The Darién Disruption

Original airdate: February 14, 2009

Two Crazy Chicks Productions is pleased to present Episode 5 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Panama, an epic journey of discovery fraught with peril…

“Our flight to La Palma has been delayed again. This time indefinitely,” Deibys, the Ancon Expeditions guide, announces.

Our intrepid heroines and the rest of the tour group are not thrilled but they are not all that surprised either. They have come to understand that this sort of thing is not atypical for Panama.

“I have a proposal,” Deibys says after the group ingests a barely edible lunch in the cafeteria and there is still no sign of the plane. “We can drive. It will take some time to get a vehicle and a qualified driver.”

A qualified driver?

“The road is in very bad condition,” Deibys explains. “It will be a very bumpy ride.”

The prospect of a long, very bumpy ride is infinitely more appealing than sitting in a tiny, dingy airport and waiting for God knows how long. The group votes unanimously to accept Deibys’ proposal. An hour later, they are on the pothole-pitted Pan-American Highway heading east.

It takes four and half hours to reach Puerto Kimba, where our fearless females and their companions board a motorized dugout canoe.  The sun is setting as they navigate the Rio Iglesias to the mighty Tuira River. White ibises fly by. Bottle-nosed dolphins cavort. Parrots squawk loudly.

The last of the daylight fades and Venus is shining brightly in the western sky when the canoe enters the Golfo de San Miguel. Plankton disturbed by the passage of the boat bioluminesce, tiny green stars in the water like a reflection of the Milky Way above.

It is a two-hour journey to Punta Patiño, Ancon’s private nature reserve. Under a breathtaking array of stars, the canoe pulls up onto the beach and our peerless protagonists disembark by the light of some headlamps.

They take a moment to douse themselves in insect repellent, then shoulder their backpacks and make the walk to the lodge.

The group assembles for a late dinner and is briefed on the next day’s activities before being shown to their cabins.

“Rustic” would be a generous way of describing the accommodations. A single bare bulb (powered by a generator that runs from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM) flickers dimly overhead. Bugs crawl on the floor. There is no hot water.

Too exhausted to care, our intrepid heroines tacitly agree to ignore whatever is creeping in the shadows, take a cold shower, and fall into bed. 

© Eden Feuer