If you can't get in touch with the Pemasky project people the easiest way to visit Nusagandi is to call Ecotours (263-3076-7- 8). Ecotours offers a two-day trip leaving Panama City at 7 am and returning late in the afternoon the day after. They organize everything and you will be accompanied also by a naturalist guide/driver in addition to the Kuna Indian park ranger. A minimum of two persons is required.

Back on the Panamerican Highway, some 15 kilometers after El Llano is the Bayano River bridge across Bayano Lake which provides water supply for Panama's first hydroelectric dam built in 1972. It is a beautiful spot for pictures and view over the lake. There, your enter the Madungandi - which means abundance of bananas - Indian reserve and the most attractive part of the highway, cutting into the forest. The reserve, in the dam watershed, has been less cleared by "colonos" than other neighboring areas. MAJE ISLAND on the lake has several hamlets and is a marvellous destination to observe nature. Maje island has a surface of 1,433 acres and the great biological diversity that maintains this area has permitted the development of outstanding biomedic and investigations of the tropics. Imama Tours (223-0728, 223-0729) has made it a speciality to organize trips to Maje.

IPETI is an Indian village with the characteristic housing of Kuna as well as Embera and Wounaan on both sides of the road and nearby Ipetí river. Remember always ask permission to take a picture. You will avoid making Kuna women run to hide from you. Accept their conditions, otherwise there will be no picture. A small market by the bridge sells fruits and vegetables and you can buy handicrafts from both communities.

After Ipetí, the road crosses desolated and deforested lands to Yaviza; many "colonos" have invaded both sides of the highway, clearing woods to grow agricultural products or begin cattle farming. Although logging is allowed by special permits, most of the devastation was done without regulation and illegally. It has been and still is a constant source of problems. Santa Fé, Metetí and Canglón are only worth a stop to exercise your legs or eat a $3 meal of local food. The stretch between Canglón and Yaviza is of difficult access during rainy season but don't be discouraged.

YAVIZA with its 2,000 inhabitants was founded by the Spaniards in 1638 and called San Jeronimo de Yaviza where they established a fort and garrison, quite important in the 17th and 18th centuries. Ruins of the fort can be seen. Although it was restored in the 1980s, time and luxuriant vegetation have taken their toll. Yaviza Fort is the sole remaining colonial relic of significance in Darién . At sunset the ruins seem to come to life, with strange birds songs evoking phantoms of its former sentinels.