Rise and shine! Today we woke up at 6am and had breakfast at 7 before heading on our 2 hour bus ride to the boats.
It was a slow day as we got onto our boats that we would be staying in for the next 6 hours. The boat ride to lunch was calm and relaxing as I fell asleep for a part of it until we stopped at a sandbar for lunch. Lunch was a tuna salad sandwhich with fruit. I never had a liking toward tuna salad, but after this trip, I am now going home liking tuna salad. After eating, we got back into our boats for another 3 hour ride before arriving at the lodge we would be staying at for the next 2 days. On the boat, we saw many birds, turtles, and even an Iguana.
When we arrived at the lodge, we took in our new environment and found our rooms. Dinner was rice, beans, and cooked plantains. After dinner, we played a few rounds of Uno and headed up to bed after our long day of sitting in the sun.
Day 9:
Today we had our first full day in the Waorani territory! I was most excited for this day because I was out in an environment for the first time in my life where I had no communication to the outside world, and felt like I was truly living in their world. We started the morning with eggs, fried plantains, and fruit before taking a boat ride to the woods. We stopped at a tree where Ellie, daughter of Todd, told us about how the Quechua people, monkey calling, and how climbing trees is important. They climb trees and make monkey calling noises to hunt monkeys. I was so surprised to see when one of them demonstrates it because he climbed so far up the vine of the tree that none of us could see him. When they do hear a monkey make a noise, they have to follow that noise in a straight line so they can get to it which is very hard to do in a forest with trees and plants everywhere. After, we got to climb on the vine ourselves and swing on it (I did not go high at all).
Then, we walked to a Ceiba, a very important tree to their entire community. This tree was huge and had big sockets between the bottom of the tree that we could stand in. Knocking on the bark, it felt hollow and made an interesting sound. I learned that this massive tree was important for communication in the forest by knocking on it, and sometimes they would hide in the layers of it to hide from “forest beings and forest elves” which is a belief of this indigenous community. The women would also harvest in the area around the tree but children were not allowed in the area because jaguars would hide in the sockets and jump out at them. I also learned that they would sleep on the higher parts of vines near the tree so if a jaguar did sneak up on them they could outrun it by going to different vines and getting away. The current president of the tribe, who is 18 years old, told us stories about how he was a pro climber at 6 years old and at 14 he was chased by 2 pumas and screamed for his dad who ran out and scared them away.
After this information we went back to the lodge for lunch which was a beef pasta with salad and fruit. It was pouring rain so we wait a little while before heading to their tribe to meet the family there. Some of us decided to go fishing so I joined them on the boat. They caught about 4 catfish and I helped try to find some bait at the beach area; however I was unsuccessful especially when the boys of the tribe were very experienced and knew what they were looking for and I clearly did not. However, I still had a lot of fun and after fishing we went to the tribe to play a big game of soccer. The field was very muddy and since we were barefoot, everyone was slipping and sliding. While we were there, we saw monkeys and I saw a tapear for the first time. It was strange looking and quite funny to see all of the different animals it could be made out of into one being. We played until it was dark and went into the Amazon River before heading back to the lodge for dinner. We cleaned off and jumped into the water and when we went back to eat dinner, it was vegetables, salad, and a mashed potato and cheese soup.
After eating it was very dark, and since we didn’t have our phones today, the very few of us who did bring head lights had to lead the way to our boat. We took our dark and scary boat ride back to watch them perform special welcoming, friendship, and family dances for us and we all got named a Waorani name as they put the fruit on us. My name was Gamë which represents someone who is a peacemaker and tries to find a peace in everything while also having the skills of a fisherman which confused me as to what that meant but it also stuck to me. We watched Maggie get married to a Waorani which was fun and he gifted her a handmade necklace. Then, we performed our dance to them which we have been practicing for just about a day and a half. Our dance consisted of the cup song, the Macarena, and then shifted into the Cotton Eye Joe. We got to teach them the cotton eye joe which was very fun and we ended our night with them by purchasing their handcrafts like bracelets, ceramic dishes, necklaces, and more.
On the way back to the lodge, the boat I was in ran out of gasoline right next to a Caiman. It was pitch black outside, and with the few flashlights and headlights we had, we saw the eyes and dark body of the Caiman. Truthfully, I was very scared by how close we were as we stopped and tried to move a little further to the lodge slowly, until the other boat came back to get us and brought us more gasoline. I finally survived my first and hopefully only Caiman encounter! I went back to the lodge and went right to bed to get ready to leave for our 8 hour boat ride back to Todd’s lodge tomorrow!