Traveling to Panama just weeks before New Year’s was a good reminder to cherish the old and embrace the new. Impressive pre-Columbian ruins are nestled between modern skyscrapers, some with amazing architectural designs. One soaring building was blueish and had a magnificent corkscrew twist. In Panama City, cars race in heavy traffic down narrow streets. This was far different than my favorite experience of the week, one that whispered of yesteryear.

We head out in a dugout canoe listening to rainforest birds. As we ride languidly toward our first destination, we prepare for our visit with the Emberá tribe, indigenous people who strive to live in harmony with nature.

We travel along a small river, passing lush rainforest. The Emberá lived in the area before the arrival of Europeans, and long before the formation of Panama. Today, they exist in small communities along rivers where they hunt, fish, and farm. They believe all living beings, including humans, plants, and animals, have spirits. This ties in with their strong connection to the environment.

After sharing their culture and entertaining us with their traditional dances (we were able to join them several times), we ate fried fish, plantain, and fruit served in a woven plant leaf. Rather than use paper napkins, we washed our hands in a refreshing bowl of water infused with special cleansing leaves. Leftovers were fed to the pigs and chickens.

The eco-conscious Emberá people are famous for their basket weaving. They dye palm fibers with berries or turmeric roots to get the wanted colors. They were barefoot and dressed in colorful fabrics. Young children were sometimes naked. Since I had not seen one mosquito during my trip, I concluded clothing wasn’t needed to guard against bugs, and their dark skin would help prevent sunburn. I smiled while watching youngsters slide on their butts down a muddy hill they’d probably engineered. Others played with toy cars or splashed one another in the river. The Emberá people, looking wonderfully healthy and happy, made me reflect on the joys of a simpler life.

As we look forward to a new year, it was fitting for my fellow travelers and me to view the latest Panama Canal locks with their increased width and depth to accommodate today’s much larger ships. We watched huge freighters carrying thousands of containers navigate through the narrow canal with the help of cables and tugboats.

Just as the canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific, spending time with fellow travelers connected me with people from all over the world and offered many new stories. A favorite was told by our tour guide. Imagine this. A woman riding in a boat on a tropical river kept reaching into her purse to feed a monkey peanuts. The wily primate, who was hanging onto a low tree branch, finished the peanuts. When the woman was distracted, the athletic monkey landed on the boat to grab her purse. Before she could react, it leaped back onto a tree branch. The woman screamed. The monkey, unaffected, searched for the final peanuts. As it did so, it dropped items it saw as useless into the river.

Splash! There went her driver’s license. Splash! Now her car keys. Splash! Her passport! They all sank into the crocodile-infested water.

Another story included a new love. My husband and I ate breakfast with an 86-year-old man and his new wife. They met while walking around a Colorado mall for exercise. He pursued her, but she wasn’t to be won over. She’d had her fill of men. But he proved his sincerity and showed her that love at their time of life was still possible. He told me his first wife had died after 63 years of marriage. “It’s awful to be alone,” he whispered to me. He and his wife left the dining table joyfully, walking hand in hand.

As we ring in 2025, I’m wishing you fond remembrances of the past and hopeful echoes of the future.