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Finally an evening on the foothills of the Andes

Going to sleep with the soothing sound of Jatun Yacu river and the jungle life.

Expedition preparations by the river side

Ali Puncha! (“Good day” in Kichwa)

Well, our expedition has finally come to an end. I am now sitting in the Chozon back at our base/farm in Palugo, and it’s hard to believe that only yesterday we were in the jungle. Expedition life is very different, and one has to get used to changing climate, culture, and scenery like a pair of socks. Thus, it doesn’t come as a shock that in merely seven days we covered almost half the landscape of Ecuador.

After our intense/crazy hike from the hot springs of Oyacachi to Tena, the largest city in the Ecuadorian jungle, we were all pretty exhausted. Still, as we moved deeper into the jungle, the amazing changes happening all around did not escape us. By the time we arrived in Tena, the air had become warm and wet, the sounds of all sorts of new birds and bugs filling our ears. We noticed how people dressed more freely, and carried themselves less conservatively, in contrast with the hard-working, reserved attitudes that are found in the highlands. The heat came as a shock, so we happily gobbled down some ice cream, and caught some trucks to an eco-project in a nearby village. That was when the jungle really hit us. Huge trees and vines rose on all sides. Monkeys swung from branch to branch. Colorful toucans flew by. Meanwhile, music filled the air; we had the feeling that the whole jungle was dancing as we pulled into the beautiful hotel. Immediately, we ran to the river twenty paces from our cabins, bathing and washing our clothes in the water, which was the same temperature as the hot, chubby rain that soon began to pour down on us. It was lovely to have a day of rest. Katie and I thoroughly enjoyed petting the gorgeous toucan that had made itself the pet of the hotel, while Scott and Brett tried to lure the monkeys.

The following morning, we packed our things and took a bus to Puerto Misahualli, from where we caught some pick-ups to La Serena. We set up camp on a sandy, river rock-laden beach and set up the cataraft (the inter-breeding of a catamaran and a raft…it’s HUGE) we would be using for the next three days. We woke up the next morning and meandered to a nearby community to visit a museum on Amazon Kichwa culture. With the help of Nadino and Samuel, we began learning about many of their culture’s customs, such as the amazing gardens, known as chakras, which are essential to Kichwa communities. We also learned about the use of hallucinogenic plants and the ways of the shaman medicine men, as well as many of the tools used to fish and hunt. Then it was time to head off down the wide, class four Jatun Yacu. I personally love river life, and was thrilled to set off on that part of our adventure. Eight of us paddled at a time, while someone steered in the back. We all took turns resting and going in the one-person kayak.

Life by the riverside is good, is it not?

The river was very big, luckily for us, so the rapids were roaring. I was the first one to fall in, probably because I was so excited. Some were nervous at the beginning, but, soon enough, we were all loving it. We spent the next several days this way, spending the evenings camping on sandy beaches and living the good life. We even had time to stop for long, leisurely lunches (well, leisurely except for the insane “mosquitos” who can fit through any sort of net and forced us to wear long pants and sleeves to avoid being consumed alive). When we were lucky, Samuel or Nadino would point out a new tropical fruit to us. We happily knocked them out of trees with huge palm poles and feasted.

On the third day, we were picked up by a motorized canoe, which zipped us over to a little port town where Raina developed an attachment to a moody monkey that hung from its tail and ate oranges from her hand, then kept poking her for more. We took another truck ride to the head of the trail to Shiwakocha, Nadino and Samuel’s home and our final destination on the expedition. It was amazing to hike the hard, sweltering terrain, knowing that this had been the only entrance and exit to the indigenous community since it was founded. One of the few truly native communities in Ecuador, Shiwakocha does not even have a high school, and children over the age of eleven have to hike the long distance each day if they want to get any sort of higher education.

We arrived, sweating and filled with wonder, to Shiwakocha. The house of Isolina and Samuel—Samuel and Nadino’s parents—was surrounded by jungle, and consisted of a beautiful wood huttish-house, and a separate living room traditional to the area with a swept dirt floor, beautifully carved pole walls, and a thatched roof. Immediately after taking a tour of the house, we dropped off our packs and ran down to the warm river, where we swam and played in the dugout canoe used by some neighbors of the family. We then set up our sleeping area and sat down for a dinner of fried yuca with plantain and rice. Yuca, an amazing plant that regenerates like crazy in the jungle, tastes much like a very thick potato, and is the main source of food in that region.

We began the next day by taking a hike into the brush to harvest, as food is nearly always acquired via harvesting, hunting, and fishing in Shiwakocha. Isolina led us, dazzling us with her knowledge. She informed us as to the Kichwa names of indigenous plants, hacked her way with a machete, harvested food for the day, and threw her finds into a pack basket carried by a head strap. She also shared the medicinal uses of many plants we had been passing recently, and helped us harvest tasawasca, a long vine used to make the baskets I just mentioned. Then we went back to the house to split and shave the vines into a thick, flat sort of cordage and, of course, eat some more yuca. We spent the next day and a half working on these baskets with the aid of the Mama and Tayta (grandparents) of the family, Benacio and Miche. These amazing people speak only Kichwa, which is the first language of the community, and are just filled with knowledge. We also had some time to get to know Samuel and Nadino’s eight brothers and sisters—all beautiful human beings who put us to shame with their numerous skills. Meanwhile, all us ladies got together to make chicha—a drink that is central to the Kichwa diet. Sitting around a huge, specially shaped bowl known as a batea, we chewed boiled yuca, spit it back out into the mix, and soon began the traditional process of softening the vegetable. Once the mix was nice and gloppy, we allowed it to ferment, and contentedly watched the rest of the process a few days later.

Our host Isolina shows us her home!!!

Our third day at Shiwakocha, the group attended a minga. Mingas are work parties that, in the case of most Kichwa communities, make life possible. With chicha as our payment, we set into making a roof for Benacio and Miche’s hut, cutting huge leaves called paja toquilla, splitting them in half, and weaving them over wooden bars to complete the structure.

These leaves are amazingly waterproof, and last about eleven years before having to be replaced, while the smoke produced below provides necessary pest control. Talk about useful local materials! We encountered many interesting insects along the way, including a sort of cricket about the size of my face. When we asked the natives if it was dangerous they laughed and answered, “it won’t kill you, but it will HURT.” After our questions about several other huge bugs got the same answer, we were once again humbled by the immense web of life in the jungle.

That same afternoon, we began working on jewelry. The materials were fantastic: string woven from a local vine; beads made out of dried seeds, boar’s teeth, and shells; colorful feathers to make earrings and necklaces. It was a perfect opportunity to make ourselves fit into the community a bit more, as everyone there was completely decked-out in gorgeous tokens of the lowlands. While we did this, we also took some time to make chocolate from the cacao beans we had harvested on our walk a few days earlier. Later, when we sat down for some amazing hot chocolate, we decided we might as well go all out, and chopped some sugar cane to suck on. It was then that we realized it was Halloween in the States and Canada, and chuckled at how fitting our sugar splurge was.

Most days in Shiwakocha, we would get up at around four in the morning, as is the local custom. Gathering around the cooking fire, we would drink a traditional tea called guayusa, make crafts such as bracelets on a hand-made loom, and listen to Samuel tell stories. Our fourth day meant our very last guayusa, and the sad prospect of leaving our new family came over all of us. Our last day had come. We all said we would be sure to bask in the sun and take a long walk. Almost immediately, Samuel Jr. came in and announced he’d had a dream that he was nude and drinking chicha in the city. “If you are naked or drinking alcohol in your dreams,” said Isolina, “it will rain. Since you were doing both, it’s going to rain all day.” And so it did, starting around seven in the morning. This changed all our plans, and thus the family offered to give us a dance class inside our little living room. While Nadino and his brothers played traditional songs on the flute and guitar, we were shown the steps of the “Shiwakocha Groove”. Women held chicha bowls, while the men danced with less fluid steps, pretending to hold spears in their hands.

On Tuesday, we awoke at four to have breakfast, pack, make poles out of a strong type of bamboo called guadua, and head off down the river. We said long good-byes, presented the family with presents we had made for them, and were soon poling our way (we hadn’t brought paddles) down the Napo. Poling was difficult, and less coordinated than paddling. Poor Brett must have fallen off the raft three times in five minutes. The water was very slow, so we soon took to taking swims, pushing one another in the water, and even playing the guitar a little. We traveled on the raft for a good ten hours, and after our yuca ran out, Scott broke out the sugar cane, which we munched on hungrily until we could actually get some food. Finally, we took another canoe to a town and a series of long bus rides, finally arriving in Pifo at around 11:30 at night. We then trekked with our things back here to Palugo, where, after feasting out on some deliciously non-yuca food, conked out.

Roof finished, family happy and our hearts full and ready to head back to Palugo.

Today we woke up in a completely different world. We have been cleaning and unpacking all day, getting back into the rhythm of a less nomadic life, and preparing our schedule for the two weeks we have here before our next expedition.

Oh, by the way, we were all very nervous about the election, and jumped for joy this morning when we heard the results!!

That’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for reading. Until next week!

Community News

• Back in Palugo we are happy to have Thomas and Marcea who are working hard on their new home.
• Bad news: our four beautiful llamas were attacked by neighbor dogs and we are down to zero.
• GOOD NEWS: a little female deer was found homeless and it came to Palugo to make her new home until she is ready to run free again.
  

Semester recipes - yummy! By Raina

Chicha:
Prepared solely by women, chicha is the traditional drink of the kichwa jungle. All you need is yuca, a potato-like tuber from the same family as pineapple.

Process:
First boil a large pot of yuca until it is soft. Place into a large batea (bowl) and mash. Then take a small handful of the mash and chew it (the desired consistency is similar to mashed potatoes without many lumps). Spit the yuca back into the batea and repeat until the whole batch is the same consistency. The mash is then put in a bucket to ferment, though it can also be consumed immediately. The longer it ferments, the more fermented it gets. To drink, take about two handfuls of the paste and mix it with a cup of water. Using your hands, knead the milk of the paste into the water, squeeze out any leftover lumps, and enjoy! You’ll be surprised how amazingly good it is.

Environmental Tip

By Will

Instead of drinking bottled water, try drinking from the tap. Bottled water actually has quite a few chemicals in it that are bad to drink, and wastes a ton of resources. If you are still nervous about the quality of your tap water, buy a good filter. Also, support movements and legislation to clean up and treat local water sources. This will save on tons of plastic and fossil fuel, make life easier, and save you a bunch of money in the long run. Think about this: every bottle of water is a few hundred times more expensive than water from the tap, and you can’t treat those chemicals unless you buy a filter anyway.

By Brett

It’s very possible and fairly simple to build things like solar water heaters, as well as compost systems and stove systems that serve you, the environment, and can heat the whole house for cheap. I recommend the book The Barefoot Architect or getting our finished main lesson book with our step by step process, which will teach you to build just about anything step-by-step.