Day 98 - Going Native

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The Golden Rule for today was to remember that the correct term is 'indigenous community' rather than 'natives'.

We started by crossing the river in a dugout canoe. It had room for 6 and takes a month or more to build. We were thinking how annoying it would be to make a mistake late on; a single careless swing of an axe 4 weeks in could be disastrous given that it's constructed from just a single tree. Ed knows this feeling - when the guide left us for 15 minutes on yesterday's jungle walk, he also left his machete. Ed took the opportunity to build himself a spear, but just as he was putting the finishing touches to the sharp tip, the finely crafted tip was accidentally sliced off.

Anyway, we had an hour and a half walk through the jungle to the indigenous community we were going to be meeting. We learnt loads more interesting things: Gemma made a bracelet out of a plant that grows next to palm hearts; another plant gave her decorative nail extensions; our guide whipped himself with one plant which aids blood circulation and Gemma volunteered for the same but apparently it makes white skin blotchy and red and painful for a month, so she sensibly changed her mind; we came across another snake - very poisonous today - which the guide initially lost (quite scary) before picking him up with a stick (which the snake spectacularly attacked) and hurling him deep into the jungle.

Eventually we got to the indigenous community. 80ish people live here, impressive growth from the 15 that settled here 9 years ago. Previously they were jungle nomads but the government has apparently been trying to discourage this kind of lifestyle although we've yet to figure out precisely why. A related point is that they thankfully only marry into other communities. The relatively small size of these communities had us (well, Ed) concerned that they may all have 8 toes and such like.

The community is a collection of huts built around a makeshift football pitch. Amazingly they all support Manchester City but dislike Everton. We went into one family's hut and sampled some tea that gives you energy and stops snakes attacking you. We then had some chichwa (no idea how to spell it though) which is their alcoholic speciality. They make jewellery from jungle materials and sell it, so Gemma bought a nice bracelet for $2.

The tour continued with a brief look at the school hut, all the time being tracked by a group of small children. It's funny that despite their poverty and lack of pretty much anything apart from clothes that didn't come from the jungle, they all know that tourists' cameras invariably display the image on the back, so they liked having their pictures taken so they could study them.

In the afternoon we went searching for gold. Somewhat surprisingly our rather clumsy 'panning' did actually leave behind some gold, but only flecks and at $17 for a gram that sounded like a lot of work. We're not sure exactly how many flecks there are to the gram but we suspect it's a lot. We got over this disappointment with a relaxing float through some semi-rapids.

All in all another great day, with this blog being written in a gently rocking hammock to the dusk sounds of the jungle.

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