foreign visitors a year visit so we were quite unusual. The kids especially liked having their photos taken and seeing the images on the screen of the camera. Each day we would go into the National park and do some exploring with our guides from Sambu and one of the local from Pavarando, usually the village doctor. This included hikes through the jungle: and looking for animals: and visiting rock carvings: After a week of not seeing another westerner we returned back down the river to Sambu and flew out the next day back to Panama City." Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon_lyall/saausnz/1102848240/tpod.html Photos from this trip: 1. "Darien - Travel up the Sambu River" 2. "Darien - our boat on the Sambu River" 3. "Darien - village" 4. "Darien - Pavarando Village" 5. "Darien - Pavarando kids" 6. "Darien - Pavarando kid" 7. "Darien - village doctor and son" 8. "Darien National Park treking" 9. "Darien National Park" 10. "Darien National Park - animal spotting" 11. "Darien National Park - guides" 12. "Darien National Park - getting water" 13. "Darien National Park - cat print" 14. "Darien National Park - rock carving" See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00b5-d152-1422?ytv4=1