"After seeing some baskets, I kept asking my river for better and better examples, Geoffrey Orley said. We kept going deeper and deeper into the Darien Rainforest, visiting countless Panamanian villages until we found a small coterie of hugely gifted women creating baskets with the most amazing technique I'd ever seen."

The Wounaan basket fibers come from the Chunga and Nagualo palm trees growing in the surrounding forest. The vibrancy of the colors is obtained from natural dyes derived from native tropical plants. It can take a year or more for each weaver to create a masterwork of this caliber. Besides the wonderful addition these baskets are making to the art world, they are also reshaping the lives of the families that contribute to the work; they have created an economic boost at a time when it is very much needed.