This photo essay was created by Global Observer Contributor Yingyi Chen about her summer trip to Panama, featuring reflections on her time traveling and reporting in the country and 13 photos of the people, places and experiences she encountered along the way. 

This summer I was part of Beyond the Canal, a reporting project led by Professor Carlene Hempel as part of a Dialogue of Civilizations study abroad program at Northeastern University.

We went to Panama for one month, traveled through the country and reported on its everyday life. We went to Panama City, Colon, Mamoni Valley, and the indigenous Embera-Puru and Guna Yala regions. We went up mountains, across seas, through rainforests and over beaches, trying to find out more about this beautiful country.

The team included 17 students from the Northeastern University School of Journalism, and I took on the role of staff photographer, providing photos to support their stories and action shots when they were reporting and writing. As a result, I was involved in more than 6 stories while in Panama, helping me to fully immerse myself in the country. 

As an international student and a Chinese native speaker, this was a fantastic opportunity for me, helping me to learn and adapt when communication is difficult and to make friends with people from all over the world.

Some of our experiences will stay with me forever, such as planting pineapples and sleeping with the sounds of the ocean, but one in particular stands out: our trip to Mamoni. We drove in the bus, took a canoe, and climbed 4 hours up a mountain, finally arriving at a community completely outside my perceived norms of everyday life in the modern world, people living without electronics and networks.

Below are 13 photos I took throughout our trip to Panama. Enjoy!

Casco Viejo, our first stop. While there are a lot of new buildings, they are surrounded with those that have been abandoned.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Chinatown in Panama City. What impressed me most is the vivid color on the walls throughout the city and how people were always dressed randomly. You can really feel how relaxed they are.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Panama Canal, which made the country famous around the world, busy but in perfect order. Not just a canal, but also a spot every traveler will visit when they come to Panama.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Women from Emberá-Púrú in traditional dress.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Emberá-Púrú is region with a small community of indigenous Embera. People still cut wood to make fire and live without electricity, working between sunrise and sunset sunshine.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Colon City. A canal that is an important connection between North and South America.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Portobelo – a small but colorful town. Its people paint everywhere to spread their culture.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Portobelo.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Mamoni Valley. This preserve is a jungle forest, but I’d like to call it an arcadia. The weather here is always unpredictable – sunny one minute and then pouring the next. Outside of our accommodation was a field, and pictured are the herd of cows.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Mamoni Valley. We ate organic foods from our host’s garden.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Mamoni Valley. There were a lot of weird and wonderful plants and strange insects.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Guna Yala. Another indigenous province. This photo was taken when we first arrived on one of the hundreds of islands along the coast. You can see the coconut palms and wooden huts on the small island in this photo.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Guna Yala. We stayed on a small island. You can walk around the island in 30 mins, and see the sunrise on the east and the sunset in the west.
CC: Yingyi Chen

Yingyi’s photos, the reporting of her peers and a selection of other multimedia content from the trip are available at Beyond the Canal.  Beyond the Canal is a reporting project led by Professor Carlene Hempel as part of a “Dialogue of Civilization” study abroad program at Northeastern University. For one month, 17 students from the School of Journalism traveled throughout Panama to report on modern life at this continental crossroads from seven locations including Panama City, Colón, Mamoní Valley, and the indigenous Emberá-Púrú and Guna Yala regions. Beyond the Canal, with its in-depth articles, video and audio reports and photojournalism, is a showcase of what students from Northeastern University’s School of Journalism are capable of.