This is how it all started.

When I reluctantly took a gig playing drums on a bizarre tour in 2010 I became really good friends with the tour bus driver, Jason Cook. After a few drinks, he told me about his parents, who lived in Panama and worked to preserve the disappearing Indigenous population. He spoke of the Jungle and the remote Darien region, where his parents built a Mission and ran a local radio station. His family moved from the USA to Panama in the 80s and lived with a tribe, learning "the way of the jungle". They helped in a Leper Colony and built their own house brick by brick. He invited me to visit if I ever wanted to. The pictures confirmed it wasn’t just the booze making up stories. A year later i bought myself a camera and jumped on a flight to Panama. I spent a few days learning how to use my new toy, which would later become an inseparable companion for my many adventures.

And there I was, in the heart of one of the most dangerous jungles, where guerrilla groups, organized crime, cartels, and drug traffickers roamed freely, traveling from one remote village to the next. From the Kuna Warriors, the Arimae tribe to the Ipeti Choco, I found myself lost in a parallel universe that seemed to fit me perfectly.

My camera, myself and my curiosity became one.

Alex Elena