Proyecto ODESEN (Wekso Ecolodge and Center)

A visit to Wekso is one of the most memorable experiences Bocas del Toro has to offer, and it makes for a nice change of scene for those getting island fever in the archipelago. It’s a reasonable and accessible trip for those with the slightest sense of adventure, an interest in indigenous cultures, and a desire to explore a bit of tropical forest in rustic but relatively comfortable conditions. The climate is quite different from that on the islands and doesn’t fit preconceived notions of a tropical rainforest. It can be rather mild and pleasantly breezy upriver.

Wekso is up the Río Teribe about an hour by land and water from Changuinola. It has a grim history as the former site of Pana-Jungla, a jungle-warfare/survival school that put elite Panamanian and foreign troops through legendarily difficult training. It was founded in 1977 and closed in 1990 following the U.S. invasion that ousted Manuel Noriega and disbanded the Panama-nian military. Spooky remnants of the camp remain, including a cage that once housed a black panther, the ruins of barracks and officers’ quarters, and a serpentarium that once held Panama’s deadliest snakes for training purposes it’s best not to speculate about.

Now, however, the site has a much more peaceful and cheerful purpose. It’s the center of an ecotourism project run by the Naso, an indigenous people working hard to cling to their traditions and land.

The Naso are better known in Panama as the Teribe or Naso-Teribe. Some Naso say that “Teribe” is a mispronunciation of tjer di, which means “river of the Grandmother,” the ancestral guiding spirit of the people. They are also sometimes known as the Térraba. At the beginning of the 17th century, Spanish missionaries moved most of the Naso to what is now Costa Rica, supposedly for their own protection. But only a few hundred remain in Costa Rica today, and the number who still speak their native language can be counted on one hand. There are about 3,800 Naso left in Panama. As one Naso man said to me with a sad smile, Estamos en peligro de extinción (“We are in danger of extinction”).

There are 11 main Naso communities along the Río Teribe, all of which pay allegiance to a king who lives in Sieyik, a community about two hours up the Teribe. The royal palace today is an austere cinderblock house, but the Naso are proud that they are the last people in Latin America still led by a king.

History
Spanish records suggest that in the 16th century the Naso were already well-established in the region, including Almirante Bay as far north as Isla Colón, and may in fact have been the dominant power of the time. The Naso were gradually squeezed out of the area and by the latter half of the 19th century had retreated far up the Río Teribe in the highlands near the Costa Rican border, to communities that came to be known as palenques (Spanish for “palisade” or “stockade,” the name given by the Spaniards to hidden villages). These villages have long been abandoned and are considered a kind of interim ancestral homeland, a connection with the Naso’s ancient past.

By their own account, the Naso have fought just about all the former and present indigenous people in the region at one time or another. By the 17th century their numbers had declined drastically and have fluctuated ever since. A tuberculosis epidemic in the early 20th century killed many, including the king.

Today the Naso are among the most endangered of Panama’s eight surviving indigenous peoples. The cultural identity of the few Naso who remain is being eroded on all sides: by the dominant Latin culture, by missionaries, by intermarriage with other indigenous peoples, and so on.

The men tend to wear modern, nondescript shirts and slacks, but many women still wear distinctive dresses. These are cotton-print outfits in a single bright, bold color such as blue or yellow. They have puffy blouses and a tiny floral pattern that from a distance can look like polka dots.

The Naso still do not have comarca (reservation) status for their land. This is in stark contrast to their far more populous neighbors, the Ngöbe-Buglé, who now have a comarca that covers a huge chunk of western Panama. The Naso continue to tangle with them and others over land ownership, and they are also threatened by proposals to dam the Teribe and a tributary river for a hydroelectric project. A bill to create a 130,000-hectare comarca for the Naso has been moving through the Panamanian national assembly at a glacial pace.

Meanwhile, as with Panama’s other indigenous people, the Naso struggle with widespread poverty, though the Naso I’ve spoken with say that access to health care and education through the sixth grade have improved their lot somewhat.

Río Teribe and the Ecolodge
The ecotourism project is run by a Naso nonprofit called ODESEN, a Spanish acronym that translates to “organization for Naso sustainable ecotourism development.” Assisted by Conservation International, the group uses proceeds from tourist visits to help the community. It has an office in Changuinola.

ODESEN members take visitors up the river to Wekso, where there’s a large thatched-roof bungalow for guests, an outhouse with flush toilets, and a dining area. Two trails lead from the camp into the forest. Some guests also continue farther up the river to visit some of the communities, especially Sieyik, where there’s a chance of meeting the king.

Just getting up to Wekso is a fun little adventure. In the days of the jungle-warfare school there was a forest road to the camp, but it has disappeared back into the forest and the ever-shifting river. Today visitors come by boat.

The departure point is El Silencio, a tiny community about 10 kilometers from Changuinola, where the Teribe meets the Río Changuinola. Transport is in a piragua powered by a 25-horsepower motor up the Teribe. The river flows so fast it can sometimes fight an outboard motor to a near standstill.

It’s a beautiful trip. Small rapids ripple the river, and the air feels incredibly fresh and clean after the humidity of the towns and coast. Farm country at the beginning gives way to lush countryside and a view of the Talamanca mountains in the distance. Egrets, cormorants, and iguanas can be easy to spot. When the river is low, the boatmen sometimes have to get out and drag the piragua over rocks.

Only the odd hut is visible from the river, as the communities are set back into the forest; there’s little sign of human habitation. It takes about 40 minutes to an hour to reach Wekso. The trip back down is twice as fast.

The Wekso camp is on a small hill overlooking the river. The dining area is on the edge of the hillside and has a great view of the river below and the forest beyond.

There is no electricity at the camp; candles and flashlights provide the only illumination at night. Meals are basic but okay and can include such traditional dishes as palmito and plosón salad. Palmito is heart of palm. Plosón is a fern that contains a tiny amount of cyanide—it’s quite tasty.

The camp is frog heaven in the evening, when it’s especially easy to spot incredibly cute red-eyed tree frogs. The guest bungalow, which resembles an oversized version of a traditional Naso thatched-roof house, is at the back of camp. It’s rustic but perfectly acceptable and tidy, with foam-rubber mattresses, mosquito nets over the beds, and inviting hammocks on the front porch. Snakes are not unheard of around the camp; watch your step.

Just below the camp is a ranger station for Parque Internacional La Amistad. This area is not technically in the park but rather in the buffer forest around it. But guests must pay the $3 park entrance fee anyway.

There is a good chance of spotting a variety of colorful birds in this area, including the white-fronted nunbird, blue-headed parrot, king vultures, long-tailed tyrants, Amazon kingfishers, snowy cotingas, and snowcap and green thorntail hummingbirds. As always, mammals in tropical forests are hard to find, but possibilities include water opossum, white-lipped peccaries, and neotropical river otters. Frogs are generally easy to spot, including red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas) and poison-dart frogs (such as Dendrobates pumilio and Dendrobates auratus).

Trails
A loop trail that starts at the camp takes about two hours to walk at a slow pace. A second trail forks off it about 40 minutes in. It cuts across the loop and provides a shortcut back to camp for those who want it. It’s possible to walk either of these trails without a guide, but your visit will probably include a walk led by a Naso guide who can identify common flora and fauna and share a bit of Naso lore about them. As always, don’t walk forest trails alone. The trail is pretty, leading at first along a ridge overlooking the river and then down toward a somewhat swampy and very muddy area crisscrossed with streams and four bridges. The forest alternates between primary and secondary growth. The patches of primary forest contain some huge, impressive trees, including bongo, almond, and ceiba. The trail can be good for birding, including crowd pleasers such as toucans, and there’s a chance of spotting sloths. This area is too close to well-settled areas to draw much wildlife, however, and when I walked it even the birds had better places to be that morning. However, we did see peccary tracks, so there are still some big critters lurking around.

The Naso also have a system of narrow forest “commuter” trails that link the communities. Don’t attempt to explore these without a Naso guide.

Farther Up the Teribe
About an hour upriver from Wekso is Sieyik, the Naso “capital.” It’s a village of about 500 people who live in houses scattered around a lovely hillside overlooking the river.

The center of the village is a clearing that contains the royal residence, a school, and the health post, all of which are made from cinderblocks. The royal symbol of power, a group of three arrows, is painted on the front wall of the residence. The king is assisted by a consejo (board of advisers) drawn from the communities. The Naso reserve the right to switch kings if they become unhappy with him. They can vote him out, but the replacement has to come from the royal family. The current king is Tito Santana; if he’s around, there’s a slight chance you might be granted an audience, but don’t count on it. The graves of his grandfather and great-grandfather are in front of his residence.

A visit to Sieyik will likely include a walk around the village and a visit to a traditional home, which may include lunch. Traditional Naso homes are built on stilts of one kind of palm (jira) and the roofs are thatched with another kind (palenquilla). Residents sleep on the soft bark of a rubber tree. Newer homes use wooden planks for walls and floor, and sometimes have corrugated zinc roofs.

Visits also include a display of and possibly a chance to buy handicrafts, including objects carved from cedar, which are interesting but rarely achieve the level of artistry one sees with Emberá-Wounaan and Kuna works.

The Naso now also offer the chance to visit the neighboring community of Sieykin, but I haven’t yet had a chance to explore it and so can’t say how it compares.

Much of the surrounding land is cultivated. Orange trees are everywhere; other crops include beans, rice, corn, and yuca. The Naso also hunt. One traditional method is to use spears, with different kinds of tips for fish, birds, and land animals.

Parque Internacional La Amistad
The Río Teribe is the Caribbean gateway of Parque Internacional La Amistad (PILA) and the Palo Seco Buffer Forest that borders it. Far up in the headlands of the Teribe there are still jaguars, harpy eagles, tapirs, and macaws. That’s because it’s brutally hard to get to this area. The Caribbean side of PILA is far less accessible than the Pacific side, which lies in Chiriquí Province and has some developed trails close to population centers. Anyone who wants to enter the park from the Caribbean slope is in for a serious trek and needs a skilled guide and boatmen and considerable supplies. The terrain is steep, there are no trails, and the boat has to fight an increasingly fast and powerful river. Even for the Naso, the upper reaches of the Teribe are becoming a distant memory. Getting to the Naso homeland of Palenque, a long-abandoned village, requires a full day on the river. At the time of writing, Oscar Gaslin, a local guide based on the Bocas islands, was considering offering treks up to Palenque.