We began the first day of the journey with a light breakfast at the lodge before loading all of our dry-bagged gear onto a bus and taking the two hour ride to our jumping off point. It was pouring rain while we left, and we spent the better part of the morning on a road just a couple of feet wider than the bus, but we finally made it to our destination around 10:45. After loading up all the canoes with diesel fuel, propane gas, food, essential supplies, and boat parts, we set off in our canoe with our driver Naca. The canoe ride there was 6(!) whole hours and about 75 miles downriver on the canoe powered by what the tribe called a peke-peke motor, known for its vibration that mimics the sound that became its namesake. That led to quite the vibration on the boatride, but I was able to get some shut eye and enjoy the beautiful views. After several refuels, a severed rotor, and constantly trying to avoid sunburn, we made it to the secondary lodge.
It received several improvements from the last time Pitt students stayed there, so we were quite lucky to be able to have running water and electricity. Me and another student, Mark, ended the night by cleaning and preparing some catfish that some local boys had caught for us, enjoying those with a hearty meal of rice and beans before getting an early sleep to meet the tribe for real the next morning.
We began our time with them by learning how they climbed trees to hunt, even trying to do so a little bit ourselves, learning about their sacred traditions, how they survived against large prey animals in the jungle, and seeing a tree that their people had known about and been travelling to for generations. We headed back for lunch before going on a fishing trip with some of the local boys and catching some more catfish, before trying out their traditional hunting spears, meeting their pet monkey, and playing a friendly game of soccer.
We ended the night with a traditional dance from them before teaching them a dance, watching several of our group members get married in the Waorani tradition, and saying goodbye to the tribespeople before we headed eight hours up the river the next day to return back to Iyarina.
