chicha try
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"On the Trail"
Tuesday, October 24, 2000: Into the Amazon - Kayamentza, Ecuador
Videos (download as you read the journal):
Saying goodbye to Rick as he leaves Tad and Frank in Kayamentza
Pulling up the barbasco root for fishing
Early morning maneuvers looking outside of Rick and Sharon´s backyard
A typical smooth jungle takeoff (they are not always this smooth)
Singing Shuar Christian songs (this video is very dark, basically sound only)
Tad´s very first ever single prop takeoff. Rick is pilot in Shell
Miguel using the barbasco to kill the fish - apparently it cuts off their oxygen
Miguel fishing in a pond with the barbasco root
Tad landing in Kayamentza
Pan view of Kayamentza
Tad´s first Amazon jungle landing
Frank here,
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| Frank's second chicha try More Photos |
Rick showed up unexpectedly at 6:30am to fly one of us into Kayamentza. Since I was almost ready, I swallowed and volunteered to go first. Yikes, was I ready to be left in a jungle community alone!
Fortunately, because of unusual circumstances and Pablo´s schedule, Rick was able to fly us into the jungle with special permission.
So, I finished gathering my stuff, donned my almost-knee-high rubber boots that I borrowed from Rick, rushed out to his truck, wolfed down a piece of Sharon´s great banana bread, some papaya and orange juice and was in the air in one half hour with Pablo as the pilot. It is so cool that Rick can simply take his plane from his back yard directly to the Shell airstrip.
After the smooth takeoff we headed south-south east into a very green and much flatter world. The jungle from 1000 feet up looked like brocolli with its deep green colour. We dropped off Pablo at the community that he was visiting for his missionary work. It appeared to me that the entire community came out to greet him. From there, I jumped into the front seat as Rick moved over to the pilot seat and we headed for my community - Kayamentza.
Our landing was also greeted by many of villagers. It was a 500 metre grass, dirt and bumpy landing strip surrounded by lush forest at the south end. At the other was more open dirt field with about ten homes made of palmitos (looks like bamboo) and thached roofs and dirt floors. There was one building which was more ¨modern¨. It was a one room school with a tin roof and wood floors. This was Tad`s and my home for our stay and also the place of worship and community meetings. To the west were some relatively small hills, and to the east and east we had a great vista over a cliff (about 100 metres down) to Rio Pastaza below and the Amazon jungle which extended well past the horizon.
After I took my bag and deplaned, Rick gave me a reassuring thought and a smile, ¨They will take good care of you here Frank, see you in two days¨.
We watched him take off over the cliff and then the exchange began. Many hands shakes were made as the temperature already began to climb at only 8:00am. Hand shaking is a custom that the Shuar have learnt from us. I met many of the children then the adults and Miguel, who seemed to be the person in charge. After they showed me to the school, I began to tear some of the buns and offer them to everyone. No one refused.
Most of them spoke Castillano (Spanish) except for Gustavo who seemed to be older, never smiled, and made me slightly nervous with the rifle always slung over his shoulder. He only spoke Shuar while the others were bilingual. At first they taught me some Castillano words then we got into Shuar. Here are some of the words that I learned...
yuminsame - gracias - thank you
mashiniu - todo - everyone
wiñia - mi - my
yaisur - hermano - brother
umar - hermana - sister
warik - viene - come
tatatui - pronto - immediately
uchi - niño - young boy
ashisman - hombre - man
nucad - mucho - many
hea - casa - house
powhiñawe - interior - inside
Domingo asked me if I was going to speak to them about Dios (God). At first I did not understand, especially because my head was not in that context, but then I realized that they might have thought that I was sent to preach the word of God and Jesus. My goodness! I told him that we were visiting to experience some of their culture. However, I thought to myself that the timing was right because I decided to start to read the Bible gift (translated in simply current English) that Ron gave to Tad.
After much discussion of describing Canada and USA, and drawing maps on the blackboard, Miguel invited me into his home where one of his wives, Rosa lives with their seven children. I did not fully understand, but I believe that there are about 45 people in this community that was established in 1983 (I think). He decided not to go to work because I was there and Tad was coming.
There were three rooms. I entered the center room which at first was dark for me until my eyes adjusted. Rosa had a bowl in her hand that contained some type of juice. She would dip her hand in it and squeeze some fibrous stuff that was in the juice. It smelt fermented. Then it happened... Rick had told us about it before and now I was being confronted with it. Miguel and Rosa offered me the liquid which is a drink to share and a drink to quench thirst. I believe that it is a fermented drink. Rick told us of how a woman chews the yuka root and spits the liquid into a container. This is what the chicha de yuka is made of. Oh my goodness! What do I do? This is not sound hygeine as I have learned in Canada! Do I decline the offer, or do I just close my eyes and take a drink.
All this turmoil was hidden inside my head. In the meantime, I kept my outer self cool and asked, ¨All of it?¨.
¨No, just a bit¨, answered Miguel.
¨Whew!¨, I thought.
So, I put the shell to my mouth and sipped it. It actually tasted good, but I just took enough to wet my lips and trickle down my throat. The Shuar people here believe that the mouth is a very very clean place. That is not what I learned in Canada.
We chatted in Castillano a bit more then we heard Ricardo´s (Rick´s) plane with Tad as the passenger. I was glad to see them because it could get tough to maintain a steady conversation with such limited knowledge of the language.
Tad just had his first single propellar flight and was all excited. He took photos and videos galor. I introduced him to Miguel and some of the others and led him to the school to place our stuff. Tad did the same customary thing as I did; he offered bread to the people that were hanging around.
Miguel then offered us to join him in his cooler home. We accepted and almost immediately they offered the customary chicha to Tad. Tad was not very interested, but I quietly and without moving my lips suggested that he simply put the shell up to his lips and let a bit trickle. My brave friend did it.
Because of Tad´s advanced knowledge of Castillano, Miguel spoke to him which was totally OK with me. I occassionally added a thought here and there. At one point I was sitting with my back to one of the walls that did not go right up to the roof. I suddenly felt something on my shoulder and a bit of wetness. At first I thought that it was one of the children playing with me, but it was their mono (monkey). I shook it off and it kind of hissed at me. Monkeys here seem to be like kittens in that they like to chase butterflies and such, but they are more interactive with humans as well.
I went back to the table when our lunch of hard boiled eggs, yuka and bananas was served. That mono kept on jumping on my knee, expecting dropped food I suppose.
Miguel asked Tad for some suggestions about encouraging tourism in their community. After some discussion in Castillano, Miguel translated into Shuar for Gustavo. Then words seemed to get louder and occassionally the word ¨turista¨ would come out. We gathered that everyone was not in agreement. During this time, Rosa oftened talked incessantly as the others spoke. It was quite a scene. Miguel asked Tad to bring up the subject during that evening´s gathering. During this time I was offered chicha more times. I never refused but still only put it to my lips and swallowed very little but made it look like I had more.
Tad and I lounged in the one room school and slept a bit during the hot noon sun. Miguel and Domingo offered to take us fishing, so we got on our dual sunscreen/bug repellant and headed into a jungle path with them.
I was so glad that Rick lent us rubber boots because the walk took us through muck and foot deep water. The temperature was much cooler in the shade of the path. We were going fishing, but no one had any poles or anything like a fishing pole or line. Anyway, at one point Miguel began to search the ground near a certain thin tree. Then Domingo helped out by loosening the earth around the tree with a section of a trunk of another tree. Miguel then carefully pulled out the roots. I believe the plant is called barbasco or possibly uambia (shiker in Shuar). The roots are venenoso (poisonous).
Now, Tad and I had most of it figured out. They poison the fish. In fact this poison could kill a human. Ricardo later told us that he understood that the barbasco root temporarily depleted the oxygen in the water. Anyway, after collecting several metres of this root, we walked along a stream until we found a pool with some fish. Miguel found a stone and crushed the root with the stone. He then took the crushed root and fanned it in the pool and a cloudy substance was released from the root. In a few minutes, the fish began to float sideways and were easy to grab. Domingo would sometimes use his machete to kill them. It was quite an interesting experience.
At one point, at a deeper pool, Domingo took a dive to try to find some snails. He only got a couple. We got out of the jungle about one hour before dark. It was still hot so Tad and I took a steep walk down to Rio Pastaza and cooled off in the water.
At nightfall we were offered dinner of the same - cooked banana, yuka and hard boiled eggs. I could only eat the eggs. The rest seemed too dry for me. Adding salt helped. They were not at all offended that I could not finish my meal. I was so glad about that. I did say yes to more chicha however. I was trying to take a bit more each time to increase my resistance slowly.
A bit after dinner at Miguel´s, everyone came to the school and sat in a circle and asked Tad to lead the group with prayer and songs. Tad did a great job. He lead a prayer in Castillano and then we sang songs in Shuar and English. Tad would translate the words to Castillano when asked. Whenever I could, I would accompany the songs with my harmonica. We sang English songs like ¨Day by Day¨, ¨Put Your Hand in the Hand¨, ¨Amazing Grace¨, ¨When the Saints¨, etc. Their favorite was ¨Father Abraham¨ where we shook our feet and hands and stuff like that. I liked many of the Shuar tunes and could play about half with my key of C harmonica. Tad also finished with a nice prayer.
After the spiritual part, Miguel asked Tad to make some suggestions about tourism in the community. Like earlier that day, voices got louder and the language turned to Shuar to allow total inclusion. It went on for a while, so I tried to cut in and suggested that whatever they do they should keep their culture in mind and that they are doing the right thing in cooperatively discussing it as an entire community before jumping right in. This helped end the discussion at about 8:30pm. The kids sleeping on the floor were scooped up and all went to their huts.
A few of the older kids hung around and I let them play with my harmonica and then showed them my little 35mm camera. They were expecting something like PeaceBike´s fancy Sony digital camera. No such luck. I took a picture of them in the dark because my headlight turned off on its own without warning. I let them hold my camera then they started clicking everywhere. ¨Bastante!¨, I shouted and they returned it to me. I was a bit ticked because my expensive headlight already quit on me after only using it for about one hour.
Fortunately, Tad lent me his flashlight to prepare my thermarest on the wooden floor. We slept in our sleep sheets. There was no need for sleeping bags. The night was warm. Probably about 20 degrees celcius. Just right.
-I think that the person who needs the least is the richest.
-Frank Pollari