Huaorani Territory! At Last!

So I wish I had more time to write this post but I don’t because I have an exam in an hour! This weekend was probably the coolest weekend so far we went to Huaorani Territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon. For those of you who do know anything about the Huaorani check out the links on the last post. Basically they are one of the most vicious tribes known today and their violence against missionaries and other gringos like myself is as recently as 5-7 years ago.

We set out for our journey last Thursday night. A bunch of us went down to Cumbaya at about 8.30 so we only had to pay the 25cent bus fare instead of the 8 dollar taxi ride. (And so we could go to the bar a little before!) At midnight we met up with the rest of the group outside of USFQ and by 12.30 we were on our way to Tena! After about a 4.5 hour bus ride to Tena we continued to nap on the bus until daylight when we got up and got some breakfast. After breakfast we got on another bus that I think went to Puente, another 3 hour ride. Finally we arrived at the end of a road and the bus driver said, “here we are!” The road just ended, where were we to go? In the now pouring rain we met up with our Huaorani hosts by the river at the end of the road, packed into little, wobbly dugout canoes with Yamaha 45s on them.

Throughout the soaking, sinking canoe ride we would have to stop and shut off the engine so we could pass over small rapids. A 45 min extraordinary ride through the Dayuma River, surrounded by nothing, but surrounded by more green than you have ever seen! Imagine NYC, paint it green, add a lot of water and some wet gringos and that’s where I was.

We finally reach the encampment which was no more than a leentoo (sp?) and another wall-less raised roofed hut. This would be our home for the next 3 days. Living right on the river in small family groups scattered all over the jungle the Huaoranis have lived for thousands of years and have only known outside contact for about 60.

You may think that they would be all naked, stupid, and crazy, but they were just like you and I; this particular group wears clothes, eats off plates, sends some of their people to school and could really teach any scientist a thing or two about the jungle and uses for plants. The Huaorani, like all other Amazonian tribes have an incredible knowledge about their plants, animals and ecosystems. Again I wish to correct another stereotype, Amazonian peoples are not the buen salvajes living one with nature that we have thought for hundreds of years. The Amazon Rainforest is what they call a “green hell.” You cant grown anything there! What? You cant grown anything isnt the Amazon that doesn’t make sense!

Well it does! The soil is so pour in this region because all the plants have adapted so that when the leaves or other organic material hit the ground, the plants suck it right up almost immediately! So the soil contains no nutrients, all of the nutrients are in the plants! Pretty cool huh? When the people needed to domesticate plants only some could adapt to this lifestyle and the people had to alter the landscaped and create their own sort of GMOs to be able to survive.

During the whole trip we did a lot of just sitting and eating with the group but besides that we swam a lot in the river, did some amazing hikes, used their blowguns and threw their spears. Huaorani is their native language; so many of us were at an equal Spanish level as them, which was really quite funny! Well the pictures pretty much speak for themselves though not doing the trip justice at all! I hope all is well at home, or wherever you are! I miss and love you! See you soon!