. The contestants for this season were initially split into two tribes, the Embera tribe, named after Panama's semi-nomadic and heavily body-painted tribe, whose buffs were blue, and the Kuna tribe, named after a traditionally matriarchal and politically organised people of Panama, whose buffs were red. During the pre-merge portion of the program the Embera tribe dominated as they won the majority of both the reward and immunity challenges while Kuna saw their numbers dwindle from six to three