Family Time

Overseas Adventure Travel always tries to include a “day in the life” experience in every one of their tours. Often, this includes a visit to a school, clinic, or social agency, in addition to a home-hosted meal. Covid has made school and clinic visits unwise, to say the least. So our “day in the life” was an extended home visit to a family living in a small settlement on the opposite side of the Rio Napo.

We traveled by large, motorized canoe. Because of the strong current and large sand bars (the Napo is miles wide but inches deep), the boat had to take us on a somewhat round about route.

Immediately upon landing, we encountered a low-hanging termite nest, and our tour director, Juan, used the opportunity to talk about these insects and their place in the ecology.

We were met almost immediately by our hostess, Niela. She is a Showna woman married to a Kichwa man. They have four children and live primarily by farming. However, pre-Covid, Bruno, the husband, worked as a boat driver for one of the oil-drilling rigs.

Niela showed us her garden, where she was raising yuca, plantains, and a variety of herbs. She demonstrated how she harvests the yuca and immediately re-plants part of the stems, which will grow into new plants in about three months.

She also demonstrated how palm fronds are used to make thatched roofs for local houses. The technique was the same as was demonstrated to us on our jungle hike yesterday, but these roofs last only 5 to 10 years. People use whatever type of palm is available, and the best choices aren’t easy to find everywhere.

After getting the chance to smell or taste a variety of herbs, we finally made our way to the house. Actually, the family lives in two adjacent structures. One is a small, enclosed building with a raised floor and tin roof that is one open room used only for sleeping. The other is an open-sided, bamboo and palm-thatched shelter with hard-packed dirt floor, used for cooking and eating and most other family activities.

One of the kids wanted to show off his pet turtle

This seems primitive, and would be by U.S. standards, but they have electricity, internet, and the out-house has running water with flush toilet and a nice-looking tiled shower. Another building is a chicken coup.

The grandfather in traditional dress

We were introduced to the children, as well as to Bruno’s father, who is a tribal elder and a shaman healer. We also met Bruno’s sister and nephew, but it wasn’t clear if these last two lived here or just nearby. In any case, the family consists of three generations.

Niela demonstrated the process of making chicha, the native fermented drink made by mashing cassava root and sweet potato.

Then we went to work on the main course, which was river fish prepared with salt and wrapped in a palm leaf, sort of like a tamale.

In addition, we were to have the “delicacy” of the huge beetle larve — just like those we had seen in the market at Coca City. I had the honor of completing one skewer of five fat worms. The process involves fishing a wiggling live one out of the bowl of water, using fingers and thumb to crush its head to kill it (harder than it looks), then stabbing it with the skewer at the head and through to the tail end. 

Then you slide the slimey critter down the skewer to make room for the next one. The skewer is then placed over the fire until the larve are crisp. (They have sort of a bacon flavor, but were not my favorite.) All of the food was served in a gourd, and there was no silverware — all finger food!

The meal ended with the serving a guayusa, a tea made from local plants, and the traditional cup of chicha. The tea was good, the chicha — meh.

After the meal we had a question & answer period with Juan translating. The family members had a couple questions for us, and we had a bunch for them. That concluded, we were ushered outside, where Bruno wanted us all to try hitting a target (constructed to look like a bird) with his blow gun and his spear. Only one guy in the group hit the target with the dart. Not even Bruno hit with the spear.

Before departing, the children wanted to give us the gift of Toucan noses made from Bird of Paradise flower blossoms. Mary gave them some stickers in return. We finally took our leave, feeling that it was one of the better “day in the life” experiences that we had had on OAT trips.

After a bit of siesta, we gathered in the main lodge for a lesson in making chocolate from cocoa beans. Of course, the entire process takes days, but we opened a pod. Then we had the opportunity to shell some roasted seeds, and to grind them into powder. The best part was sampling finished candy bars that Juan had obtained previously.

That activity concluded with a long discussion of Juan’s life growing up in the Amazon, his family, customs, what happens when there are illnesses and deaths, how marriages are arranged, etc., etc. It was very interesting, and went much longer than planned, right up until dinner. The group is becoming better acquainted, so the dinner conversation is more lively and continues long after the meal.