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My time in the amazon was easily the most extraordinary time of my life. nothing that i have ever done can compare to that time in adventure, uniqueness, and pure incredibleness . . . i imagine that this is what travel was like 100 years ago. there were many times that i felt like a national geographic explorer truly discovering the ways of the ecuadorian amazon.

La Amazonía: The Village of Wachimak

Andy Wunder
2007-04-19 22:35:13

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pay for their new found "modernity". when i stayed in the city with the villager that left wachimak, i noticed that his life was fairly similar to the lives of his brothers that had remained in the jungle ... with one notable exception. the brother that left the jungle had taken a sharp decrease in standard of living. true, his house was made of concrete and he was able to have electricity so his kid could watch cartoons. but besides the small petty improvements that really, all in all are not to much of an improvement, that they ate the same (chicken instead of armadilo and yuca bought at the market instead of yuca farmed behind his hut) and talked the same. except now, in the city, they had to work their day away. they no longer were able to relax or play with their kids all day. they now spent their day in an office worrying about how they were going to buy that meat or yuca for their kids. instead of relaxing, they were trying to earn money to buy food. the wife of the man that left the jungle would come and spend half her days at wachimak and half her days with her husband in the city. i once asked her which life she preferred. she answered point blankly "i prefer wachimak because in the city you need money to live and eat." now please, dont misunderstand me, i am not holding it against them to want what we want. but the way i see it, their lives are much better than what awaits them in the slums of a south american city.

i feel incredibly blessed to have stumbled upon wachimak. it was truly the most extraordinary part of my extraordinary trip. i lived my childhood dream of living in the amazon and i did it in style. i could not have asked for more.

i feel very lucky that i was only the 15th white person ever to set foot in wachimak, that i was able to experience the amazon and its people while they were still real and living the way of their fathers. i feel blessed that i stumbled upon wachimak before it underwent its change. but i wonder, how long will that last. will i be able to take my kids back to see the wachimak that i know?

will "progress" once again take away what forever took to find?

Andy Wunder
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