Coconuts, Canoes & Coco Leaves

Posted on October 20th, 2006 by Jess.
Categories: South America.

Where to begin? It’s been another week of sweaty tribal hecticness, fiestas and muchos bonding with our honorary indigenous extended family! Work this week has entailed yet more leaf collecting, which is far from the megre activity that it sounds, as it involves splitting and hauling tarantula-ridden palm leaves, which are equal to myself in both height, weight and smelliness.

Coca leaves appear to be the main booster of team strength, energy and morale during labouring hours, and are dished out in handfuls by our indigenous colleagues… I’m slightly concerned that I may develop a pricey dependency by the time I return to English shores. I’m even contemplating reserving myself a precautionary place at The Priory for just such a instance.
There was a second Leaper birthday this week and it was yet another corker, and a prime opportunity to slack off for the day. We spent the afternoon tubing which entailed gently bobbing down the Amazon in the massive inner tubing of a lorry tyre. It was all very tranquil until the end set of rapids carried off the least aquatically-capable volunteer another 3000m down stream (minus a tube for approx the last 2500m) but we had no fear as jungle Rambo Hector (our guide) came to her rescue in his big phallic man canoe… what a hero.

We also had the opportunity to don some of the traditional beaded (yet also worryingly revealing) clothing and partake in a bizarre local dance which as far as we could tell consists almost entirely of foot shuffling and the dramatic reenactment of fishing. Alice was definitely shaking her jungle coconuts, which did in fact pop out of her costume on more than one occasion. The children of the family then gave us an exclusive performance of the dance as it should be done, definitely putting our white, sinewy booty-shaking to shame. The day was crowned by some very energetic bopping at the local disco-cum-shed followed by a two hour walk back to camp in a torrential Amazonian downpour, definitely one of those classic ‘the journey is the destination’ gap year moments!

Wednesday afternoon involved lots of kiddy bonding, as we were designated the ´responsible´ elders of 25 local children for two hours, whilst the local parents held a community meeting. We met in the open air church and busted out numerous renditions of ´Hokey-Cokey´ and ´Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes´, along with a nifty round of ´Duck Duck Goose´ and a brief introduction to ‘How to say your name in English´. The kids had such a good time; the parents are apparently going to make the activities a weekly occurrence. We were slightly concerned in the beginning, however, when the head grandmother set fire to all the surrounding land, which consisted entirely of a dry grass and other highly flammable crap… We initially thought that they were taking slightly irrational precautions to stop the kids from escaping, but luckily they were just carrying out a routine land clearance.

We’ve spent the past couple of days in our weekend haven, Tena. Yesterday was epic amounts of fun as we went white-water rafting. Fortunately for us, we met another English girl who is teaching at a school in Tena as well as romancing one of the rafting instructors. This resulted in a full day of rafting fun, waterfall sightseeing, guacamole picnic and a touch of jungle canyon exploration, all at a very agreeable price. I did, however, manage to swallow a few gallons of river water whilst I was continually tipped over board by the guides… I’m bracing myself for some serious puking out of both ends… but it’ll all be worth it.

We’re preparing ourselves for some immense fiesta fun tonight in Tena, as today is the final day of elections. Ecuador has apparently had to make it illegal to drink for 48 hours before voting, as so many people have turned up inebriated to vote over previous years. I have a sneaking suspicion that people will be fully compensating for the weekend liquor drought from about 7pm onwards. So if you don’t mind I must depart to line my stomach in preparation! Ciao!

Love Jess x

0 comments.