Its population is a melting pot that includes 62% mestizo, 14% African, 10% Spanish, 5% mulatto and 5% Indian. The 7 indigenous ethnic groups that live in Panama are scattered throughout the territory, in very localized regions:
The Emberá live on the banks of the Chagres River, and the Wounaan inhabit the Darien area, the impenetrable jungle that separates Panama from Colombia.
Despite the distance, both ethnic groups share customs and clothing, loincloths or "paruma" for them, and colorful skirts and naked torso for them, as well as bracelets and necklaces made of silver coins.
Instead, their languages are totally different.
The Kunas are probably the indigenous group that has most jealously maintained their culture, and as you already know, they live in the San Blas archipelago.
The women show mourning by wearing a red and yellow scarf on their heads, and a longitudinal black line runs down their noses; the ink is extracted from a fruit called jagua.
Their dances are danced to the beat of bamboo flutes and maracas made of gourds and seeds.
The Ngöbe-Buglé are the majority ethnic group in Panama and inhabit the provinces of Veraguas, Bocas del Toro and Chiriquí, where I am now.
They tend to work in coffee, sugar and banana plantations, since these provinces concentrate most of the country's agricultural production.
Their living conditions are quite bad, and they live in barracks within the same coffee plantations, which I have been visiting. They make the "Chácaras", very colorful bags, and the "chaquiras", polychrome geometric necklaces made with beads obtained from shells and bones.
The Teribe (Nazo) live on the banks of the river of the same name, they are excellent builders of canoes, hammocks, drums, and wood carvings, and their dances are very varied, such as the gallote, and the tiger dance (here there are no tigers , but it is seen that they know them).
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