Deep in the rainforest along the Teribe River and stretching into the La Amistad National Park are the villages of the Naso/Teribe indigenous peoples. Their community consists of 11 villages. We offer private tours into this area, a true eco-cultural adventure, staying in rustic but comfortable lodgings.

The Naso are better known in Panama as the Teribe or Naso-Teribe. Some Naso say that “Teribe” is a mispronunciation of tjer di, which means “river of the Grandmother,” the ancestral guiding spirit of the people. They are also sometimes known as the Térraba. At the beginning of the 17th century, Spanish missionaries moved most of the Naso to what is now Costa Rica, supposedly for their own protection. But only a few hundred remain in Costa Rica today, and the number who still speak their native language can be counted on one hand. There are about 3,800 Naso left in Panama.

All of Naso pay allegiance to a king who lives in Sieyik, a community about two hours up the Teribe. The royal palace today is an austere cinderblock house, but the Naso are proud that they are the last people in Latin America still led by a king.

By their own account, the Naso have fought just about all the former and present indigenous people in the region at one time or another. By the 17th century their numbers had declined drastically and have fluctuated ever since. A tuberculosis epidemic in the early 20th century killed many, including the king.

Today the Naso are among the most endangered of Panama’s eight surviving indigenous peoples. The cultural identity of the few Naso who remain is being eroded on all sides: by the dominant Latin culture, by missionaries, by intermarriage with other indigenous peoples, and so on.

The departure point is El Silencio, a tiny community about 10 kilometers from Changuinola, where the Teribe meets the Río Changuinola. Transport is in a piragua powered by a 25-horsepower motor up the Teribe. The river flows so fast it can sometimes fight an outboard motor to a near standstill.

It’s a beautiful trip. Small rapids ripple the river, and the air feels incredibly fresh and clean after the humidity of the towns and coast. Farm country at the beginning gives way to lush countryside and a view of the Talamanca mountains in the distance. Egrets, cormorants, and iguanas can be easy to spot. When the river is low, the boatmen sometimes have to get out and drag the piragua over rocks.

Only the odd hut is visible from the river, as the communities are set back into the forest; there’s little sign of human habitation. It takes about 40 minutes to an hour to reach Wekso. The trip back down is twice as fast.

The Wekso camp is on a small hill overlooking the river. The dining area is on the edge of the hillside and has a great view of the river below and the forest beyond.

There is no electricity at the camp; candles and flashlights provide the only illumination at night. Meals are basic but okay and can include such traditional dishes as palmito and plosón salad. Palmito is heart of palm. Plosón is a fern that contains a tiny amount of cyanide—it’s quite tasty.

The camp is frog heaven in the evening, when it’s especially easy to spot incredibly cute red-eyed tree frogs. The guest bungalow, which resembles an oversized version of a traditional Naso thatched-roof house, is at the back of camp. It’s rustic but perfectly acceptable and tidy, with foam-rubber mattresses, mosquito nets over the beds, and inviting hammocks on the front porch.

Just below the camp is a ranger station for Parque Internacional La Amistad. This area is not technically in the park but rather in the buffer forest around it. But guests must pay the $3 park entrance fee anyway.

There is a good chance of spotting a variety of colorful birds in this area, including the white-fronted nunbird, blue-headed parrot, king vultures, long-tailed tyrants, Amazon kingfishers, snowy cotingas, and snowcap and green thorntail hummingbirds. As always, mammals in tropical forests are hard to find, but possibilities include water opossum, white-lipped peccaries, and neotropical river otters. Frogs are generally easy to spot, including red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas) and poison-dart frogs (such as Dendrobates pumilio and Dendrobates auratus).

Visiting Naso we hike a loop trail that starts at the camp and takes about two hours to walk at a slow pace. Your visit will include a walk led by a Naso guide who can identify common flora and fauna and share a bit of Naso lore about them. The trail is pretty, leading at first along a ridge overlooking the river and then down toward a somewhat swampy and very muddy area crisscrossed with streams and four bridges. The forest alternates between primary and secondary growth. The patches of primary forest contain some huge, impressive trees, including bongo, almond, and ceiba. The trail is good for birding, including crowd pleasers such as toucans, and there’s a chance of spotting sloths.

Farther Up the Teribe, about an hour upriver from Wekso, is Sieyik, the Naso “capital.” It’s a village of about 500 people who live in houses scattered around a lovely hillside overlooking the river.
The center of the village is a clearing that contains the royal residence, a school, and the health post, all of which are made from cinderblocks. The royal symbol of power, a group of three arrows, is painted on the front wall of the residence. The king is assisted by a consejo (board of advisers) drawn from the communities. The Naso reserve the right to switch kings if they become unhappy with him. They can vote him out, but the replacement has to come from the royal family. The current king is Tito Santana; if he’s around, there’s a slight chance you might be granted an audience, but don’t count on it. The graves of his grandfather and great-grandfather are in front of his residence.

A visit to Sieyik will include a walk around the village and a visit to a traditional home. Traditional Naso homes are built on stilts of one kind of palm (jira) and the roofs are thatched with another kind (palenquilla). Residents sleep on the soft bark of a rubber tree. Newer homes use wooden planks for walls and floor, and sometimes have corrugated zinc roofs. Visits also include a display of and possibly a chance to buy handicrafts, including objects carved from cedar, which are interesting but rarely achieve the level of artistry one sees with Emberá-Wounaan and Kuna works.

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