Nilsa Caisamo left her 2-year-old son with her sister in Panama and boarded the Pajaro Jai against her mother’s wishes. Clasping a small white sack filled with the colorful grasses and chunga palm fibers she weaves into delicate baskets, the 23-year-old woman explained through a translator Thursday why she left her family behind.

Caisamo sat in the vessel’s galley, rubbing her elaborately painted hands together between her knees. It’s hard to be away from her son, she said, but she is helping to secure a better future for him and her community by bringing their message to the world. By meeting with other indigenous people such as the Penobscots, she hopes to learn how to produce and sell her tribe’s crafts and bring prosperity to the village of Mogue, Caisamo said.

She has woven baskets for more than half of her life, selling them to tourists for about $500 each, only one-tenth the price middlemen reap by selling them out of the country. Larger baskets can take up to a year to craft. Caisamo held the beginnings of a teacup-size basket in the lap of her bright yellow skirt, a small disk with a naturally dyed black star and deep red accents that took her 15 days to weave.

Her tribe shared the baskets Thursday with the Penobscots, who are themselves gifted weavers of baskets. The day’s sharing of ceremonial traditions allowed her, for the first time, to enjoy the culture of other indigenous people, Caisamo said. In Mogue, tourists come to observe her tribe’s traditions, she said, but the exchange stops there.

Aboard the Pajaro Jai, Caisamo and her tribe are the tourists – a thought she greeted with a broad smile, her petite frame shaking in laughter.