For our second group excursion we trekked deep into the Amazonian rainforest and stayed in a small indigenous community. Like the San Clemente community, the 50-or-so residents of Pablo López are a Kichwa community meaning that their native language is Kichwa. Some of the other Amazonian communities or pueblos or nations, as they are often called, are the Zápara, the Shuar, and the Azuar.
To get to the community we left Quito early in the morning and travelled about 7 hours South down through the Andes mountains to a city called Puyo in the province of Pastaza. In Puyo, we met up with our guides, a few guys only three or four years older than us. From Puyo, we went to Arajuno, a smaller city about two hours away where we stopped to have lunch with a Zápara family. We ate a dish called maito which is fish (tilapia, I think) that was wrapped in leaves and then steam cooked. After we ate, we had a conversation with the Zápara family about their livelihood, etc. While they live in the city (town, really), many of their family members liveadentro - inside - the jungle where they often visit or live while they are not working or going to school in town. After this little presentation/conversation, they gave each of us Zápara names and painted our faces with a simple traditional red paint or dye. The name they gave me was Acamaro (in Zápara), which means Hombre Guapo in Spanish or Handsome Man in English. They thought I was handsome. Giggle.
the rainforest
From Arajuno, to get to the community we drove about two hours into the Amazon rainforest on a dirt and gravel road. When we reached our "destination," we still had not arrived. From the road, we still had a two-hour hike, with all of our bags and enough water for three days, to Pablo López on a path that embodies the word "rainforest": we hiked a muddy path up and down the hills of the Amazon; we waded through streams up to our knees in boots we had purchased earlier in Arajuno; and we ducked under a log covered with biting ants. (We didn't know it was covered with ants, and, since I went first, they got all over my hand and bit me. Luckily they weren't of the stinging temperament).
By the time we arrived, it was dark and we had been hiking by flashlight for more than an hour. We arrived to a small field (soccer... of course) and several buildings constructed entirely of wood. We would learn later that all of the building are constructed out of materials that can be found within a kilometer of the village. Except for the electral stuff.
a house on the side of the field (daytime)
another house up a hill at the end of the field (also daytime)
We called it a pretty early night that night, having travelled all day long. We stayed in bedrooms with bunkbeds or tents in the community's biggest building, a kind of meeting area.the building where we slept
the community kitchen (outside)
the community kitchen (inside)
The next morning we awoke to a beautiful view of an incredibly green and mountainous jungle valley. We ate breakfast, and later lunch and dinner, in the pueblo's kitchen afterwhich we readied ourselves for the morning's hike to a parrot nesting area and waterfall. The guides carried machetes and taught us about the plants they use to survive on several day hunting excursions and how they find their companions when they get lost. We tried three or four different really interesting fruits or plants that I had never seen or heard of before. Our hike passed through several well-sized streams or rivers until we arrived at a small, but beautiful waterfall. We immediately jumped in and found the water to be incredibly warm. After showering at the bottom of the waterfall for a while, we climbed to the top and sat in the stream with our legs hanging over the edge of the falls. (It was only ~12 feet high).
Just up the hill, we saw an area of trees which is a home to hundred of parrots. We didn't see that many, because they hid from us in the trees, but we could hear them chirping the whole time.
near the waterfall and the parrots
hiking through the woods (but stopped for a moment)
fording a river
When we returned, Teo and I joined played with our guides and some teenagers in the community in a game of soccer. After a long several games, our guides offered to take us to swim in the river right next to the community to cool off and clean up. We walked a couple hundred meters up a path from the community to where a fallen tree acted as a bridge to cross the river, and there we jumped from the tree into a subsidiary of the Amazon River. We jumped a few times and then our friends offered us some shampoo. They told us they always bathe in the river cause it's more fun. Afterwards, we floated down stream back to the community and got dried up for dinner.
After dinner, we had a sort of cultural sharing night where we played some music and sang and did some "comedy" for some of the community members. It was a good time, but because we were the ones performing for them, we didn't really learn much about their artistic performance and expression. While we were hanging out afterwards, some of us (not me) got the opportunity to have our faces painted with a traditional black dye they made by heating up some fruit we found earlier in the day.
Christabel jamming with her face painted
On our last full day, we started the morning with a hike to learn about the plants they use for medicine and building and other purposes. During the hike we found a wounded baby bird (which we named Birdito in honor of Rabbito) on the jungle floor. The guides told us it would dye if it was left there and told us we could bring it back to the community and try to nurse it back to health. So for the next 24 hours or so I became the father of a constantly-chirping, very-attached baby bird. Unfortunately, as we found out, the Birdito was quite sick which was probably why it was injured on the jungle floor in the first place, and the next morning after breakfast Birdito sadly passed on. We buried him just before we hiked back out of the jungle.
On a happier note, after our medicinal/building-materials tour, our whole group played a rowdy game of soccer with the locals afterwhich we all went back up the path to the bridge and swam again. Later, six of the community's teenagers gave a traditional dance presentation in traditional celebration garb and with traditional face and body paintings. Besides being incredibly good-looking, they were also very good dancing. They invited us to join them for one dance which was really fun but we were pretty bad at it.
traditionally dancing teens
For dinner that night, we prepared and had maito (fish cooked in leaves) again. It was delicious. Before our evening programming, one of our guides, who is currently training to be a shaman, showed us a wooden spear that is still used to hunt and fight in wars with other indigenous tribes. The spear was taller than me and was ornamented with feathers, a vine the was wrapped tightly around it as a handle and a very sharp barbed tip. The guide taught Teo and myself to throw the spear (kind-of) on the soccer field. We felt ferocious. Later that night we got to participate in a Amazonian meditation ceremony with an Amazonian shaman but I was tired and fell asleep during the meditation. It was cool nonetheless.
The next morning, before we hiked out, we had a good-bye ceremony from some of the leaders of the community. We each were given Kichwa names; I was Acangaw, which is a kind of small, fast, predatory bird. They gave us small gifts including some small wooden carvings. One of our girls was given a traditional crown made of palm fronds (or something), beautiful earings made of feathers and wood, and a small model canoe carved from wood. Our bus driver, David, who we love and I'm upset I haven't written about yet, was given the spear. David, who saw earlier how much Teo and I loved the spear, was really kind and offered me the spear. After I refused several times, he put the spear in my hands and told me I would enjoy it more than he would. Then he refused to take it back. I'm still not sure yet how I'm getting the spear back to the United States, but if I have to walk back with it, it's coming home.
After our goodbyes, we hiked out of the jungle together. This time, it was daylight the whole way out, but it was also all up hill. Luckily, we didn't have to carry all of our water, so that lightened the load some. Some of the little kids from the community hiked out with us. These tiny little kids were better at hiking than us. They walk the two-hour hike in and out every weekend, because they spend the week in Arajuno going to school. My little hikingbuddy told me all about his favorite subjects in school and showed me a statue along the way of his great-grandfather, the man for whom the town was named, Pablo López.
