Guna Yala & the Darién

Eastern Panama was among the first parts of the American mainland the Spanish explored. In 1513 Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the isthmus through this region to reach the Pacific, and in the 17th century the Spanish mined gold at Cana in the Darién highlands. The dense forest limited colonial control. The Guna first lived along the rivers flowing into the Caribbean and, from the mid-19th century, moved out onto its islands.

In 1698 Scotland sent colonists to found a settlement called New Caledonia on the Guna Yala coast, hoping to control a trading route across the isthmus. Disease, hunger and Spanish attacks destroyed the Darien scheme within two years, and its losses helped push Scotland into the 1707 union with England.

In the early 20th century, Panamanian authorities tried to suppress Guna dress, customs and self-government. In February 1925 the Guna rose in the Guna Revolution, led by Nele Kantule and Simral Colman, and a peace agreement involving the United States led to the recognition of their territory, set up as a district in 1938, defined by law in 1953 and now called Guna Yala. The Emberá-Wounaan comarca followed in 1983. In the Darién, the Pan-American Highway eventually reached Yaviza but was never completed to Colombia. By 2021 the Darién Gap had become a major route for migrants heading north, with more than half a million crossing in 2023, a figure that fell to about 300,000 in 2024. In 2024 about 300 families from Gardi Sugdub moved to Isber Yala, a new mainland village, a move linked to overcrowding and rising sea levels.

Guna Yala is a self-governing Indigenous territory. The Guna General Congress and village sailas, leaders who also chant sacred history in the congress house, make decisions about land, fishing and tourism, and the land belongs to the Guna. Guna is the everyday language, and many Guna women wear traditional dress: a mola blouse, a printed wrapped skirt, a red and yellow headscarf, beads wound around arms and legs, and a gold nose ring.

Molas, reverse-appliqué panels of layered cloth cut to reveal patterns of animals, plants and geometric shapes, are Guna women's art and an important source of income. Coming-of-age feasts for girls, known as inna, and the annual commemoration of the 1925 revolution are central events.

In the Darién, the Emberá and Wounaan live along rivers in stilt houses. Emberá people paint their skin with black jagua dye, and both groups weave baskets. Afro-Darienite communities, descendants of Africans brought in colonial times, live in the river towns, alongside settlers from central Panama who moved east along the highway.

Guna Yala has only small communities, spread across a few dozen inhabited islands and some mainland villages. Families live from fishing, coconuts, lobster and crab, and increasingly from tourism, which Guna authorities regulate through fees and local ownership. Many Guna also live in Panama City and Colón, travelling back to the islands for ceremonies and holidays. Overcrowding, fresh water, rising seas and the move of families from Gardi Sugdub to the mainland are pressing concerns.

The Darién is Panama's least populated province. Metetí and Yaviza are the main towns along the highway, and La Palma is the provincial capital on the Gulf of San Miguel. Life depends on farming, cattle, logging, fishing and river transport. Deforestation along the highway and the pressure of logging and cattle ranching on the forest are major issues.

The migrant route has shaped the province, and the Senafront border police patrol the frontier, so checkpoints are part of daily life.

Guna cooking is based on the sea, coconuts and plantains. Fish stewed in coconut milk with green plantains is an everyday dish, and fried fish, rice cooked in coconut milk, crab and lobster are common in visitor lodges. Coconuts and lobster are the Guna's most important exports, and plantains and root crops are grown on the mainland.

In the Darién, river fish, plantains, rice and cassava dominate, often cooked over wood fires in Emberá homes, with fish sometimes wrapped in leaves and steamed. Afro-Darienite and settler households cook coconut rice, sancocho and fried plantains, and bush meat has traditionally been part of the diet, although hunting of protected species is illegal.

Tropical fruits such as pineapple, banana, papaya and peach palm fruit are sold in local markets. Visitors eat what the lodge or village cooks, and meals are simple, fresh and based on the day's catch.

The San Blas islands of Guna Yala are the main draw. Islands such as Isla Perro have white sand, palms and simple Guna-run lodges, and nearby reefs offer snorkelling. The Cayos Holandeses, further out, are known for clear water and sailing anchorages. Island villages such as Gardi Sugdub, Nargana and Ustupu show daily Guna life, with mola workshops and congress houses, and visitors pay small fees to land on individual islands.

The Darién rainforest is one of the wildest parts of Central America. Darién National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, stretches along the Colombian border and includes the Cerro Pirre ridge and the historic Cana mining area, known for birdwatching and the harpy eagle. The Punta Patiño nature reserve is home to harpy eagles, sloths and capybaras.

Emberá and Wounaan villages along the Chucunaque, Tuira and Sambú rivers can be visited on guided trips that include traditional music, dance and craft demonstrations. Yaviza, where the Pan-American Highway ends, marks the start of the Darién Gap, the roadless stretch of forest between Panama and Colombia.