Amazon- Day 5

Camping was okay, but a wake up call at 3:50 a.m. is not.  Though, we all got up and walked back to the Sua house for our Guayusa ceremony.  The Achuar believe that each night you die, and in the morning you participate in the cleansing and rebirth. They typically rise at this hour to drink guayusa, a caffeinated tea grown in the forest. It is during this time when fathers pass on values to their children, mothers teach skills to their daughters, and dreams are interpreted.   As I mentioned, the Achuar are a dream-based culture, every aspect of their daily lives is lived through the interpretation of their dreams.

We entered the dark hut, lit only by a couple candles, where the leader was making a crown and the wife painting clay bowls for her family to use or to sell.  There was a large hot pot of guayusa that we drank as much as we could possibly hold until we excused ourselves to the outside where we threw up to cleanse ourselves, a rebirth of new energy if you may.

We then returned and the wife offered us, yes, more Chicha. As a part of the formal ritual, the leader explained our dreams to us.  Afterwards, the women in our group went off with the women of the community to learn to paint bowls and other handiwork. While this happened, the master showed the men how to weave baskets.

They take about five strands of hair and attach to a stick for their very fine paintbrushes. If she needs a thicker paintbrush, she uses more hair. This is quite the job and she does beautiful work.  We tried our luck at painting the straight line.

Just after sunrise, we departed for our campsite and our return journey to Kapawi.  Back at the lodge, we eat breakfast with the general manager as he explained the updates in the ecolodg over the past 6 months since the first visit from the Rainforest Alliance.

At 10:30 a.m. it was time to departure from the lodge.  We had our last look at the lodge (and little did we know our luggage too) as we set off in our canoe for a 30-minute ride to the airstrip where we met up with our sixth traveling companion arriving from Quito. We boarded our nine-passenger plane for our next flight for Huaorani Ecolodge. This was only the second time this just under 2-hour flight had been made (the first time was in February 2011).  Typically you will depart Kapawi and return to Shell but not us, we flew to Bameno Airstrip.

After a nice greeting by the Huaorani people, we realized that three of the now six people traveling did not have their luggage. It was now camping at Kapawi.  It is not like there are other flights traveling, as I said this is only the second time this flight has happened, and we are in the middle of the Amazon jungle.  So fortunately my in-country partner, Maria from Latin Roots, was traveling with us and she suggested that Kapawi send the luggage to Shell on the next flight and we would have someone from Napo Wildlife Lodge pick up the luggage and take it to their lodge, where we will be staying in three days.  This was just something else to add to our adventure.  We laughed it off and got ready to stink for the next couple days.  The other three people traveling with us said they would not change either until we all could.  Now that is sticking together, or stinking together, not sure which!

We arrived by plane to a grass airstrip at Bameno Airstrip.  From the airstrip we poled downstream in dugout canoes along the Shiripuno River to the lodge, which was about 30 minutes away.

We have finally arrived at Huaorani Ecolodge.  Huaorani Ecolodge is located in the Waorani territory, designed to provide an intimate, harmonious and environmentally sustainable experience.  Staying at the lodge is a way to share time with the Huaorani and experience the richness of their natural environment, while creating the least possible impact on the surroundings, keeping in mind that you are within the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve.  The lodge is cozy and provides accommodations for a maximum of ten people housed in five comfortable, traditionally built, palm thatched cabins.  All cabins are fully meshed to keep you safe from biting insects, and are spaced to provide privacy and a chance to enjoy the sounds of the balmy Amazon nights.

We had a nice lunch, an introductory briefing about the Huaorani and their relationship with the rainforest, checked out the cabins, and decided a nice hike was in order for the evening.

Our word here is Waponi, which means beautiful and everything in balance. It's also a traditional greeting of the Huaorani tribes.

We found again that many of the trees and plants can be used for medicinal purposes.  We found tree bark for shampoo and monkey brush plant they used to use for a toothbrush, so we had our hygiene covered.  We also ate lemon ants and, yes, they did have the lemon tang .  We also learned how to use the blow-gun and throw a spear. No animal need worry about me in the forest.

We got vines to make crowns for when we returned to the lodge.  We made it back to the lodge just after sunset. I was hot and sweaty, so I took a cold shower and felt a bit better.

We were lucky enough to meet with Moi Enomenga.  Moi has gained a measure of fame for his feature roles in "New Yorker" articles describing the Huaorani and their struggle against the oil companies, for being the main character in the book "Savages" by Joe Kane, and for playing a prominent role in a NBC documentary telling of his struggle to protect Huaorani land from oil companies.

Moi's community, Quehueri'ono, is our counterpart in this joint venture. Moi believes that ecotourism is a means by which his people can receive an income, while maintaining the integrity of Huaorani culture and conserving their rainforest territory, thus enhancing the sustainability of their lifestyles and cultures and encouraging their efforts to resist the more destructive initiatives of the oil industry.  Moi received the National Geographic Society/Buffett 2011 for conservation in Latin America.

Enomenga's tireless campaign to protect the land helped the Huaorani secure legal title to Yasuní National Park, the largest indigenous territory in Ecuador and a U.N. biosphere reserve.

After we visited with him a bit, we worked on making our crowns and then had dinner.  We listened to some wonderful stories about the Huaorani people from our guide Javier until it was so late we had to go to bed, after all it was a very early morning for us, and lots of miles of traveling. Tomorrow we have a long ride in the dugout canoe to our campsite.