Photos

Parara Puru - Embera Indian Village deep within the jungles of Panama.

This man's name is Mellenio Casama and he is the village's Botanical Doctor, the person you would go to if you were a member of the village and you had an ailment. From knowledge handed down to him by former botanical doctors, Mellenio would prescribe a remedy of certain plant parts such as leaves or roots to be boiled into a tea than drank, or a paste then eaten.

Modern medine is beginning to pay attention to the knowledge these people have owned for centuries. These same indians had the knowledge of the plant form of Viagra that pharacutical giant Phizer used to develop the highly popular men's erection pill. In addition many other plants of the jungle are being studied for other important applications.

To reach this village I travelled by motorized dugout canoe for an hour heading upriver on the Rio Chagres. Upon arrival we were met by village people who gave us a tour of the village and explained how they live.

They shared their lunch which consisted of Talapia, a small tasty white fish and plantains, a rather plain tasting bannana-like fruit. Actually they almost always eat the same fish and plantain meal at all meal times.

Mellenio Casama is in his mid 70's and as you can see is in pretty good shape - a testament to a healthy diet.

Scanned on a Nikon Super Coolscan 8000 at 4,000 dpi.
Edited in Photoshop CS where I increased the saturation a little and slightly lightened the shadows. Sharpened with USM. Sized for web use.