an Amazoning Time

Two of my friends (Leslie and Jesse) and I, accompanied by Jesse's dad, ditched classes for a few days to head back to the jungle. As I had mentioned in a previous post, Jesse and I had been thirsting for more jungle, and so we planned this trip. It wasn't quite the "lost in the jungle" experience we wanted, but nonetheless we had a sweet time.

We chose to go to Macas, an area in the southern Amazon region, because it is more isolated and less visited than the northern Amazon cities. We figured we might get a more authentic, less touristy visit there, which definitely proved to be true. Through the Lonely Planet Ecuador guide, we found the e-mail address of a tour guide in Macas who offers several-day treks in the jungle around Macas. His name is Tsunki, and he is of the Shuar indigenous tribe. The Shuar people, which are now split between those who have accepted modern civilization and those who still live isolated lives deep in the jungle, are most well-known for their practice of shrinking heads. This tradition has since been deemed illegal by the Ecuadorian government, but they still practice it with animal heads. Unfortunately we didn't get to see either.

We arrived in Macas early Tuesday afternoon. We were met at the airport by Tsunki and his tour-guide business partner Bolivar, another Shuar. That afternoon, they took us to Bolivar's home, where Bolivar, his wife, and their seven-year-old son live. They have two fairly large huts that make up their living space. One is elevated, and inside it is bare, save two beds made up of dried bamboo slats raised off the floor and a large pile of dried corn (which apparently is used for feeding their chickens). The other hut is the kitchen area - inside the majority of space is taken up by the cooking fire, but there is also a table and benches line that the perimeter.

When we got there, we put down our stuff and walked down the dirt road, which met up with a rocky side road/path that led down to a river. On our way down towards the river, Tsunki and Bolivar showed us several medicinal plants and told us their use by the Shuar. (For instance, a tree called "Sangre de Drago" = "Dragon Blood", which when cut "bleeds" a red sap that can be diluted and drank to cure gastritis, diarrhea, and stomach infections, or which can be applied to cuts/scrapes to help the healing and inflammation.) We crossed the river, which was at a level of about our knees, and got to the other side, where there is secondary forestland. We hiked through this area for a while, looking at other plants. Bolivar and his neighbors/family have cleared a good bit of the forest for cultivating crops, a wide variety of things including yucca, chinese potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, platanos, and other things that I can't remember because I wasn't familiar with them. While we were walking, Bolivar disappeared for a little while, but we knew he was nearby because we heard the loud hacking sound of a machete against wood. He was busy cutting down a palm tree (and then another) to harvest the "heart of palm" vegetable from the top portion of the tree to eat. It was crazy to see these huge trees falling, and we were really uncomfortable with the idea that he was cutting them down just so we could try the heart of palm (which actually we had tried before). We came to realize over our time with Tsunki and Bolivar that they don't really have a conservation mentality; rather they act in accordance with the belief that it's their forest and it's there to use.

On the way back, we swam in the river. It was delightfully chilly. I really love swimming in cold freshwater. It's always hard to get in at first, but once you take the plunge, it is so refreshing and invigorating.

It was almost dark when we got back to the house. Leslie and I changed out of our wet clothes, then went to the kitchen area to help Bolivar's wife prepare the dinner. She was hacking away at a chicken, putting the chicken pieces into a pot. We helped her to cut tomatoes and onions to add with it, which we then put over the large fire to create a sort of stew. We were told that Shuar women are in charge of cooking and the men don't help. Nonetheless, as we were cutting the onions and shedding tears because of it, Tsunki came over and told us to splash water on our forearms, up to the inner elbow crease, as a trick to not cry when you cut onions. It worked for me, but not for Les. :) (Try it next time you cut onions and let me know if it works for you!) Then we cut up the heart of palm into little shreds, added onion and salt, and wrapped it up in large (palm?) leaves to put over the fire. Bolivar's wife already had a large pot of water boiling to make rice. We sat around the fire as everything cooked, sleepy from the day and eyes tired from the smoky room (talk about indoor air pollution, yikes). But the dinner was delicious. And it was followed up by tea called "hierba de Luisa" - Luisa's herbal tea - which when supplemented by sugar tasted a lot like Fruit Loops.

Then we headed to bed, Leslie and I on one of the wooden beds, Jesse's dad on the other, and Jesse in a sweet camping hammock that we tied from two of the pillars in the hut. The bed was really hard, but we managed, and couldn't complain because Tsunki, Bolivar, and his wife and son slept on the floor around us. We were all awaken early by the loud screeches of a parrot right outside the hut and the persistent cockle-doodle-doos of Bolivar's roosters.

On day 2, we had breakfast and leftover hierba de Luisa tea, then headed off to another jungle area. A taxi dropped us off at an area where we walked through a Shuar village and then hiked through lots of mud and then jungle until we got to a little clearing with a waterfall a short walk away. While walking through the village, we stopped at one of the homes and asked to borrow a pot and plates that we then carried along. When we got up to the campsite, we set up everything and then went for a swim in the waterfall. Again, this was my favorite part of the day. The water was c-o-l-d, but soooo nice. As soon as we got back to the campsite, it started raining really hard, and didn't stop until the next morning. Because it was already so muddy, we spent the afternoon huddled under leaning shelters that had been constructed there, talking and watching our fire that only stayed going because of the large log put over the little flame burning underneath. When it stopped raining so hard, it was getting dark, and we put on a large pot of water to boil spaghetti. We all stood around the fire and talked about the US, Ecuador, and Shuar traditions. When the spaghetti was ready, we ate it with salt and ketchup. Then, in darkness except for the fire, Bolivar told us a few Shuar stories, one which explained the fate of the man-eating monster that lived in a cave. The conversation continued, but I sat with my eyes closed, drifting in and out of sleep. That night it rained a lot. I slept very well in the hammock, guarded by a rain cover. Leslie slept in one tent, Jesse and his dad in another, and Bolivar and Tsunki under the shelters.

The next morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn to pack up camp and hike back out to the road, where we picked up a bus to take us a 45 minute drive down the road. We arrived in another village, where we stopped to have breakfast, and then we hiked up the road and over a small mountain and down to a little area next to a river, occupied by a Shuar shaman (healer) and his family of two wives and countless children. Polygamy is allowed in Shuar tradition, and Tsunki explained that it always works best when the wives are sisters because then there is less conflict. I'm not sure if these wives were sisters, but there didn't seem to be any conflict. When we first got there, we sat around for a little while, while Tsunki, Bolivar and the shaman chatted in Shuar. We were served chicha, the traditional Shuar beverage. It was...interesting, and as we drank it, I tried not to think about how it is made: the Shuar ladies chew yucca/platano (whichever type of chicha it is) and then let it ferment in the sun for about five hours. Then they add a bit of water, and vois-la, you have chicha. I guess it kind of tasted like fermented juice, but it was chunky, and smelled like farm. Then, we took a carved canoe across the river to the primary forest jungle there, where we hiked around a bunch. We saw lots more types of trees and flower and medicinal plants. Oh yeah, and we also each ate a little black crunchy bug that lived inside of a palm plant. That night we swam in the river - a lot more quickly and less enjoyably, as it was already getting dark and thus was quittte chilly. That night we ate fresh fish, and talked to the shaman to have our questions answered about his life and practice. We tasted the famed "ayauasca", a traditional Shuar drink that when imbibed causes crazy hallucinations and vomiting. It's sometimes used to cure sickness, sometimes to see what you hallucinate as a way to see inside yourself, and always during festivals. But as we talked to the shaman, it seemed like he prescribes the ayauasca treatment for almost every ailment. We just tried a little drop of it, not enough to cause any effects, but enough to taste its bitterness. Jesse and his dad went to watch the Shuar men set a fish net in the river, and Leslie and I stayed in the candlelight chatting. That night we slept in a large structure with six of the bamboo slat beds, which is where visitors to the Shaman sleep when they come to be treated.

In the morning we had breakfast - eggs, papa china (chinese potatoes) and a piece of sweet platano - and then had a little more time at the shaman's house before we had to hike back out and head to the airport. We spent the time having a little concert with Shuar instruments and then practicing shooting a Shuar blow gun. The concert was fun - they had two flutes, a mouth harp, a large goofy hand-carved violin, a drum, and a turtle shell that squeaked when you rubbed it right. The Shaman sang as we all attempted to make noises with our instruments, which was ridiculousy noisy, slightly musical, and very hilarious. Then we got to shoot the blow gun. We set up a little target - two small platanos stuck onto a 4ft stake in the ground - that we tried to shoot the little pointed sticks at through the blow gun. After several tries (and for Leslie and me, moving the "stand here" line up a little closer to the target), we all successfully hit the platanos. Then it was time to go.

It was a cool trip overall - definitely felt like a more realistic look at what jungle life is like for local people than what we experienced in our first jungle trip. It was especially interesting to see the practices in action of the indigenous people that are causing the deforestation and environmental problems that I learn about in my classes. But it is so easy to see that they do these things because of their impoverished situations, which is worsened as they face pressures from outside civilization and the contemporary need to have modern currency. The emphasis of the Yacahana Foundation (the place where we went last time) is to empower/educate the indigenous people so that they can survive in ways that don't compromise the environment and therefore their future wellbeing. After this trip experience with the Shuar, it's easy to see why this is so necessary.

Photos coming soon; we took all of the photos on Jesse's camera and I gotta get them from him. Then I'll post them, so check back!

Also, I must give credit of this post's title to my mom, master punster.