In Feb 2006, I went to Ecuador for two weeks with my work to study politics, indigenous groups, holisitc healing methods and social justice. Here are some of my reflections.
Quito
MONKIES
So, the monkeys in the little river town of Misuahalli have it in for my family. In the central park of that mellow town, lives a large family of aggravating monkeys.
When I visited my brother Patrick four years ago, a monkey came into the restaurant on the park corner and took my hat. I chased that monkey around the park, with all the locals watching me, until the monkey finally “gave” it back to me.
When my brother Patrick lived in Ecuador during his time as a Peace Corps volunteer, he was bitten by one of those annoying monkeys and he had to emergency travel to Quito to receive the appropriate shots.
When I was in Misuahalli last week, three monkeys came into my hotel room through the slightly opened window. One monkey found my food bag and robbed my yogurt. One monkey took my playing cards and went to the front porch and threw them one by one onto the street below. Another monkey opened my backpack, found my purse, opened the zipper, found my wallet, opened the zipper, and ate some of my money!
Stupid monkeys!!!
RIO BLANCO
In order to arrive to the small Quichwa indigenous village in the Amazon, we left Port Misuahalli in two small, long motor boats along the River Napo. Along the hour ride, we passed by the riverside where my brother Patrick lived in Puca Chicta for three years during his Peace Corps service. I was totally tripping when I was in Misuahalli and when I saw the place where I once crossed the river to get to Puca Chicta, because I never would have thought that I would return to that remote part of the world!!!
We arrived to our “dock” and unloaded all of our backpacks, and we put on our high rubber boots. The two hour hike up and down the hills of the Amazon was outstanding because we passed through a rainbow of green plants and our indigenous guide Fabio stopped quite often to explain to us about the plethora of medicinal plants. The pristine magic of the primary forest filled us all with happiness and peace. The muddy and rocky path that we walked along increased the challenge of carrying our huge backpacks filled with our basic necessities for our short time in the middle of the jungle.
Arriving to our jungle camp was like taking a breathe in paradise. The Quichwa village of Rio Blanco created those tourist cabins 15 minutes away from their community and they did a fantastic job of replicating traditional wood and straw structures for our lodging comforts. Between the three mere buildings rested a beautiful botanical garden, full of medicinal plants and beautiful flowers. Located right next to a large creek, the sound of running water was like a harmony to the music of the constantly singing jungle.
The community of Rio Blanco was originally founded in 1970 and they finally received official land titles in 1986, after many years of struggling for their rights with the government. Several families decided to settle in Rio Blanco in order to organize themselves and create schools for their children. The indigenous people suffered to live on the land because they worked as slaves for the close-by plantation owner and they were forced to cut down the trees on their land in order to earn the land titles. After many years of struggling with the coffee and cacao prices, the community decided to develop a sustainable form of community tourism so they could pay for education, health care and other basic social services. Currently Rio Blanco has 29 families and 380 people that live without electricity, and they have a school with two classrooms, that has been funded by their income from tourists that want to support the indigenous village. Their mother tongue is Quichwa and their second language is Spanish, however most of the elders only speak Quichwa.
Rio Blanco now works with an Ecuadorian non-profit organization called RICANCIE that united 10 different indigenous villages in the Napo region of the Amazon and provides fair opportunities for creating intercultural exchanges between tourists and the indigenous people.
RICANCIE
http://ricancie.nativeweb.org/
Rio Blanco now works with an Ecuadorian non-profit organization called RICANCIE that united 10 different indigenous villages in the Napo region of the Amazon and provides fair opportunities for creating intercultural exchanges between tourists and the indigenous people.
RICANCIE was formed because tourists were traveling to indigenous villages without permission from the local people and committing strong cultural taboos, like taking pictures of the people as if they were animals. The indigenous people did not receive barely any money from the obtrusive tourists, so RICANCIE organized 10 communities in hopes of offering a reasonable cultural learning opening between everyone involved.
I highly recommend RICANCIE as a vacation for anyone, as long as someone that speaks Spanish participates on the trip. Our agenda was full of intense and interesting activities. Besides having an expert guide that is also in training to be a shaman, there was also a representative from RICANCIE that accompanies us throughout the whole trip and we formed real friendships with them quickly. Some activities include: medicinal plant hike, swimming in an incredible waterfall lagoon, presentation on the history of Rio Blanco and RICANCIE, community visit, making chichi (fermented drink made out of yucca), school performance by children, art crafts presentation, natural animal traps presentation, botanical garden tour, cultural night that includes traditional dances like the Peace Dance and a Wedding Dance with live music from a 4 man band, canoeing in the river, excellent home cooked food that is based on a diet of yucca and platano, 5am awaska tea ceremonies (to protect us from snakes), shaman cleansing ceremony under a full moon, and and and…more.
Check it out: http://ricancie.nativeweb.org/
CLEANSING CEREMONY
Since I assisted both Group 1 and 2 in the jungle, I was fortunate enough to do most of the activities twice. I think I thoroughly enjoyed the Cleansing Ceremony both times because the first ceremony was held under the bright light of the full moon and the second ceremony was an intense spiritual cleansing for me because I participated individually.
The ceremony starts in the afternoon with the preparation of the Ayawaska tea, which is a hallucinogenic vine that only the Shaman takes at the beginning of the ceremony during the late night. Before the Shaman arrived, we all gathered around on the floor and found comfortable positions under the candle light. The Shaman came and our guide Fabio asked the Shaman to take the Ayawaska tea to cleanse us (the students) and help purify our energy. As the Shaman agrees, he swallows a cup of the Ayawaska tea. Once all of the candles are blown out, (because light affects the Shaman’s eyes negatively when he starts to have visions), and we waited in silence for the Ayawaska to take full effect in the magic man sitting before us in the dark. About 15 minutes after swallowing the enchanted potion, the Shaman starts to cleanse himself and the whole group with a traditional song/chant and flaps a bundle of special leaves that are only used to move energy.
Then, the Shaman calls up people one by one to sit on a small pedestal and undergo the 10 minute(ish) cleansing process. The ceremony lasted for hours in the dark, and it was an extremely spiritual experience for me and many of the students. The environment was exceptionally sacred and we all contributed to feeling the divine individually and holistically.
I experienced the cleansing process in the second ceremony and I totally believe that the Shaman cleaned my sole because I felt a huge movement in my energy. As I sat on that wooden platform, the Shaman had visions and shook that special leaf bundle around my body, and blew air loudly, and cleared his throat, and whistled, and sang, and touched my head. I felt like I was tripping and sometimes I saw white on the back of my closed eyelids. As the Shaman touched my head with intense pressure, I felt the energy being sucked out of me on the sides of my throat, like tubes, and my neck skin actually pulsed. I repeated the word “POSITIVE” over and over with each long inhale. When he blew on my crown, I felt a tingling sensation in lower places of my back. Time stood still as the Shaman danced around me. After the Shaman finished, I literally crawled to my yoga mat and laid down in total peace. I felt empty and hallow, and it was wonderful. After more people experienced the cleansing process, my stomach started to turn and I felt huge bubbles brewing in my entire intestinal track. Between cleansing sessions, I ran to the bathroom and had explosive diarrhea, which proved the cleansing worked because I had not defecated for 5 days. I felt so relieved and lighter, and open. The whole experience was memorable and a major stepping-stone in my spiritual soul because I learned the importance of cultivating positive energy.
Since that cleansing, I feel so much happier and optimistic. I believe.
AWASKA CERMONY
Every morning at 5am, we had the option to participate in the traditional Awaska ceremony. We were awoken to the music of a drum, flute and/or guitar. Walking through the early morning darkness to the fire pit in our droggy sleep was challenging, yet rewarding.
We all sat together, huddled around the small fire, and awaited our hollowed-out seed cup full of Awaka tea. This tea was tasty and very important because it makes human bodies produce a smell that repels snakes, plus it slows down the movement of snake poison in the blood.
While we take turns drinking the tea, we listen to the music and zone-out on the Quichwa lyrics. We also listen to the folklore of that Quichwa community and learn from their morals. The Shaman would tell us stories, that would first be translated into Spanish by our guide Fabio and then into English. The elders would share their wisdom about the facts of reality and give their advice about living in peace.
If people arrived late to the ceremony, they had to jump into the early-morning cold river. The regular punishment for the people is putting AJI (hot peppers) into each eye. They also use this castigation for a variety of punishments, and to make the youth learn their lesson.
We sat around the campfire for a mere hour and then crawled back to our beds to rest before breakfast at 7am.
It was amazing to participate in a real important tradition for those Quichwa people and learn about their ways and their legends.
SNAKE
One night while we were eating dinner under candle night, we heard the men of the community scatter around the campfire screaming. When I looked over the railing to see what was the loud situation and what the men where squealing behind the gathering building, I saw several of them beating the ground with their walking sticks while others shone the flashlights all over the ground.
And then I heard THE word: “SERPIENTE!”
Serpiente in Spanish means snake.
Once the men had killed the venomous natural predator, they allowed us tourists to see the vibrant, dead snake. It was about two feet long, colored with bright orange, red and yellow markings, and humongous fangs.
Our guide Fabio said it is one of the most deadly poisonous snakes in the jungle, and it’s bite would kill a human within seconds.
It was a wake-up call to all of us. We were visiting not only the indigenous people’s home, but also the wildlife, including venomous fatal snakes, and annoying insects.
Scary.
Susana translating Fabio's wisdom.
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