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Published: June 22nd 2007
Amazon Fisherman
We saw this little boy (11 yrs) checking his net on Sunday morning, about 8am. He had caught about 30 fish thus far, pirahnas, baracudas, etc. June 22 - 25
Jungle Lodge I´m back from the amazon rainforest. I stated at one of the so-called ¨jungle lodges¨. It was a 3 hour boatride from Iquitos (the further you get from the city the more wildlife. etc, you see). We passed many fisherman in their tiny wooden canoes, and at thin parts of the river we´d have to slow our boats to lessen our wake for them. Apparently the water is very high for where it should be at this time,a nd theya re worried about flooding this december - they say every 25 years they have massive flooding, and it will be a big problem now with global warming. it´s so interesting to have traveled through so many different regions of peru-bolivia on this trip and observe how people´s lives are built around the different geographies animals, climates, etc. - the mountain people, the river, the lake.
Our accomodation was a basic bungalow that was essentially open to the elements - except for mosquito netting (thank goodness). My little hut was on the river side, so the shower-sink corner was open to the river. Taking a refreshing, cool shower as the sun
Jaime Fisherman
Meanwhile, my attempts at fishing were less successful! set over the river in front of me was great. There was no electricity out here, and running water was actually just river water they would pump up twice a day or so. at night, i´d fall asleep to the sounds of a million different creatures.
The Jungle While we were there, we went on a bunch of hikes in the jungle, and also boat rides. We had to wear our ¨wellies¨as trampling through the rainforest we had to cross many very wet areas of mud and water, at least 6 inches deep. I saw lots of wildlife such as parrots, thousands of herons all together (mating season), toucans, many types of monkeys, sloths, the famous pink dolphin of the amazon. On our night boat ride, we found giant frogs, caught a caiman, and hunted for tarantulas. Also interesting to learn about was all the medicinal plants inthe jungle. they really have everything they need for any sort of problem right here at their fingertips. We saw trees with iodine sap, flowers that are an anesthetic, tree bark that can be used for bandages, or for casts, which leaves to use for headaches, etc., and even rubbing tiny
My Shower
Here is my shower in the bungalow, with a great view over the river. termites all over you to use as bug repellent! In addition to the medical purposes, they really seem to have a use for everything in the jungle - this tree is for making canoes, this one for rubber sandals, and so forth.
The Village On our first afternoon, we hiked through the jungle to a tiny village (population 43). There were a few houses, a school, church, etc., all surounding a little field. We were here looking for the village shaman (healer) to se if he would perform a ceremony for us (muchmore on this later). After we had set this up, we had a great time hanging out in the village. This was a big festival weekend inthe amazon region - festival de los rios - festival of the rivers. so everyone was hanging ou in the village, and there was a football match going on with another nearby village. things are pretty rural here - girls dont´really go to school, and are often pregnant by 15 (married by 12), polygamy is common. a lot of children are visibly malnourished, they all drink water straight from the water (it is not clean). really the only industry here
Swimming
Cute kids swimming in the river. is finishing - and our guide estimates that an average fisherman here can make about 50 soles - month selling fish. this is about $17-month of income!
I bought some exotic fruit that was SO delicious but i don´t know the name. They also had us try the local liquors - sugarcane rum, ginger rum, tatested like rubbing alcohol, and also the local chi cha (of course!) which was better than the stuff in the andes region.
Ayahuasca Ceremony well this leaves only one thing to talk about. This was a crazy, insane experience. I feel weird just thinking about it now. This ceremony is an ancient healing ceremony from this region of peru. it is meant to be a very cleansing rituatl, and it certainly does clean you out physically. people in the village will use this ceremony to cure various ails, or gain clarity on their life. the ceremony is conducted by a shaman, as mentioned previously. this is typically the oldest man in the village, each village has one. ours was 60 (short life spans here). he hsa been a shaman for 35 years. you become a shaman under the strict tutelage of the
Kitchen
This is the family of one of the guides who was with us. You can see the mother here, cooking over the fire. This area in the back is the kitchen. They don´t have walls on the houses in this region. Those green balls near the front are the food she is making - they wrap rice, chicken and spices up in a banana leaf and then boil it. It´s very good! current shaman, who selects you. one of hte other necessities is that you live alone in the jungle for an absolute minimum (these days) of 6 months. it is here that you learn to communicate with the ayahuasca spirits. our shaman lived for SIX YEARS alone in the jungle! he told us, he didn´t talk to anyone, didn´t see anyone, and he lived in a tiny hut, and spoke to the ayahuasca spirits in anohter language. (note: he´s christian). i just can´t believe he lived there for 6 years - astonishing.
on to the ceremony. we (myself and a british couple) started by fasting after lunch time. a massive breakfast and lunch with nothing spicy, no mean, just bland food, then nothing from 1pm on. all day i was pretty nervous about the whole thing - and heavily debated doing it or not, it is definitely not a decision to be taken lightly, it´s a pretty intense experience. almost always ppl feel better by the next morning, in fact they feel GREAT the next day. plus it´s not actaully dangerous, and by that i mean ppl don´t die from it as long as they are really healthy. they did
Village Church and Bar
The blue building is the village church, the nicer, larger one next to it is the village bar! (of which there are apparently 3) have one foreigner about a month ago who died but he had heart problems that he didn´t tell them about! (this is not at hte place i was staying). this stuff is very very strong, so basically if you have ANY health issues, you shouldn´t be doing it.
At 8pm, the shaman arrived and aftre chatting with himf or a while, we went into an empty bungalow and sat on mattresses on the floor, in the dark. the shaman prepard the drink which is made of - i´m not entirely sure, but parts of it are illegal in the US because of their hallucinogenic properties. The drink actually translates to ¨drink of hte dead¨in english - which makes sense because it is the most vile thing i have ever tasted or even smelt, and it is even worse coming back up.
we all drink the portions that the shaman gives us - you need to take it like a shot, no drinking or you´d probably gag. i had about 2/3 cup. it´s very dark in the room and really freaky. our eyes will get very light senstive. the shaman lights a pipe of something, just tobacco i think,
Villagers
The band that was there for the festival decided to play a bit of music for us and all the villagers gathered as well. and asks each of us to smoke it as part of the ceremony. he keeps passing it around multiple times! the shaman then starts to sing-chant. i lay down because i am getting dizzy, and listen to his soudns and all the creatures. what happens in the next four hours is hard to explain but it felt like an out of body experience. everyone´s experience is very different, and very personal. and it was somewhat frightening for me. bout 3 hours, after feeling the concotion workings it´s way around my entire stomach as though it was alive, i was suddenly violently sick. i am sure my stomach has never been cleaned so well. after the ceremony, i couldn´t move for at least 30 more minutes, and finally my guide helped me to my room, because i couldn´t walk. i feel on my bed, shoes and everything, and didn´t move for hours, dozing in and out of sleep. in the morning i was NOT feeling fine, although the british were actually feeling ämazing¨. despite not eating since 2pm the day before, I couldn´t touch food until 7pm that night, and theni was barely choking it down. my guide had brought me
only lemon water during hte day to drink, as prescribed by the shaman if any of us were not feeling well.
anyways, i´m feeling normal again but i cant really compare this experience to any in my life. nor do i think i could bring myself to do this again - i t is just way too intense. by the way, oncei got back fromthe jungle i read more about online and i foudn an interesting article in national geographic all about this ceremony. here´s the link if any of you want to read it, but NOTE, the experience of the author described here is really crazy, mine was nothing like that!:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0603/features/peru.html
our ceremony itself was basically exactly as described here, and there is a short video to show the beginning of hte ceremony.
Ciao for Now Well, ths is it from me for a while! Tomorrow I head off to Panama where I have just one day - maybe visit the canal - and hten Thursday i´m off to texas for Tiff´s wedding, and apparently a Jager Challenge with the fluet family. More from me once I get to Southeast Asia!!
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anonymous
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I'm glad we will see you soon.!! I'm almost bald at this point!! Love, Mom