The Survivors

Just a few weeks “Columbus Day” was celebrated in the United States by almost everyone except the Native Americans. The coming of the white man nearly destroyed the native population. The Europeans brought dreadful diseases with them that wiped out entire populations of the people who were already living here. A simple case of the sniffles would rampage through villages leaving a wake of destruction which was to the indigenous people what the Black Death was to the Europeans.

It occurred to me recently riding on the bus with half a dozen Ngäbe Indians that these were the descendants of the strong. The survivors.

Sunday I went with some gringo and Panamanian friends up to Boquete for a special program being put on by the Lions Club. I caught these photos of some of the survivors.

Since it’s the rainy season here we weren’t disappointed and I caught this snap of a young girl who was hiding out from the showers under a tree.