Lunes 25 de
febrero – lunes 11 de marzo
In my third week there (second
week at the school starting lunes 25 de febrero), the students’ pronunciation
improves noticeably which is gratifying and I really enjoy spending time with
them. After lunch, Francisco and I and Shwirpi head out by boat. Our first stop
is to pick up Neli and Wendi in their downstream chagra. Neli has picked some
pepino (cucumbers), yucca (cassava), platano (plantain), papa china
(Chinese potatoes), chunta (a small red
fruit of two varieties, one sour and one fairly sweet) and I am fairly sure it
is in the tomato family by the look and taste. We fish for a couple of hours in
several spots and come up with a lot of the small spiny catfish and one big
catfish (about 65 cm). Francisco dives in a couple of times to release snags.
He also uses a stick to move the line in the other direction to release snags from
the boat. When I ask if it is safe to go swimming here, Neli says not really,
because you do not know what is out there. However, they keep the time in the
water to a minimum. In any case, I have never seen a caiman in this area: they
do not really like swift-flowing, muddy water, and the piranhas are only an
issue when the water level is very low.
The next day we go fishing
again but fishing is not particularly good. On Wednesday (Feb 27), Francisco
(who by this time I call Pancho, which is his nickname here), decides to go out
hunting with the bodoquera. He uses it to hunt for small birds without poison,
and for bigger birds and monkeys with poison. He can hunt chancho/cerdo
(peccaries) with it although a good deal of tracking is necessary as it takes 5
minutes or so to die. He cannot hunt at night with it for big game as tracking
becomes too difficult. For monkeys, he notches the dart just behind the poison
with piranha teeth he carries so that it will break off. Otherwise the monkey
will pull it out and not die. The weird thing is waiting for the bird or monkey
to lose consciousness and fall from the tree with a thump. He can shoot up to
30 m up in the trees, which is pretty impressive but at that height, accuracy
is less and the low velocity means that the shots do not necessarily penetrate
enough. Even when everything goes well, success is about 50% because the animal
or bird does not always fall when it dies. Still, I do see Francisco shoot and
recover over several days, 10 small songbirds, a large woodpecker, a toucan, a
large “partridge”, a small nocturnal monkey, and a large spider monkey. It is
impressive. Especially as the bodoquera is about 2 m long and fairly heavy
(about 4 kg). To make it, two pieces of a long stem of palm (I think) are grooved
on the flat side, and then glued together to make the central hole (about 14 mm
in diameter) with a bone insert as a mouthpiece. The whole thing is covered
with white latex tree sap, which is heated up and turns black. This is to
harden the outside. The darts are made of the stems of a particular kind of
palm, which is shaped like a horseshoe in cross section. The rounded part of
the stem is split off, then cut into 30 cm lengths, then split into 1 cm wide
pieces. These are carved to form thin spindles, pointed at both ends. One end
is dipped in the poison and heated to dry it. The poison is plant-based but is
purchased from a man in a neighbouring community who has learned to make the
poison more potent. Just before use, Francisco pulls flower fluff from a gourd,
moistens it with his mouth, and places it around the distal end of the dart,
flattened at the distal end and more streamlined at the other end. This seals
the tube allowing the puff of air to push the dart efficiently. It works. I
tried shooting it and it is clear that it takes some practice to maximize the
puff of air and do it consistently.
A poison dart ready for use
A carpentero (Woodpecker) shot with a poison dart. The bodoquera or blow gun is the black thing leaning against Francisco
One of more than a dozen species of spider monkey, the black-headed spider monkey?, killed with a bodoquera
Later in that first day, we
scare up three peccaries but we have no chance for a shot. At one point, moving
quickly, I steady myself on a palm. Bad idea as I get a few thorns in my hand.
Ouch!
Two days later, on Friday,
Francisco comes to get me at 7 in the morning to say that Jacoba has shot a
danta (a lowland tapir, the second biggest terrestrial mammal in South
America after Baird’s tapir found in Colombia and Central America) late
yesterday evening. Everyone is going to it to butcher it. It is pouring rain.
After wading and hiking about 2 km, we come upon the tapir, a young male of
about 200 kg. It is an impressive animal. We drag it into a nearby major pond:
2 ft deep. There is water everywhere these days due to the heavy rain. That way
it can be cleaned as necessary. Francisco does most of the butchering. He is
very accurate with the machete which he uses to split off the ribs from the
vertebrae. The intestines and stomach are taken into the water to clean out.
People cut off pieces of fat from the body cavity: they appear to prize it
which is not surprising as there is no source of oil or fat here, other than
this animal. When it is all cut up into chunks, Jacoba hands out the pieces.
Much of the meat is brought to a feast at the meeting hall that evening. The
neighbouring village, 20 minutes away by boat, has been invited. There is a
game of volleyball and a game of soccer. Due to the rain, the playing field for
both is a mud hole. I play soccer but I have rarely played the game and it
shows. By the time we are half done, I am sore and tired and do not try so
hard. It is a bigger field and with the mud it is hard to play. Nonetheless
most of the young players do an amazing job. The feast is in honour of Blanca
who has finished her teaching contract. Earlier in the day, speeches are given.
I of course miss most of it being in Shiwiar. I leave about 6 but the party
goes on with the generator started up to give light to the hall. Much chicha is
drunk, which I do not mind but am not crazy about except when hungry or
thirsty, and the talk is all in Shiwiar. I bathe and wash clothes. I have a
long discussion with Estevan, Francisco’s 15 year old half brother, a wiry,
short, very competent and intense youth. He tells me about God et al. Wow,
someone has really gotten to these guys!
In the pouring rain, getting ready to butcher a danta (Lowland Tapir), killed the night before.
It rains all night and by
morning the river is even higher. For breakfast, we have boiled cassava, boiled
plantain, and fried tapir. Boy, this is good. The whole family goes out to the
downriver chagra. Completely flooded. When the water is really high, there is
more chance of seeing snakes and more risk with anacondas (aquatic boas). We do
see one terrestrial boa on a log in the chagra. It is about 90 cm and has a big
lump of a meal half way down its length. Francisco and then I pick it up and
then when I put it down, it swims off. Shwirpi is scared because he is afraid
it is swimming to him and I try to reassure him. We bring back a few flooded
cucumbers.
We then travel to a couple of
locations where the high waters have created islands. With the dogs with us,
there is a strong possibility of scaring up animals. Neli spots an armadillo
that runs under a pile of debris. We close in and it bolts, running right
across my thighs. I let it go not knowing what to expect from an armadillo. It
heads into a big flooded area swimming. Francisco runs through the water after
at, and kills it with a stroke of his machete.
Then a dog scares up a watusa
(agouti, a 2-5 kg rodent). It swims off in the river and Francisco swims after
it, catching it by a leg. (Unlike the guanta or paca, the watusa will not dive
and is easier to catch in the water.) Neli catches up in the motor boat, hands
him a machete and he kills it. Meanwhile I spot a cacao tree, something I have
been told does not exist in this area. I comfort Wendi who has been
unceremoniously dumped on the ground by her mom. I ask Clemente to climb the
tree and bring a fruit down. He does although we almost lose it in the current
that goes through the woods. We do bring it down. It is still green, not ripe,
but when we get back I open it up and the white pulp is sweet and good. We have
also the watusa and the armadillo. For supper, we have more fried danta, fried
fish, cassava, and a salad of cukes with lemon juice, and salt and hot peppers.
In talking with Francisco that
night, I realize that the Shiwiar also have their food taboos. They do not eat
capybara (the world’s biggest rodent, attaining weights over 200 lbs), snakes,
and insects other than the two species of palm grubs. Surprising!!
When I am getting ready to go
to bed, I hear a large insect land. I find it. It is a huge cockroach, with a
body about 3 inches long. Wow!
The next morning there is a
church meeting. Waiting for people to arrive, we hang out with Abel and Maruja.
Mostly children show up plus Blanca, Fani, and Francisco. We are treated to
Francisco reading through several pamphlets in Spanish explaining why Jesus
cares about you, and why you are a sinner and what you need to do, blablabla.
After an interminable reading, we eat smoked watusa, armadillo, yuca, and
platano in a soup with additional yuca and platano. When we are putting pots
and stuff away, I join several kids who are watching an enormous grasshopper
laying eggs into cracks in a wooden railing. After she is done, I pick her up
and then release her. She flies to the ground where a chicken promptly pecks
her and eats her. Then I help Francisco set up a bible movie on the one
computer. It is enjoyable and not preachy, thank God.
There is another church
service that evening but I have had enough. I debate whether to tell Francisco
that no one is listening but decide that he does not want to know, otherwise he
would. Yesterday during watusa hunt, Francisco bumps his leg on a palm trunk,
getting about 20 thorns in his knee. For the next few days he is limping.
Was supposed to do an
ayahuasca ceremony the next day but Hernan, the local healer, is not around.
His house is 1 km away and the trail is now under several feet of water. I
found out later he is out of the community. I try to re-book with him but it is
not going to happen.
School, at least Grades 1-6,
is closed for the week due to Blanca’s leaving. I go to the school anyway.
Although in theory Abel is still working, none of the little kids show up. He
and I talk for a while and I give him an English lesson. He and Francisco are
at a very basic level but they are motivated. They will learn to speak.
Meanwhile Francisco has gone to islands again to hunt with dogs, and comes back
with Esteban and 4 armadillos. They missed a guanta which dove into the river
and then dove down.
Supper is some fish and then a
soup of palm hearts and grubs. Most of the grubs are at the bottom and, after
eating the fish, I am not that hungry making it harder to stomach the grubs in
my soup.
Tuesday I am out all day with
Clemente and Francisco for a bodoquera hunt. F does get several small birds but
strikes out with a troupe of red howler monkeys. He actually hit one and thinks
it died but did not fall. He must have shot at least 30 darts, but the monkeys
were very high up, at least 30 m, maybe 40 m. Coming home without, we stopped
at a palm with a kind of purple flesh under a thin skin and over a large seed
(called aungawara; ungwok in Shiwiar. The purplish flesh is quite good. F sends
Clemente up the tree next to it (has branches and so easier to climb) with a
rope. We send a machete up to him and he knocks down huge numbers of fruit and
I fill my pack with them. The fruits are boiled to soften them. The boiled
fruit are mixed with chichi mash and it is the best dessert I have eaten here.
The only other desserts I have eaten here are pineapple and sugar cane.
Francisco says that spider monkeys eat these fruits whole. Surprising because
the seed is the size of an almond in the shell. Today is one of the first days
when it did not rain. Nice!!
Wednesday is the day that
dignitaries arrive for inter-tribe meetings concerned with the REDD+ process.
The REDD process is Reduccion de Emisiones por Deforestacion y Degradacion de
Bosques. This process has been widely criticized for being a land grab by rich
countries and mega corporations in the tropics, taking land away from the
inidigenous and peasant populations living there. The REDD+ process is intended
to correct this. The ‘+’ refers to “Conservacion, manejo forestall sustenable y
aumento de depositos de carbon”. From the point of view of indigenous groups in
the Amazon, who have been subject to oil exploration and extraction that has
been sloppy and highly polluting, gaining some income from alternate sources
which will leave their environment alone, offered by developed countries
seeking to mitigate global CO2 emissions, is highly desirable. This meeting was
intended to introduce several Shiwiar communities to this idea. Besides many
boats arriving from other communities, two planes brought in five people from
Puyo, some food, and another 30-ish volunteer, Debora, who arrived from
Italy. The five were Pascual (who I had
met in Puyo) and Siram (who I had met here), two Shiwiar community members who
work in Ecotourism and Shiwiar politics. The other three were: Maximo Cuji
Manya, of the Quichua tribe, who works for the Confederacion de Nacionalidades
Indigenas de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana; Tito Puanchir, a former teacher who works
for the Nacion Shuar del Ecuador, and Nanki Wumpankit, a Shiwiar who is
coordinator of the Amazon GisNet, who came to train locals in measuring
standing biomass in the forest for purposes of REDD+, something we did on
Thursday and Friday.
First meal during the meetings. The visitors get to use the only table. There is boiled plantain and cassava, fried grubs, rice, and meat: armadillo, watusa (agouti) and monkey.
When people arrive from other
communities, there is an interesting tradition. Some, particularly Edison and
his brother Milton from another Shiwiar community have painted their faces and
carry weapons (one a spear, the other a shotgun) which is traditional for
protection. They all give long welcoming speeches, but several people are
giving speeches at same time.
I learn that this month,
Shiwiar gain title to 210 000 Ha of their land after 10 years of fighting, or
0.8% of Ecuadorian territory. Pretty exciting.
Meals include the rice, pop,
beer, and candies brought, but also Chicha and local meat. One person has
brought a bucketful of gusanos to sell (20 cents each; 50 cents each in Puyo).
I am offered and eat one live. Still not used to this, but I will eat them.
Shwirpi eats one and promptly gets bit on the tongue by it.
The visiting organizers are
interesting. According to Maximo, a short, powerfully built, pot-bellied man
who laughs a lot, we must work on 1) political, 2) technical, and 3) arms
levels to make change happen. Problems with oil company arrival are: 1)
environmental contamination, 2) economic: a lot of money entering the
communities causes loss of community cohesion; and 3) sociocultural: entering
the money economy causes the loss of traditions, language, alcoholism, and
delinquency (incidentally all the problems we see in Aboriginal communities in
Canada).
When there are speeches, Tito
gives me a simultaneous translation into Spanish which I greatly appreciate. On
Thursday, I am asked to give a speech to get a Canadian perspective. Mostly I
speak about Canada, the tar sands, and what they mean to native people. Debora
also speaks: about Europe and the way they see climate change and the
importance of the Amazon.
Pascual gives me some apples
which I share with Francisco and family. When I come to get one Thursday
morning, they are all gone, mostly eaten by Shwirpi. It is not for nothing that
I call him the stomach with legs!
Thursday and then Friday
morning, we go out into the bush with GPS and compasses and set up areas to
measure biomass. Very interesting although again it is in the rain. It rains
Wed aft, Thurs aft and night, Friday on and off but not enough to stop the
river level from falling once again.
Friday afternoon, we play volleyball
in the mud. I play and Clemente gets upset when I miss even though he is
missing more than I. It is not pleasant and I tell him later that day.
Everyone leaves after the plane
takes people back to Puyo around 4. There
is a lot of gas to bring to the river. It was brought from Puyo for the people
who came by boat from other communities.
The guests take their leave: Tito crouching, From L to R: Milton, Pascual, Nanki, Maximo, and two members of another community whose names I have forgotten
Saturday for breakfast, we
have some chicha at Guadalupe`s and then watusa and roasted plantain. I also
had a little bit of bread from Debora: she has brought some food from the city
and the perishable stuff she has to use up. I head out with family to tourist
cabins downriver. Beautiful cabin and another casa, with the huge raised
thatched roof. This was the home used by about 6 Shiwiar and 6 Spaniards for a
film about the traditional life of the Shiwiar. All talk by locals was in
Shiwiar. It lasted three weeks, last July I believe. After which, Francisco and
five others (including his Dad, Siram, and Fani, his aunt) were treated to a
month long tour of Spain, which they all greatly enjoyed. Among other things,
Francisco went sky-diving (harnessed to a pro) and scuba diving (buddied with a
pro). He loved these experiences.
While there, I spend some time
practicing spear throwing. It is an art. Francisco and Clemente go fishing but it
pours rain (very heavy) and they come back with no fish. After the rain stops,
we go out into the forest to palm trees that have been killed or partly cut a
month ago to look for gusanos and harvest 20 or so. But also catch a watusa
spotted by the dogs in a hollow tree trunk. With the watusa, we do not need
gusanos for bait so we (actually they) eat them.
Later F and C go out fishing
again and bring back 5 little, 2 biggest catfish (1 kg each) plus 2 blind fish.
Francisco goes back out again to hunt partridge with bodoquera (that he had
heard when out fishing. Later in the evening, there is a rat (local species)
that enters the casa. There is a lot of food around and so we do not want him
there. Clemente tries to kill with the bodoquera while I illuminate him. He
misses about ten times. Finally I take the spear and attempt to spear him but
he is too quick. After two attempts he gets the message and leaves.
In the dark, back at the cabin
where we spend the night, I spot a whip spider on the outside of the cabin.
Huge, and it means business with raptorial arms heavily armed with spines.
First one I have seen.
In the morning, we cook up the fish wrapped in leaves. I finish a
big piece that includes the head, having eaten off all the meat. Before I can
give it to the dogs, Clemente wants it and seems to get a lot of pleasure out
of the gills and whatever there is. Yet I note that they do not eat heads of the
blind fish. This is cultural, and it is not supposed to make sense. We notice
that the river is rising again.
On Monday, my last morning, I
go to the school for the outdoor assembly and Abel and I give short speeches. I
give out more candy. I talk to many people. And then it is over.
I leave at 11, spend the day
in Puyo where I shave my beard and head. Five blades and they are all dull
before I am done!! Spend a day in Riobamba, travel to Guayaquil but Yolanda
does not show. Travel to Quito and then to the border town of Tulcan,
overnight. In morning, walk across the Colombian border after an hour wait at
customs. Change money and off by collectivo and then bus to Ipiales where I get
a room and relax, tend to my wounds and sleep. Overnight bus to Bogota, and
then have three days. Meet with Felipe and Miguel and talk about filming and
get some great ideas from Miguel. I will be in touch. Moving slow as it is
painful moving with all these open infected sores. Have to do this better next
time… But feeling great about the trip overall. On March 19, have uneventful
flights to Miami overnight and then to Toronto. Snowing here and then heavy
snow in mid to late April in Thunder Bay. Did not totally miss winter…
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