We had to leave Playa Bluff fairly early to leave for Silico Creek on the mainland. We packed our things and we a quiet breakfast. I was sorry we had to leave so soon. It had rained during the night, and somehow I imagined that in the damp early morning the forest would be full of life. But almost exactly at 7:30, the taxi, a Toyota pickup truck painted somewhat incongruously in the traditional Yellow Cab style, came to take us to Bocas town. We stopped along the way at the island’s only ATM, and then met Carlos, our local guide, at the pier. It was a bit of a mob scene as you can see. We ended up switching to another company at a different dock in order to get a boat that left at at a reasonable time.
They packed us on the boat pretty tightly. I was grateful i had brought my Kindle so that I could think about something other than how much the boat was bouncing over the bay. By this time it had started to rain again, and all I could see was gray water and gray sky anyhow. We arrived at the little town of Almirante. We were met here by another taxi driver again in the same kind of pickup truck taxi. A rock had damaged much of his windshield, and as we started to bounce around I wondered if the glass was going to collapse and fall on John who was sitting in the front with the driver. The town of Almirante seemed covered in trash from one end to another. Even by Central American standards, it was filthy. We drove on fairly quickly, passing a few containers on the waterfront with the cheery Chiquita Banana logo on them.
The road was decently paved, but it twisted and turned as we headed into the mountains. I was glad that John had gone to the pharmacy while we were waiting for the taxi and had found some kind of generic Dramamine. Our driver seemed to know the road well, but I was still a little nervous as he passed other cars on turns. It took about 45 minutes for us to reach Silico Creek. We were met at the local cooperative office which also housed the town’s small ambulance. We were told that our guide was currently at church and that he would be there to meet us in an hour or so. This made me suspect that the church was not the local Catholic parish.
We did not just want to wait around, so we asked if we could walk and see the community and the church. They seemed to have no idea why John would want to see the church, but they were only too happy to show us around. This is Arnold who became our main guide. His English was pretty rudimentary, but he had a good sense of how to speak Spanish to foreigners, and he really became our main guide for the day. There are about 500 people living here, and the community is build on a hillside.
Silico Creek is a settlement of the Ngäbe-Buglé people, one of the three principal indigenous groups in Panama. Many of the houses there are build in the traditional style with stilts and a thatched roof.
When we arrived at the church my suspicions that this is a Protestant settlement were confirmed. While we could not get a sense of what groups had done missionary work here, Arnold confirmed that the people in the town were “evangelicos” and that the church service would be particularly lengthy today because they were also having the annual meeting to discuss their budget. The pastor was leading this when we entered.
While many of the adults were quite engaged in the discussion of how much money they needed for this or that, the children were clearly bored and found the white visitors intriguing.
We were treated to lunch. The community has only recently added housing for visitors, and while probably about 12 people could be accommodated here at one time, John and I were the only visitors today. It was a slightly uncomfortable situation to have four or five people watching the two of us eat. But the food was great! They had rice and friend plantains, of course, and the main dish was a delicious fried fish. Notice the limes next to the fish. This is a local variety with orange flesh and a slight sweetness to the taste. I am surprised they are not found in gin and tonics throughout the world.
We also met other residents of Silico Creek. There are a lot of dogs in this community, but they are not feral. Pets seem quite important to the people here. This is Reina. She is about a year old and as friendly as can be. We were taken with her eyes.
After lunch, we were taken on a tour of the local organic cacao production. Along the way John heard some activity from a small cement building. He asked Arnold about it, and was told that this is where the men play dominos. Like good Protestants they did not seem to gambling, but the competition was still vigorous.
As we crossed the highway to the cacao farm, I noted the emblem of the “comarca” or regional autonomous authority. Notice the use of the term “sostenible” or “sustainable.” This, we learned, is really important to these people whose food production is entirely organic.
I had never seen cocoa growing before, so I was little surprised to see that it grows in these large pods in trees. The trees are not shaded, like coffee, but they grow best in extreme humidity so they are typically planted alongside banana and other tropical plants. Five different types of cacao are grown in this little plot. Each kind has a different color, and each apparently a slightly different flavor.
When the fruit is ripe, it is picked. The seeds are in the center covered with a sweet, sticky white fluid. The seeds at this point cannot really be eaten. Instead, they are taken out of the fruit and placed in a dark box and allowed to ferment for about a week.
When the seed have fermented and any remaining fluid has evaporated away, they are then sun dried for three to five days. We saw a couple different kinds of platforms for this, but this one, where the trays slid in and out, seemed to be the largest.
The dried beans are then quickly roasted rather like coffee. This causes the skin on the outside of the seed to fall off.
The seeds are then ground, and you have this lovely but somewhat bitter chocolate paste.
Grinding the seeds in an old-fashioned meat grinder is frankly hard work!
Unfortunately, I was stepping backwards into some mud as I was taking this shot, and this is what happened!
They took us down to the cooperative office where there was the only shower in town. It was not glamorous and the water was cold! But I cleaned up reasonably well, and they offered to wash our clothes for us for only a nominal amount. We went to our rooms. We are staying in a traditional Ngäbe-Buglé house - though if it were really traditional, probably about 10 people would be living there. There is basically a bed. There is no bathroom, though an outhouse is located about three or four meters away. There is some wiring for electricity, but running the generator is expensive and so we had no electricity. Looking down the hill - our accommodations are at the very top with a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains and rain forest - nobody else in Silico Creek had electricity that night, either.
