Tag Archives: darien

Vagabond Dreams Outtakes #14 – And I Was Just a Stranger There

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

Vagabond Dreams Outtakes are “deleted scenes” from my book. Think of them as a “Special Features” disc for a DVD yet to be invented. This incident took place in Panama’s Darien Gap…

 

Banana trees and low bushy plants lined the dirt path that led beyond the village’s last tambo. Jungle pathways were never entirely clear, no matter how recently someone had used them. The forest reclaimed everything with a creeping growth that was almost visible. Keeping those vital roadways open meant that each person who passed must absent-mindedly cut back the encroaching growth. The constant ringing of these slashing blows became the music of our march.

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A Jungle Shift in the Trajectory

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

embera1.jpgDuring my time with them, I learned that the Embera of Panama’s Darien Gap lived in harmony with their surroundings. They didn’t try to be “close to Nature” – the idea would never have occurred to them. They were Nature, an inextricable segment of that community of life. It’s misguided to revere them for this, or to demonize them. They’re simply being what they are; acting in accordance with their essence. But we can and should learn from them.

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Advice for When Travel Gets Hot and Sticky

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Ryan Murdock

jungle1.jpgEnormous trees with wide buttressed roots propped up the canopy: giants draped with vines, mosses and epiphytes which hung in tangled green confusion. All the way down to the impenetrable jungle floor, life grew upon life in one symbiotic Gordian Knot.

The forest floor absorbed our footfalls: mine and two Embera hunters from a tiny village deep in Panama’s Darién Gap. The jungle crouched around us in rain-deadened silence. We slipped through it like wraiths, ghosting around branches and drifting over logs in the gloomy green shadows, stopping to hold whispered conferences about the uses of some plant or the sighting of an animal. These stealthy excursions were our regular dawn ritual.

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