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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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to begin with a description of my diet and of the oddities of eating in the amazon. every morning i would wake up around 6 and meet the family that took care of me for breakfast. breakfast, lunch and dinner did not really differ from each other ... actually all meals were basically the same thing: rice, yuca (potato of the amazon), sometimes a meat (fish, a small mammal, or a bird) and a soup (normally banana). most meals were also served with a juice and these juice were always the fall back part of the meal. because all water had to be boiled, there was a constant taste of firewood in the water ... the fruit disguised that tatse well. you knew that no matter what was put in front of you, you could always wash it down with some awesome tasting juice. the kids would run into the jungle, grab some fruit, mush it up, and serve it to me in a cup diluted with water.

the village worked basically as a collective. they banned together and shared everything. a large mammal would feed part of the village for a meal or two. if it was something smaller and and a bit more "special", everybody would get a small cut. i was always given the best cuts, sometimes to my dismay. while the men were out hunting, the ladies tended to the small garden near the village. im not exactly sure how it worked, but they all worked together, they all shared, and they never ever argued ... a novel concept for our "modern" and "advanced society.
during my two weeks at wachimak i ate some pretty weird stuff. basically every vegetable, fruit, and meat was new to me. in general, their food was very good. everything was fresh (cant keep meat in the jungle for very long without a fridge), natural, and nothing was processed. the jungle birds tasted like chicken and most of the small mammals tasted like ... well flavorful chicken. but every now and then i would take a bite and the "how the hell do they eat this all the time?" question would pop up.

one morning i was awakened by a ...