Bush-walking in the Rainforest

Our amazing guide, Yuris, took us out for an early morning walk in the Amazonian nature. Yuris was born in a small indigenous village way out in the rainforest, and, as he put it, he "walked out of the jungle" when he was 24. The Brazilian government has a large agency that helps settle indigenous people, and he received education and housing and job training. He learned Portuguese, then Englishr and Russian, and now, 30 years later, he's a very successful private rainforest guide. He also looks line he's about 30 instead of over 50 years old. He told us he still eats his traditional diet--no sugar or prepared foods, no oils, just animal fats, meat from fish and native animals, and rain forest fruits and vegetables. Yuris could name animals and birds by the tiniest of sounds, not just calls, but also from the way an animal rustled as it moved. He could spot animals up in trees, like large iguanas that we had to stare and point and strain to see. He was amazing!

We started early in the morning, wearing long pants and long sleeves, socks and closed shoes. The bugs were bad! Not mosquitoes, but other bugs, and we needed some serious protection. As it was, we had Amanda L. get bitten by termites, and Diane, Liz, Sam, Chris, and Natalie get swarmed by stinging ants. Of course, they did put their hands into an ants nest so in a way they were looking for adventure. The ants nest, by the way, was a huge brown muddy-looking hive built on the trunk of a tree, about 3 feet tall and about 4 feet off the ground. The native peoples in the region use the ants in coming of age ceremonies. A boy is not a man until he can hold his hands inside the ants nest for a period of time. Some local cultural groups a tidally make special ant "clothes" for these rituals. Yuris explained these would be things like large gloves filled with ants, or worse, a sort of type of loin-cloth that would be filled with ants. Ouch! As it was, our brave students quickly found that letting ants swarm your hands meant letting them swarm your whole body, as they moved really fast and uncontrollably. Liz and Diane in particular were getting stung all over as we continued walking. An hour after we saw the ants nest, I was picking ants out of Natalie's hair. Fortunately the bites didn't itch. They stung for about 20 seconds and felt a little like a quick burn, but weren't terribly painful. And we now have some EC students who qualify as fully adult Guarani males...

Of course the problem with our clothing coverage was the fact that yesterday was by far the hottest day we had in the Amazon. Even early in the morning, the heat and humidity was painful. When we were walking uphill on tiny minimal paths, it was actually hard to breathe sometimes.

Yuris showed us some interesting and important trees as we walked. We saw a tree that native people use to treat asthma by making a tea from the sap. We saw another tree that has a sap that is used for treating skin conditions. Yuris let us try the sap, and it smelled wonderful, like a cross between jasmine and sandalwood, but very gentle. He told us that this sap has only recently been developed for a broad market by Brazil's largest pharmaceutical company.

We saw a thick vine that's really important for native people as it collects and purifies rainwater, and is the safest source of drinking water in the rainforest. Each vine holds up to 6 liters of water, but the native people make a small cut high up to drink only what they need at any time, without wasting the rest.

We saw the type of tree that traditional canoes are made from, naturally hollowed out but also very sturdy wood. We saw the type of tree that has long thing dangling roots down from its branches; the roots are cut and peeled, then smoked. Yuris called them jungle cigarettes, and those who wished had a chance to try. While I didn't try smoking one, I could smell that they were very fresh and light. I could see how they might be pleasant. We also saw a kind of tree that was used to treat headache (breathe the smoke) and also to keep insects away (light a fire right on the trunk). Apparently the trunk will just burn for a while, without turning into a big fire, and you can treat a headache by just lighting up the side of the tree and breathing the smoke for a few minutes. It leaves a white patch on the bark but doesn't damage the tree otherwise.

When we reached a clearing in the woods, Yuris showed us his blowgun. This was a real one, made by one of his relatives in his home village. It was about 5 feet long, and one simple narrow tube. The darts had sharp tips and were about a foot lo g. Some groups use poison from frogs to tip the darts, but Yuris' people used these larger darts and hunted birds and small monkeys up in the tree canopy. We all had a chance to try. Turns out that Jasmine was a ringer, but if it was up to us to feed ourselves out there via blow darts, we would probably starve.

Yuris also let us try his bow and arrows, again made traditionally. The now was a perfectly straight narrow piece if wood about 5 feet long, with a handmade rope. The arrows were about 3 feet long with hard wood points. Shadae, Jasmine, and Amanda B were really good. And some of us couldn't even get the arrow to fly at all. If an animal happened to be hanging out at our feet, perhaps it might have been stunned by an arrow falling out of the now, but otherwise EC traditional archery was not particularly successful. It was still great to try, though, and we had a lot if fun.

We also tried climbing trees the traditional way, which was ridiculously difficult. Bri started us out, and Yuris looped a rope loosely across her feet. She grabbed the tree and had to throw her feet towards the back of the trunk. In theory, the rope would brace around the front of the trunk, and you would just keep hopping up the tree. Bri managed to get up about 6 feet with some effort. Others tried, Lauren did pretty well, and so did Amanda B. it certainly took a lot of effort, although perhaps it would get easier with practice.

After we got back to the lodge, dirty, ant-bitten, and covered in sweat, we immediately jumped into our long boats to head across our tributary to the monkey preserve. This preserve attempts to rehabilitate monkeys into the wild. The government agency in charge of stopping the smuggling and illegal sale of wild animals rescues them and tries to rehabilitate the ones who have a chance. This monkey preserve us on an I inhabited island that monkey can cross over from during the dry season. They are fed regularly but not caged. The monkeys live in natural conditions except for the feeding, and slowly, as they learn to fend for themselves, they show up less and less often for feeding. And then they're gone, back into the wild. We got there just in time for a feeding, and we got to see monkeys come swinging up through the trees to grab big slices of papaya. Tiny shy little monkeys slowly and cautiously crept up for bananas, with the first little guy there letting out a howl of pure happiness when he got his banana.

When we left the monkey preserve we had to move fast to catch our long boats back to Manaus. They loaded our bags into one open-sided long boat--which was both amusing and slightly alarming-/and we loaded into two others. We zipped up our little tributary, into the larger tributary, and then into the giant Negra river, where we were eventually deposited onto the dock and safely reunited with our bags.

We flew out of Manaus today, headed to Salvador de Bahia. It's s 9 hour trip with 4 connections; Brazil is such a huge country! We'll be on to our next adventures tomorrow, but I have to say, our time in the Amazon has been amazing and magical.