Day 2 in Amazons: Visit to the Indigenous tribes Maloca

After a nice rest on our first day the true adventure began....

"Going deep into the jungle...."

We had our itinerary planned and day 2 consisted of visiting the indigeinous tribe in the jungle where they have their Maloca, which is like their point of meetings and also like their church. They do not live here, they live in the heart of the jungle and this place is unknown to normal people, if not it would get affected.

Outside the "Maloca"

Here they meet for rituals and to talk about their beliefs and their history from their "abuelos" granfather and talk about their descendents past. To be honest I found this one of the most interesting experiences I have ever lived. At the same time I think I was a bit ignorant to believe I would be seeing tribesmen, dressed only in their typical clothes so I was pretty surprised when I saw them dressed the same way any person would dress. They all wear wellies in the jungle as it rains heavily but some of the tribes men and children do go bare foot too, and I wanted to do the same but then I thought I would arrive a bit too messy to the hostel, especially when the shower is so cold you want to give yourself the quickest wash possible....

We had a guide that took us straight to the tribe, as you can't go there on your own accord, firstly because you would get lost, plus I don't think they would really appreciate it as this is their space, their environment, their World.....When we arrived we were welcomed by the main tribesmen. He was very welcoming and all the children were staring at us as it was obvious we weren't from there,we don't even look Colombian, so it must of been strange for them as it was strange for us to be stared at so much......

After being welcomed we were given a typical brunch that the tribe had prepared for us.

The food was a bit strange, because I had never tried anything like it but afterwards I found it very tastey. We were given a fruit type vegetable that grows in the trees and you find all around the jungle. It was very bland to be honest but we were given salt so that made it nicer. I don't remember the name of this unfortunately but they also make a juice out of this, the juice was also extremely bland when I first tried this but we were given a lot of sugar to mix with it and this made it nicer, but after our trek and working hard we were given more without sugar and as I was so thirsty I drank it in one and found it tasty....
We were also given extract of Yuka, Yuka is just like yams, its a vegetable that tastes similar to potatoe. They take the extract and make a sort of bread out of it and leave it to dry, from that they also make a soup. It was very strong and wasn't my favourite.... I still ate it though...


We were also give these grapes that you see below. They were huge, I have never seen grapes of this size, even the pips were huge. They were very juicy, but didn't realise you have to peel them first!

After our brunch we were sat with two tribesmen and they explained to us how they have tabacco and coke to chew. This isn't the same sort of cocaine that is seen in all around the world. This is not chemical, the Coca is made from the coca leaf, they pick it, and toast it and then they mix it with another plant from the jungle. This is why it is seen as a green powder and not like the typical white powder some people are used to seeing....They put a spoonful or two of this into their mouths and they leave it their until it goes solid. They call this "Mambeando". They then chew this for a bit and swallow this. This causes the mouth to go numb and this is something they do for leisure. Andy and I did try this and for some reason it wasn't made solid into our mouths, instead it went all liquid and didn't taste as nice... We didn't swallow it either.

The tobacco and coke is put into jars, as they say they keep it the "modern" way as they used to put it in jars made of mud but it doesn't keep it in tact like the glass jars.


Here you can see many people peeling the vegetable, the reason for this was because they were preparing for a big dance that they do at every end of season.... this is because the tribes God is nature...They believe that humans need to be good to nature so nature is good with them. If they do anything to damage nature they have to visit a "currandero" where he cleans their sins, if not they believe they may be eaten by tigers or bitten by snakes.....So it is valuable to know how we should treat our Earth from these people....
After trying the Coca we were also given to try the tobacco. The tobacco is not smoked but instead it is blown into the nostrils. Normally they do this with an animal bone but as they have gone modern again and do this with a hollow plant stick. The tobacco is blown into each nostril and the feeling isn't the nicest. They leave your eyes watery. This is meant to wake you up and get rid of any headaches which I did find worked as I suffer from a lot of tiredness and that DID wake me up.....

Tobacco is a delicasse for these people, they love to smoke too, some visitors came and brought them tobacco and they spent the whole time putting one cigarette out and lighting another...


Here is another type of cigar they make....

After our little lesson on tobacco and the coca plant we went further into the jungle where we went to the river Tacana....

Here is a naturally grown Coca Plant seen on the way to the river Tacana...


We arrived at the river and it was just for us and the children to swim in, it was brilliant. There was a tree to climb up and jump from and also a stick to swing off....It was a great way to spend the day, although I did get eaten by the mosquitos, I had about 25 mosquito bites in under an hour.... I did have repellant and vitamins but nothing worked...

The Predator 2010 - "He can't see me"

My back after just 30 mintues of swimming, look at the mosquito attack!

After the river we went back to the maloca, there we were shown a weapon that they use to hunt for animals.... It is like a long wooden tube and sticks that are blown into the tube. The stick have some cotton wool on them and there they put a few drops of venom on it which its taken from a plant. With this venom the animal is killed. It is also so powerful that is can kill a human, So I wouldn't like to get accidentally shot by one of them.

I did try blowing but I have no lung power so the arrow didn't go far at all. I would be a useless hunter. Andy was a lot better but he kept on almost hitting the chickens which would be good if he was supposed to but he was meant to be hitting a bottle!




After various unsuccesful attempts on shooting we were given another surprise....

The tribesmen came with a bowl and Andy before seeing what was in there said "gracias"....

In there were some fat juicy worms...Worms that are eaten. They looked very strange indeed and moved in the most curious way. They offered us to try these and as I am a bit sqeaumish I sad no but Andy being the adventurous type he is said yes and ate it.... a video will be posted of this so you can witness this great experience.

Andy did say it was chewy but tasted like a vegetable and was very nutricious (I really do not know whether to believe him or not). In a way I did regret not trying it but then again It isn't the end of the world either.


After this scrumptious delight it started to rain very heavily so we decided to help with the preparation for the tribes night dance, this dance lasts 3 days, so there was a lot of food to prepare....

We helped them mince all the vegetables, with that then they make some sort of paste....

As it rained we helped to mince the veg....

A bag made of leaves to carry all the essentials around....

As the rain was not going to stop we decided to make our way back to our hostel, also we didn't want to be intruding in the tribes space....

We made our way back with our guide, and he cut some leaves for us to use as umbrella's. Very helpful although we still did arrive soaking wet to our hostel.....