Amazing people

Well it was definitely not an ordinary jungle tour. Sunday at 6.30am Adélaïde and I were at the bar were we should meet with Arno our Indian, but he wasn´t there! The owner of the bar knew where he lived and went looking for him. At 7.10am he showed up still drunk of the night before. It was impossible to have a normal conversation with him. The bus arrived 5 minutes later and he assured us that we could trust him and that he wasn´t that drunk at all, uhum.... After a small bus ride our 25 km jungle tour started.
We followed Arno who sometimes was visible, but most of the times was walking more then a 100 meter in front of us. For several hours we didn´t see him at all, but there was a small path to follow and it wasn´t to difficult to find the way. He was having an incredible speed. After 6 hours we found out why... he was using the mambé (coca leave powder) to help him over his hangover. It was a gift for the shaman!!! We were very angry at him and like you do with little kids we took away the mambé from his bag. But we didn´t say much because without Arno in the jungle the tour wold be even more crazy.

It was rainy season and the we walked with rubber boots and rain ponchos in the jungle. Sometimes we had to cross a small river or the path was flooded. At the end the water lever was that high that the river Calderon flooded into the jungle. For one kilometer we walked with the water until our knees and the last part until our chest. We had to cross a little river, but couldn´t see where to walk with all the water. Luckily at that time Arno wasn´t drunk anymore and he helped us find the tree that crossed the river. We followed him with our backpacks above our heads just like in the movies, hi hi.
After 7 hours we arrived in Calderon, which is a village of 5 houses. We took a rest at a friends place, emptying our boots with water. The owner told us that Miguel and Adriana lived 8 kilometers deeper into the jungle. Unbelievable!! Arno never told us this. This guy lent lent us a canoe or better said a hollow tree, with a big hole of 30 cm on the side. But with a canoe it was much easier to follow the river until the house of Miguel. We entered the boat and the water was slipping in through the hole. Adélaïde was sitting in the middle of the boat, after our trip in the jungle and the knowledge of a broken canoe a little bit in panic that the boat would sink. I was in the back and Arno in the front peddling and holding the little boat stable, which was one hell of a work. After 2 minutes I saw the canoe fill up with water and told them that we were going to sink. Arno told us to calm down and thought we both were in panic. I told them another time that we should go to the side to empty the boat and the third time when I made a little more noise, Arno looked back and started guiding the boat very fast to a side, because the boat was more then half full with water. On the side we emptied the boat and gave Adélaïde the task to empty the boat all the time with the little bucket which was aboard. In this way it worked great and we made a tour of 50 minutes upstream the river Calderon in the beautiful nature. Great!

Just before the dark we arrived at the finca of Miguel and Adriana. They have a house which is no more then a wooden platform on poles of 6 by 4 meters with a leave roof and no walls at all. Containing 2 hammocks, a little closet for some books and papers and in the middle a mattress with a mosquito net. Twenty meters from the house on the waterside there was a smaller roof on poles which was the outside kitchen with a table and some wooden blocks to sit and a big fire in the middle of the kitchen to cook. It was amazing those two very friendly persons, Miguel of 60 years old and Adriana 32 and pregnant, living far away in the jungle without any neighbours, without money (useless in the jungle) any without civilization (like electricity, a water tap or shower, chickens, bread shops, phones..) We were very welcome and gave them there presents (or what was left of it after the abuse of the mambé by Arno).

For four days we lived their life, slept in our hammocks, looked at the monkeys who visited their house, went fishing, drinking the water from the brook on the side of the house (I never tasted water that good), helping make juice of the asaï fruits and eat their jungle fruits like chantaduro.
Miguel lived for a long time in Putumayo with the indigenous people over there. He learned how to make yagé (ayahuasca) from the shamans over there. He wasn´t a shaman himself we found out, but just used the yagé for his own use and when people wanted to join they were always welcome. It was a great experience, because together with Miguel we prepared a whole day our medicine. The next night we took the yagé with our friends from the canoe. I must say that I liked the yagé in the finca near Bogotá much more then the yagé of Miguel, but the experience with making the yagé together made it all good. Even though the songs of Miguel during the ceremony at night sounded all the same and it took hours before he stopped and I could have quiet thoughts.

Arno happened to be a great guy when he was not drunk. After our little conversation the day after our trip, he became great company and on our way back we walked together all the time. The days we stayed with Adriana and Miguel it didn´t rain. It was amazing but on the way back home the water did´t even came up to our ankles. That how fast it can change in the jungle...
Half way our trip I was thirsty and looked for some water in a brook when a saw a big sting ray (rog). I called for Arno and he was the happiest Indian ever. He killed the stingray with his manchetti (knife) connected to a big branch, because rays are dangerous and can kill you with their toxic tail. It was a 6 kilo big fish which we cleaned and carried with us home. This night we had a great dinner party with 10 persons eating the delicious flesh of the stingray.