Shuar family

Friday the 8th of October 2010
From Puyo we decided to visit a
Shuar family that organizes jungle stays in their community. We took a bus to Macas, direction jungle, and got of at the Arútam reserve in the middle of the Amazone. We were immediately welcomed by a few Shuar 'warriors'. One of them was limping slightly, a soccer injury he took on during a game against a neighbouring family. The welcome committee further consisted of two Scotish girls that had been crazy enough to sign up for 3 months of volunteer work with the Shuar.
Our new friend Timothy (Shuar) showed us our hut for the coming night and later we joined the family, i.e. the men of the family, for dinner. We were served our first “Chicha”, a slightly fermented drink the Shuar are famous for. Later we found out that the stuff is prepared by the women in a rather traditionally way. They chew on a yucca and then spit it in a bowl with water, let it sit for a day to ferment and your drink is ready, nice…
The family we stayed with is the offspring of a single man and his first wife: 12 children and some grandchildren. During our stay the father stayed with his other wife a few kilometers down the road. At that place he too had arranged enough working hands. He was also the teacher in the little school that educated both communities.
In the afternoon Timothy took us on our first jungle trip. Large animals, such as anaconda’s and monkeys are rarely seen during daytime in this area, but insects including tarantula’s crossed our path more than once. Near the end of our walk we picked our salad for dinner in one of the many “gardens” of the family. We would have fresh leaves of the yucca plant. It was lovely by the way, almost like spinach. The gardens I refer to are bare parts of the jungle (the guys chop down all the trees) on which the Shuar women grow there fruits and vegetables in an – at least to us – rather unstructured way.
Before going to bed we visited the hut of the volunteers for a little chat with them. At that moment there were two Americans and two Scottish girls helping with the work of the Shuar (making roads, building cabins and huts, building a kitchen for the school, etc.). I didn’t quit figure out wether the volunteers liked or hated their stay and work. For the three of us (Martijn stil joined us) it was clear, not our cup of tea. One overnight stay will do..

Saturday the 9th of October 2010
Alex (15 years old) took us on our second jungle trip the following day, one that would lead us to a waterfall. Waterfalls are sacred to the Shuar as they contain all the information from the forest and because the Shuar believe that the Creator of the World -Arutam- lives in waterfalls. A shower underneath the falls should purify our souls. It was at least a welcome refreshment. On our way to the falls (and back) we were decorated with the war signs of the Shuar en Alex taught us which plants to use for a flew, a cold, pain, diarrhea or a constipation, how to get water from a bamboo tree, etc. For a boy of 15, he knew a whole damn lot about the jungle. On the other hand, Ecuadorians and especially Shuar normally get married around that age. They appear to grow up a bit faster than we do. We had our lunch with a beautiful view on the rain forest. An aunt and niece of Alex had left slightly earlier than we did and were already preparing lunch when we all of a sudden encountered a hut in the middle of the jungle.
Once we returned to our point of departure we took a refreshing shower and later waited for the bus together with our guide of that morning. The little guy suddenly looked different, somewhat like a little punk that tries to be too though with his Walkman, jeans and only a t-shirt while he is actually freezing. We hence saw two sides of the Shuar culture in the 20th century.
Nevertheless we all left with a tremendous respect for the culture and for what the family is doing to preserve its heritage. If you read a bit more about the Shuar you will find that they are one of the few tribes or communities that withstood the Inca’s and the Spanish and even drove them back when they tried to invade their territory. Further do they seem to like hallucinating plants (to the extreme) and did they indulge in the practice of skull shrinking (literally shrinking the skulls of killed enemies to use them as necklaces). All of this fits in their strong believe in the forces of nature. Alex told us that one of their drinks allows them to talk to trees and see their future, it reminded me of Avatar in a way.
Later that day we said goodbye to Martijn who had been travelling with us until then. We took a night bus to Guayaquil and from there set course for the beach.