Ngäbe

Panama 2023.

During our trip to Panama in 2023, we spent several days in Boquete and chose to explore the remote Comarca Ngäbe and Buglé. Through a travel agency recommended by a Panamanian friend, we quickly arranged for a guide named Willo Mittre from Soloy, who picked us up in Boquete and introduced us to his hometown as well as some of the secluded areas of the Comarca, accessible only via rugged roads. The Ngäbe are an indigenous group residing in the regions that comprise modern-day Panama and Costa Rica in Central America. Most of the Ngäbe population lives within the Ngäbe-Buglé comarca, located in the western provinces of Veraguas, Chiriquí, and Bocas del Toro. In 1997, following years of advocacy with the Panamanian government, the Ngäbe were awarded a Comarca, a semi-autonomous region, where the majority of their population now resides.

Photos: Fuji GFX100s