Welcome to the Jungle

5 days later and I’m back in Cusco after an unbelievable trip to the Amazon! Due to the massive water strike in Cusco, we left on Thursday morning bright and early at 4:30 AM. We drove the whole day and the drive itself was quite an adventure. After driving through some of the most beautiful mountains ever, we finally made it to what is technically part of the Amazon rainforest in Peru. We drove down these massive valleys filled with so much green that my senses were going nuts. As beautiful as Cusco is, there’s not much greenery—it’s definitely the epitome of an Andean highland. It was fantastic to see every shade of green possible. The roads to get to Manu National Park were pretty insane; we spent many a turn gripping on for dear life. We finally made it to Pilcopata, the last town before you hit either the national park or the indigenous villages. We all hopped into the back of a truck and set out for Santa Rosa de Huacaría, the first indigenous village on our trek.

We made it to Haucaría around 7 at night and trekked our gear out to the platform we were staying on. It was about a 10-minute walk from the central part of the village, so it was nice to have some space and be fully immersed in the wilderness. We set up our tents on the platform and made it back to the village for dinner and some traditional songs and stories. Every meal in Huacaría included yuca, which has become truly the only food in Peru that I absolutely hate. There are many beneficial aspects about it—it’s easy to grow in any climate, it can be cooked in many different ways and it fills you up real fast. But, after yuca in every single meal for multiple days, I despise this food. It was glorious to eat a meal today without yuca. But, along with the yuca, we ate many other interesting things in both the villages—palmitas, platanos, freshly slaughtered chicken and many an interesting juice.

We woke up the next morning at yet again, 4:30 AM. This time around, we had a much more interesting experience. We participated in Darikkin, a ceremony that takes place right as the sun is rising. It focuses on finding equilibrium in a person by connecting them to the four major spirits of the area—the universe, the water, the earth and the forest. This ceremony also takes place in the river, so I was quite ecstatic to get a chance to swim. We donned our swim gear and walked down to the beautiful swimming spot near our campsite. Alberto, the local shaman, came with us and chanted some traditional words before taking us one by one and sprinkling a bit of oil on our heads before we entered the water. I got really interested in tourism during this excursion, so I wonder how much of this ceremony was in fact a bit staged for the tourists. Nonetheless, I most definitely had a spiritual experience as I entered the chilly river at this early hour. It was fantastic to feel clean in nature and be a part of an indigenous ceremony, no matter how much it had been affected by tourism. Darikkin was awesome.

After breakfast, we met up with Alberto. We had a really interesting conversation with him where we learned a lot more about traditional medicine in the jungle. We even got to embark on a brief tour of the area to see the plants he often uses in his medicine including the well-known ayuhuasca, which is utilized by many for its hallucinogenic effects.  After our talk with Alberto, we also got to talk with one of the teachers from the village. He discussed the many issues with migration to the area and the difficulties with the multiple languages. In Huacaria, there are two main groups—Machiguenga and Huachipaeri. Both of these groups have individual languages. It’s difficult to teach students Spanish with these different language backgrounds, so education in these areas is constantly being re-assessed.

In the afternoon, we got to interview different people from the community. I, along with a few others, got to interview Alberto some more, which was really interesting. We also got to watch him perform some treatments on a man with rheumatoid arthritis. It was awesome to learn more about traditional medicine and shamanism, especially since it connects me to my undying passion for the Inuit culture.  We also had time after our interviews to play with the local kids, which was amazing. It’s so refreshing to play with kids and they thoroughly enjoyed playing with our cameras (as demonstrated by the photos below). We had dinner (obviously with yuca) and had a few more stories before we hit the hay.

The next morning we had breakfast and then met with Alberto again. This time he showed us some of his treatments, including how he diagnoses susto, a psychological problem that’s only found in the selva. We also got to have our hair washed with two medicinal plants in order to relieve stress. It was awesome! It was really cool to participate in this medicine after we’d been learning so much about it. We had some more free time, which I utilized to go swimming once again. I miss water way too much, especially after a summer up North so I was swimming in this glorious river whenever I had the chance. After lunch, we packed up all our gear and hitched a ride back to town in the sweltering heat. After begging and succeeding in obtaining some cold cokes and ice cream from our academic directors, we hit the road on a much more insane ride to Queros, the next town we were staying in. It took about an hour to get there and it was a glorious, yet semi-dangerous, way to see more of the beautiful green jungle.

Queros was probably one of the most beautiful places I've been to in my life. The mountains surrounding this village were phenomenal. It had a river, although we weren't able to swim in it. Basically, Huacaria was great, but the views at Queros were to die for. It was also refreshing to get to Queros because we had some idea of what to expect. Huacaria definitely had it's challenges since we were all adjusting to something totally new.

We had dinner that night in town and after an unsuccessful attempt at frog hunting in the dark, we crashed again. In the morning, after breakfast (with no yuca!) we met with some of the leaders of the community to discuss tourism. It’s a really interesting topic in these towns and it was great to hear their own beliefs on it. After, we all split up and got to help out with the crops of the community! I luckily got to assist with picking coca leaves which was so cool. Later that afternoon, we got to do more interviews and that night we had a traditional meal with the whole community.

We got up real early, once again, to pack up and hit the road. We didn’t return to Cusco until 9:30 at night so it was a long day of traveling. As hot and uncomfortable as I was at times in the jungle, it was an unbelievable experience. I sure hope to make it back sometime in my life. Now, we begin Quechua classes and attempt to prepare ourselves for our next rural home stay in Colca Canyon in about 2 weeks…! Below is a brief image of the insanity of our drives through the jungle... this one occurred as we drove right through a river. Quite the adventure.