La visita a Uwijint

We left on a Tuesday morning for the Shwar community called Uwijint. Shwar tribes only make up about three percent of the indigenous population in Ecuador, but there are more than a haldnful of Shwar tribes and they each have different costums and traditions. In order to get there we were given vague directions: take a bus towards Macas get off at kilometro 51(there are no road markings here in this part of Ecaudor) and look for a man named Ramon, he will show you where you go. So we set out on the bus and I took some shots on the way. The tire pick I found interesting, so I wanted to show it, Ecaudor seems to be overrun by tires, a commonplace for mosquitos to breed and the larvae to develop.


The town we arrived in (at km51) is called Pitirishca and is a small indigenous village comprised of like 10 buildings and a few families. After meeting with Ramon, he pointed us to a house down the road where his two daughter Delfina and Veronica were waiting for to guide us on our hike into the jungle.


The hike began off straight up hill with razor shard, velco like leaves protruding into the half-worn path. On top of the constant hills, there was tons of mud everywhere, and the fact that I was carrying way too much weight (probably about 40 pounds in water, clothes, and other stuff I probably didn't need). Below is a pic of the four of us in the group and our two guides.


The hike seemed to never end, but thankfully we were able to stop a hand full of times to rest. Our guides didn't seem to even be phased and on top of that didn't bring any snacks or water. On the way I stopped and took some pictures, while we were entering the jungle, we were only barely piercing the cortex. Later we were told that if we even tried to go further in, we would probably be killed or something nasty because the deeper inhabitants of the jungle didn't care for outsiders.


I'd like to take a moment to mention that I am the butterfly king! Butterflies are attracted to me and are constantly landing on me. The reason I believe is I taste good. But then again so do they!


So after about four-and-a-half hours, we finally arrived to our community: Uwijint. The community was really small and unlike most others was just comprised of one family. It was located in the middle of a patch of jungle that had been cleared for planting, housing, school buildings, and other smaller things. We spent the two nights there in a Shwar hut. The roof is made of palm leaves that have been dried out and it will last up to 20 years! While the all natural housing was neat, the bugs were not! The first pic is our hut, the second the inside, and the third is a picture of our family's hut from our hut. The smoke is a product of the fire that is constantly running for the purpose of cooking, boiling water, and keeps out the bugs.


Surrounding the house were all sorts of plants, some natural and some brought in and cultivated, but all used for food, medicinal, or spiritual purposes. I only really took a picture of the plantain tree, but I took a bunch of notes on the natural medicines they prepare for specific illnesses.


The Moncayo's(the name of the family we were staying with) have a variety of pets and wild animals that hang around and call Uwijint home. Most are common, but there was one, a wild animal, probably the first ever domesticated that stood out. His name is Tanpish and he looks like raccoon, anteater, who knows what else (I think he most closely resembles an aardvark). They also had a dog and a blue-green parrot. Also running a muck were ducks and chickens. There actually were only a few ducks, but there were 5 roosters, 5 hens, and one of the hens had 5 chicks.



Anyways, we rested after our hike and waited until they called on us to welcome us with La Danza de Bienvenida. The ceremony was performed by two boys and two girls, with a third boy providing the beat by way of one drum. The whole ceremony, Gustavo was explaining to us what was going on and what the purpose of each movement(act) was. After they performed the dance, they asked us to participate with them. The role of the guys was to jump back and forth from foot to foot while making a kind of stabbing motion with the speak towards the ground. The girsl just twisted around alot making noises with the beads they were shaking. For one act, the guys would chant and then for the next the girls would chant, although we didn't do this part, we left the chanting to the kids.



The dancing was tiring and afterwards we had our first dinner by candlelight inside Gustavo's hut. The bugs were swarming and I am pretty sure I ate atleast a dozen trying to down my dinner and yerba louisa aromatic water.
As there is no electricity and it was dark, I called it a night.


The next morning I woke up and played a little of soccer with the kids as we waited to see what we were going to do. It turns out that the dog had found a guanta and Gustavo had trapped it in a whole and were going to kill it and have it for lunch. We hiked about thirty minutes into the jungle where Gustavo had already dug out a huge tunnel into the earth, where he planned on stabbing/drowning the animal. While we waited, we built some clay figurines. I made a clay jungle women that I tried to give to Veronica and Delfina, but they denied it! My masterpiece devalued and degraded. Gustavo also let me help him with the hunt. I helped fling out clay that had been dug out and when time came to extract the guanta, I got to get on my hand and knees in the tunnel and pull the thing out of the ground. I had no idea what to expect, but the animal pretty much looked like a giant gopher/rodent. In the Oriente the meat of a guanta cost more than that of a chicken because of the labor in catching and rarity in finding the creatures.


I also got to try Chicha while trapping the guanta. Chicha is fermented yuca based spit that smells rancid and tastes about the same. It was an experience, but I am gonna have to pass on the Chicha from here on out!
We then headed back to the houses, but on the way stopped to cut down a specific type of palm tree that at the top has a part called the heart, which is edible and delicious. They cut down about four trees that were each really tall, probably 5-10 years old. I had to stop to wonder how much damage they were doing to the jungle, but they seemed to have it under control.


We reached the river where I had to thoroughly wash off the guanta so that it could then be cooked for lunch.
I walked into the hut, threw the guanta on the fire, and my nostrils filled with the smell of burning hair--yuk! Gustavo and I then headed to the river to rinse all the clay and mud off as his wife and the other women prepared lunch for everyone. I didn't get to take this pictures, but I want to say thanks to Katie who took the initiative to take pictures of the guanta being cut and cooked for me!


After bathing I hung out with the others and then we ate lunch. Guanta meat is darker than beef and a lot tougher. It had a unique taste and even though I didn't love it, I enjoyed trying it. Gustavo then walked us around his garden and showed us the plants they had and explained what each was used for. The last plant we came upon, was similar to ayahuasca and was used for spiritual quests and for making the most important life decisions--should I marry this person, should I go on a hunt, you name it they used it for it. Gustavo got stuck on talk about this plant for about 45 minutes. He clearly placed a heavy importance on the plant and it was obvious that he had used it many time before and that culturally it was powerful. He said that after about an hour or so after ingesting, everything in the jungle would transform into spirits, who were waiting to help you. He also cautioned to never do it alone and that everyone always went in pairs, one to watch and the other to experience. I do not remember if he said this, but apparently if one person died during the ritual, the other person was killed also, as it was a sign that bad spirits had been released, or something of that nature. SCARY STUFF! After talking about all the plants we set off to fish for dinner. Gustavo, Lucas, and Delfina did most of the fishing, while us gringos swam in the river and hung out. They would trap fish living under certain rocks with nets that had been wrapped around the stone and with a stick to poke through and force the fish out. I was suprised to see that the fish were alga eaters, what we call plecos in the states, and Louis and I have used on occassion to clean our fishtanks.


When we were done fishing, we headed back to rest somewhere as we awaited La Danza de Despedida. The ceremony was very similar to La Danza de Bienvenida. Before however, they painted our faces. If I remember correctly, I was the lion, or some fierce, wild cat. They also dressed us in the ceremonial clothes so that we could be better participants? The clothes were small and the necklaces were made of nuts and teeth, teeth which proded my sides. It was alot of fun though and I recommend going to anyone who gets a chance.


Then dinner!


Then sleep and in the morning the hike back out of the jungle. On the way back, Yoland and I took turns hacking eachothers heads off!

This was is called the headsplitter!

Exhausting!

We arrived back in Puyo to a lovely double rainbow!

Unfortunately we were all burnt out and weren't up for the journey to find the pot of gold!