La Mina

La Mina (known informally as Older Men) was a tribe from Survivor: Panama.

Although the original membership consisted entirely of older men, the tribe attained new members after the first three days of competition. Despite their best efforts, they were no competition for their rivals, Casaya. The tribe color is orange.

Original

 * Bruce Kanegai, a karate instructor and art teacher from Sacramento, California.
 * Dan Barry, a retired NASA astronaut from South Hadley, Massachusetts.
 * Shane Powers, a marketing executive from Los Angeles, California.
 * Terry Deitz, a pilot from Farmington, Connecticut.

Post-Tribe Swap
In Day 4, the four teams that have been split by age and gender were integrated into two new teams. Casaya and La Mina were no longer the older tribes, rather they were used for new ones. These castaways comprised the second revision of La Mina:

This is how the Schoolyard Pick went:
 * Austin Carty, a writer from Raleigh, North Carolina.
 * Dan Barry
 * Misty Giles, a missile engineer from Dallas, Texas.
 * Nick Stanbury, a Financial Sales executive from Tempe, Arizona.
 * Ruth-Marie Milliman, a Real Estate Developer from Greenville, South Carolina.
 * Sally Schumann, a social worker from Chicago, Illinois.
 * Terry Deitz
 * Terry chose Sally;
 * Sally chose Austin;
 * Austin chose Misty;
 * Misty chose Nick;
 * Nick chose Ruth-Marie;
 * Ruth-Marie chose Dan.

The Older Men
At the start of Survivor: Panama the contestants were shocked to learn that the tribes would be divided by gender and by age. The La Mina tribe consisted of the seasons oldest four male contestants, namely Terry Deitz, Bruce Kanegai, Dan Barry and Shane Powers. At the first Reward Challenge Terry was selected to compete for La Mina. La Mina came in first place, winning flint and making camp life easier. The tribe bonded well and built a strong shelter and made fire early on. The tribe went on to win the Immunity Challenge, placing in second and keeping the Older Men safe from the first Tribal Council. On Day 4 Viveros and Bayoneta were dissolved, which was followed by a tribe switch, meaning the Older Men were no more.

The New La Mina
On Day 4 a Tribe Switch occurred, moving Bruce and Shane to the opposing Casaya tribe and gaining ex-Viveros members Nick Stanbury and Austin Carty, ex Bayoneta members, Misty Giles and Sally Schumann and ex-Casaya member Ruth-Marie Milliman. Almost immediately the men of the tribe formed a tight alliance. The tribe won the Immunity Challenge.

La Mina continued their winning the Reward Challenge in Crazy Fights, Snake Dinners but lost the Immunity Challenge, sending La Mina to their first Tribal Council. Before Tribal Council Nick and Austin made an alliance with Sally and Misty, while Dan and Terry made an alliance with Ruth-Marie. Dan and Terry managed to convince Austin and Nick to go against their new alliance and vote off Misty for her strategic game-play.

La Mina lost the next Reward Challenge and the next Immunity Challenge. The men's alliance deemed Ruth-Marie to be too much of a physical liability and she was voted off. La Mina's losing streak continued, losing the Reward Challenge in episode 5. They were able to win the Immunity Challenge though. In Salvation and Desertion Casaya won the combined Reward and Immunity Challenge and won the right to choose a member from La Mina to be sent to Exile Island, thus becoming safe at the Tribal Council. Casaya chose Sally because they thought she was the weakest member of the tribe, causing La Mina to vote off a strong member. Since Sally was safe from Tribal Council the men's alliance was forced to turn on itself. After a tough decision Dan was unanimously voted out because he was the weakest member of the tribe.

On Day 16 La Mina and Casaya merged into Gitanos. The former La Mina members went into the merge with a 6-4 disadvantage. This would cause them to be systematically voted off until Terry's immunity streak and Hidden Immunity Idol took him all the way to the final 3.

Trivia

 * In a rather interesting coincidence, each of the four starting tribes have produced a representative in the Final Four. Terry became the representative for La Mina.
 * Of the four original tribes, La Mina lasted the longest without having an original member eliminated, lasting 15 days.
 * None of the original La Mina members have competed in another season.
 * This is the only tribe from Panama that hasn't produced a returning player.
 * La Mina is the sixth orange tribe.