Hello Everyone! Happy Halloween and Dia de los Muertos!
We are back at Palugo! It feels so great to be here after our month long expedition. Everyone is organizing group gear and their belongings. We are resting and staying at Palugo for two weeks before we go off on our second and last expedition.
We have had quite an adventure since I last wrote. Getting on the Jatunyacu River was exciting. Unfortunately, Bryson wasn’t feeling well enough to come on the first stretch with us, his stomach was bothering him. Hannah C. and Naty didn’t join us either as they didn’t feel
comfortable with the rapids. The three went and stayed at a hostel with Lily and met us two days later. For the river portion, we were joined by Nadino, a 19 year old indigenous young man from Shiwacocha, the village we were heading to. Nadino was an intern in last year’s Ecuador semester, and has participated in previous semesters with his brothers. He has very long silky black hair and an intricately painted face. It was a great joy to have him with us. In terms of river vessels, we brought a zodiac raft, a kata-raft and three kayaks, which were brought in the event of a needed rescue and were used by the Dammer brothers and their cousin Sebastian.
The first day of travel was tough for a few of us because our stomachs were feeling awful. Let me just say that the motion of the rapids didn’t help. Thank God we felt better the following day. It was a long, very sunny and fun day on the river, filled with paddling, mud baths and swimming. The Rio Jatunyacu is joined by the Rio Anzu creating the Rio Napo, one of the leading tributaries to the great Amazon.
That afternoon, when we reached out camp site, we were greeted by Lily, Bryson, Naty and Hannah C. What a gorgeous campsite we had, a vast rocky beach, green mossy vines hanging over our tents and kitchen area, majestic clouds in the distance and the sparkling Rio Napo. Mathias, Sebastian, Michael, Nadino, Lily and Ross cooked us all a very delicious dinner of rice, beans, plantains and guacamole. So special!
The following day we simply crossed the river, pulled out the rafts and deflated them. We sent unneeded belongings with Mathias, Michael and Sebastian who were returning to Palugo. While we were getting everything together, 11 monkeys passed us by! I guess they were taking their morning stroll in the town. It was quite a scene. Soon we headed off for a 30 minute ride in the back of two trucks to the start of our trek to Shiwacocha. It was a hot and very humid trek. Luckily we didn’t have to carry all of our tents or pots, so all the backpacks were fairly light, except two packs that were loaded with the kataraft. Within three hours through the green jungle we arrived to Shiwacocha, a village community on the Rio Arajuno, consisting of a few thatched roof houses in the midst of the jungle. We resided in the chozon of Nadino’s family, under mosquito nets for four nights. It was such a wonderful visit.
Isolina, Nadino’s mother was very inspiring as she works with medicinal herbs, practices midwifery, does lots of crafts, works in the garden and is the mother of 10 children. She and her husband, Samuel, were engaged when she was 13 through an arranged marriage and they are both healers. With our cuts that were bothering us, Isolina took us to a Sangre de Drago tree, where she cut slits into with her machete and extracted a few drops of the precious and healing liquid onto a banana leaf. Her husband Samuel travels sometimes by plane to small communities where he is needed.
After our arrival, we shared lunch with Isolina, her mother, Mercedes, and Nadino. To cool off we went for a dip in the river with Nadino. He took a few of us with their dugout canoe that must have been 30 feet long. It is moved with two long bamboo poles. When we came to rapids we had to get out of the canoe and walk it up. It was lots of fun. For dinner that night we ate fish from the river, broth, sweet corn and yucca. We also drank chicha, a fermented drink made from yucca.
The next morning we separated into two groups. One went to gather palm leaves to work on repairing the thatched roof, and the other went to harvest yucca with Isolina. Yucca is a very special plant. We used machetes to weed around the yucca plants, then took the leaves off and piled the branches in a separate place. We cut down the plants and focused on pulling up the roots and harvesting the yucca tubers and peeling off their two outer layers. When we got back to the house, we boiled the peeled yuccas until they were soft enough to start smashing in a giant bowl that could sit seven or eight people around. Isolina, Hannah, Erica and I cleaned our mouths and then started chewing the yucca and spitting it back into the bowl. After each of us had chewed around 10 bites, we mushed up all the remaining clumps and then put everything in a bucket to ferment and turn into chicha.
The next day we made beautiful crafts. In the morning we walked to Nadino’s uncle’s house where the children climbed up their pilche trees and threw pilches (they look like gourds) down to each of us. While some of the group went back to the house to carve out their pilches, the rest of us went to gather vines for making baskets. What a beautiful walk- especially barefoot. Two of the villagers took out their axes and started cutting down a huge tree as the vines themselves were too high to reach. Because of its huge roots, the falling tree ended up taking down a whole other tree with it! We gathered the roots and headed back. Walking back, we passed four or five children who took a bunch of grapes out from the baskets on their heads and handed them to me. It was sweet.
Weaving our baskets we got a lot of help from the villagers. It was amazing how fast they were and how they never got overwhelmed with all the pieces to weave. The baskets all turned out beautifully. Before dinner Isolina found a deadly poisonous lizard that ended up being killed by a broom. It had impressive green and black stripes on the tale and was about 8 inches long.
The next day was Halloween and Lily’s birthday, we built the balsa wood raft and assembled the kata-raft. Those who worked on the balsa raft went to harvest the trees and then floated down the river on the logs. A long solo time in the afternoon allowed for reflection before we made jewelry with Isolina. She had feathers, shells and beautiful red seeds with black diamond shapes. It was quite a special opportunity to learn the local crafts from Isolina.
Finally the real celebration of Lily’s birthday began. A few other members of the community joined us and wanted to put on a show. Since they don't celebrate birthdays they wanted to show us what a traditional marriage ceremony and celebration might look like. Thomas and Marcea played Lily’s (the bride) parents, and Isolina and Samuel Nadino’s (the groom) parents. There was a lot of singing, dancing and drumming. They even brought a generator to bring more light into the room and to set up the radio. What a birthday Lily had! And what a special last night we had in Shiwachocha.
Waking up at four we headed down to the beach with Nadino’s family and a few other families. Everyone told us to return and they were so warm and kind. Personally, it was hard to leave, but I grew excited about the possibility of returning. And then we were off! The balsa raft had some troubles in the beginning. We had to stop on a rocky beach and search the jungle for more vines and palms to add more lynching. It also helped that fewer people went on it after the reparations. It was such a gorgeous day to paddle and the river was perfect to swim.
When we arrived to our destination, we disassembled the kata-raft, and left the balsa raft for a traveler who might be in need of one. As we left on the long motor canoe, I noticed two young boys getting onto our balsa raft and starting to take it down the river. This was a perfect ending to our adventure. And with that we headed home to Palugo. Yesterday was dedicated to organizing and readjusting. We got to sleep in, shared a wholesome delicious brunch together and laughed a lot. The energy was light and it felt really good to be back. Last night, since it was Dia de los Muertos, Lily suggested that we each share a story or thought about someone in our lives who had died. It felt good to share stories with each other and to remember those loved ones.
Today we are working in the garden, weeding potatoes, working on the garden shed that we’re building for Palugo. Geoff, Hannah M. and Jackson are building stairs on the side of the hill, and I’m here in the chozon finishing up this update!
One of the songs we’ve been singing a lot is El Camaleon (the Chameleon). So I’ll write down the lyrics for you.
El camaleon, cambia de colores
Asi segun la estacion
El arco iris tambien, cambia de colores
Asi según las estacion
Sea verde, sea rojo, sea amarillo
Cualquer color puede ser, menos el gris
Por que grises seran los dias en que de vi
Cuando te perdi, mi amor
Badabam bam bam bam bam x6
Geoff would like to wish his mom Mary a very Happy Birthday and hopes that she’s well.
Humble wishes of happiness, peace, warmth and bliss,
For the NHESP, this is your Scribe, Melodia
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