This river, Bonyic, is where the dam is in the mountains. In this mountain range is the dam And because of the hydro electric plant, the river is where you see it So because of that there is little water at the moment?
- Yes, because of that there is little water And they also use poison at the tips Of those spears And here goes the.. the little spear.. this flies Good morning Internet, it is 7 o'clock in the morning and welcome back to the channel Welcome here. Look at that gorgeous sunrise on Bocas del Toro It's going to be another beautiful day I am just going to get to Alaska at the moment And then ride back to the main town And catch a little boat See Alaska is already here I hosed her down after the last adventures of riding through salt water Right So what am I going to do today? There are several indigenous groups that live around Bocas del Toro Around the islands here And also on the mainland And um.. today I'm going to visit one of these indigenous groups Um.. these are the Naso people and there's only a few thousand of them And um.. they're one of the very few remaining indigenous groups in the Americas That have a monarchy And their King is also recognised by the Panamanian government I always like learning about different cultures and different people So I'll first ride to the main town. Then I'm gonna take a little boat What a beautiful morning Loads of people out there surfing It's low tide at the moment So this makes it a little bit better for Alaska No salty water to ride through I am in town Let me see. Now I just have to figure out Where exactly I have to be Somewhere here, I think Good morning! Ah, here is 'Taxi 25'?
- Yes, we are here No, I already have a..
- Are you filming me? Are you filming me?
- Yes You already have a ticket for Almirante?
- Yes, I'm going to Almirante and come back this afternoon I have a bike too
- You have a bike? What? What type do you have? Ehh..1000.. Suzuki
-1000 cc? Wow Much faster
- Yes.. this is only 300 That's nothing.. that's nothing! Hey, hey, take it easy my friend So I have been talking already for a while with my guide That is Orlando And uh.. so he is now going to take me along the river here for a little bit So this river is the main way of how people get around here On these.. wooden boats The river, Bonyic, is where the dam is in the mountains. In this mountain range is the dam And because of the hydro electric plant, the river is where you see it So because of that there is little water at the moment?
- Yes, because of that there is little water You can see how shallow it is. These are massive rocks Really close so we have to go a little bit slowly Towards the end of the dry season it almost becomes impossible or even it becomes impossible to come here with the boat So normally throughout the year, this is the main way of transport For the people here So the community is kind of just.. lives alongside the river here And the people go with these little boats along side the river But at the end of the dry season when the river is too dry Then the only way to get around is by horseback So then they use horses for everything So it's not gonna be long before the river is going to be too dry But now we can still pass going really slowly See how shallow it is This is maybe.. 20 centimeters, 30 centimeters maybe See it's almost dry here already Oh, so now we're reaching.. I see some stairs so I think there's some people living over here See if we can get there We arrived So they told me to reach the people that are part of this community but live the furthest away. It's 5 hours travelling by river So that's deep, deep into the jungle So we won't be going there today But um.. yeah, it looks like there's some stairs up there We cross? Okay Whooh Okay so I want to show something pretty cool This is one way that people that live close to here in this community used to fish They've let part of the river down here and then they've created these two pools To catch fish And then they've made three canals over here So you can see here That they've arranged the rocks in a way that the water can drain that way And then the fish are supposed to be left in here Let's see if they caught something Nothing in here. Let's see over there I have to be careful not to destroy the.. Okay, I don't see fish at the moment But surely it works. So that's one way that they used to catch fish down here And I've just asked but the King does not live in this community The King lives 5 hours down the river with a boat So that's really quite far away And they've also told me that their family so basically the Royal Family Is called the Santana So that's everybody with the surname Santana, is part of the Royal Family Um.. and you can visit them. Well, people of the community can kind of make an appointment And go and visit their King Um.. I am too late to make an appointment and it's really far away so unfortunately I won't be able to meet the King of the people here but um.. surely I'm going to meet some other interesting people so.. Yeah There are no fish inside at the moment
- No, no they all came out because they no longer want to die Oeh Hahaha, again How many kilometers on the motorcycle and you can't walk You can't win in everything in life
- That's right, you can't win in everything There comes a moment that yes, you win, and another moment you loose
- Yes, yes, that's right Do you always have the machete in your boot? It's not uncomfortable?
- Yes, because No, no now I can suddenly grab it, it's fast It's the life of a warrior. When a warrior has to do something fast You can't be like this.. over here No, you have to be alive and ready, you understand Always ready
- Always ready You know, in our lives, of the indigenous population, it's necessary
- Ah yes? It's necessary
- For..? Because when we move to other communities, some are hunters and all these are tools It's necessary For people, or animals?
- For people, animals or suddenly a snake And then it goes, a weapon to defend And suddenly you have to cut the plants to open the road to continue That's why we have the machete So all the men have one?
- Yes, of course, all of them And women?
- Yes, well, sometimes She has a knife in her bag
- Yes? She has a knife in her bag to peel oranges, lemons Ah ha I also have one.. but in Bocas, with my motorcycle And do you know how many people live in this community? Like hundred? Or less Approximately.. 700 in this community
- 700? Oh, quite large then It's a big village, but they don't all live together.. They live separated. One here, one there They don't live together like a big city but apart from each other
- Yeah This.. this type of tree is one that grows really fast. In like 5 years it will reach this And that's the one that they use also to make the canoes that we came in Wow, look at this view
- That's great See, there's another small boat is coming down the river there So the people that live here, they can only come here either via the river or via this small path so only with horseback There's no road coming here If there is an accident there, we can move people at one in the morning 8 o'clock at night, 10 o'clock at night, 3 in the morning, 4 in the morning We can go in the river, because we know it by heart Every single day. And also, if you don't have transport by boat, you make a big raft You put your products on it, your vegetables, the stalks, the leaves and you go But it's dangerous right? Because there are parts where there are a lot of rocks And when there isn't a lot of water Yes there are many rocks, but we go by experience You know the way..
- It's an adventure, an adventure Of course.. but the river is like the blood of the community, no? Yes, this river is our life. Without this river, we are done. Where do we go? That's why we are against the dams, because one dam that they want to build Inside the "comarca" of the Naso So right now we are protesting to protect our lives To not allow more They want to build another hydroelectric dam?
- Two hydroelectric dams more - Oh two more But that means less water here, no?
- Yes, yes Two hydroelectric dams more, and this will die here.. no more water No more fish, no more life, no more health, no more love, nothing So who benefits from it? Us almost nothing Only for the ones with more resources and us not We are talking about the environment, about the nature. That what we conserve And other people come and destroy our nature and our lives And we do not allow this situation because it's our lives! It's the aquatic road transport
- I understand Welcome again to the community Solón
- My community It's her community, where she lives, she has her family here
- Thank you This is the yucca plant, look This is yucca, look.. this, this
- This is yucca But the yucca is underneath right?
- Yes, underneath. And this is the palm on top Where we.. we always cut it here Look we have green coconut, and at the end we have yellow coconut. There are two types One green and one yellow, they are two different plants, but with the same taste It's normal coconut
- Doesn't matter And this one you can eat or you have to wait a bit more?
- You have to wait a bit more until it's bigger Good afternoon sir
- Come in - Thank you Come!
- Morning Have a seat, sit down
- Thank you What I understand is that he stresses again that his hearing is not so good But he says that he was born in the community Sieyik Sieyik is right in the heart of the Naso lands, where the palace of the King is Our cultural tradition, that's about 5 hours up the river Our battle.. with the Miskito, Bribri, the Indio Conejo and then with the Spanish that came A complete massacre because of our gold.. you understand?
- Yes Four enemies against one.. defenseless Them with fire arms and us with these ones.. a very sad fight So these are the traditional weapons that the people used The.. oh, where's the bow? The bow that you had.. oh this one This one is a.. a bow. So that one they use to hunt for animals but these ones Were to protect against other indigenous groups And the Spanish when they came And then those are more advanced weapons. It's a crossbow That one and I think that one is also a bow Of some sort And they also use poison at the tips Of those spears You can change this one.. This one is new
- This one is newer? So big. Wow Wow This one also, but it's hard You prepare it
- How does it work? This one has this here And there you put it And here goes the.. the little spear.. this flies Wow Unbelievable
- And so, this here is to shoot And this is the viewer It's silent
- Ah, it's silent Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah You are coming there and I am here like.. This is the strongest weapon right? This is also an old weapon from here
- Yes, yes So that was a super interesting visit. So we just went to the house of Orlando's grandad They didn't know that we were coming So they were a little bit surprised in the beginning but uh.. They were so welcoming and yeah, it was so interesting listening.. to listen to his stories Um.. because he is 89 years old So I could ask him all sorts of questions about how life was like When he was a kid, like over 80 years ago Because now you can walk between some of the communities but He said back then it was only the river You could definitely not walk here it was thick, thick jungle And they were only very few people and they all lived quite far away from each other They were no houses. They lived in kind of.. thatched.. they just had a thatched roof All the way down, no flooring or anything It was just dirt And that was how their houses looked like at the time They had 4 enemies, 3 different other indigenous tribes And then the Spanish Originally there were a lot of people from the Naso community that lived on Bocas del Toro On the islands but they were driven away there by the Spanish And they came to this place and some crossed the mountains over to what is now Costa Rica But they're really struggling to keep their culture kind of alive It's just disappearing and that starts with the language There are already some areas where the people don't speak Naso anymore So he spoke very good Spanish, better.. better than me Um.. but some of the stories he told in Naso which is their indigenous language Which is completely.. completely different, it's a unique language Um.. but it's slowly disappearing as well as other parts of their culture And on the side where the Naso people went to Costa Rica. They say, they live.. how do you say that? A modern life And nothing really is left of their traditions I think they.. they're really trying to keep it alive and Yeah. I believe, if I understood correctly they're now starting to teach children in school Naso again And not only Spanish but also their own indigenous language Ah to.. yeah in an effort to preserve it.. to keep it alive I think we're now gonna go back to the river and then back to .. I think the road really So of course when grandad was young, they also had boats made from From the trees but no engine so they just had to paddle at that time Now that's changed of course To an engine uh.. Hello Boats See it's already here Ah.. he is sleeping! Hello There is a fish there.. a fish! Fish Orlando just spotted some big fish somewhere I think we are going back for the fish We are going to look for the fish? Very good! Dinner! Just gonna check up on the big fish It already left?
- Yes We just hit some rocks. It's very, very shallow up here Some vultures
- A married couple! We are back I'm just gonna say hi to Orlando's horse Eh.. that's called Macho Hello.. hello sweetie Hey. Such a sweet horse Hey Macho So having a horse is essential Because as I said before, if the water level in the river gets too low Then you don't have any other option Than to go by horseback Let's go upstairs. I think we're going to eat something now I just love the way the stairs look See they.. they're completely natural So they used this tree which had a bend in it and then they cut it in half Put it like that. Put wood in-between And now you got a staircase which goes at an angle Great view from here right?.. Yes
- Great view from here Alright, at this lunchtime, I will show you the food that we're eating Um.. this is called raba de mono. That kind of refers to the tail of a monkey Because this plant has like.. the end kind of rolls up like that Um and this What's this called again? This thing?
- Yampi I don't know what Yampi is and frijoles which are beans So I'm just gonna try it now I'm gonna try this Yampi But Yampi is a type of a Yucca or not? Hmm, it's really good. I don't know what it tastes like It has a.. It's a bit potato like. I would say, it's a kind of potato It's absolutely delicious so I'm gonna enjoy my lunch Alright, I'm back on the little boat from Almirante on to Bocas The sun is going to go down soon now Somebody shouted something I think they forgot somebody One more passenger But anyway, what a.. what a day What a special day. So I'm gonna end this video now That was it for today, I really hope you liked this video If you did, please give me a big thumbs up Subscribe down below and then I'll see you in the next video
