Huarani of the Amazon

What an amazing experience we had this week--three days in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the Huaorani  (Waorani) tribe in the pueblo of Gareno.  It was an 8 1/2 hour drive from Quito, with the last 4 hours on roads under construction.  We passed by simple wooden houses built on low stilts with glassless windows and thatch rooftops.  Wide-eyed children in dirty clothes or naked easily broke into smiles and waved back to me from the roadsides.  Surprisingly, large buses drove the crude roads and even a yellow taxi cruised by.  From time to time there was a sign pointing to a hotel swallowed up with jungle green.

The perfect outfit!

Gareno is a village of about 150 people...can't guess how many "families" there are since inter-family marriage is the norm and men have multiple wives.  Beautiful young women are plentiful and each has a baby wrapped in a bright scarf on their hips with several more children hanging on their legs.  The diet is yucca, plantains, cacao, chicken, fish, and abundant fruit with names I can never remember!

Mamas & babies & angels!

Ask for fruit?  They'll climb high to get it for you!

Typical jungle home

We trekked for three hours through the jungle in our rubber boots spending a good deal of time pulling our feet out of sucking mud. This excursion was led by a machete-wielding guy hacking the trail in front of us at times.  The selva is a holy place--a cathedral and a pharmacy as well.  The indigenous men informed us of a plethora of plant and flower power cure alls.  Lush forest vegetation and those "in-the-jungle" trills and whistles and hoots and hisses remind you of just where you are, the grandeur reminds you of Whose you are.  

We met up with our long, narrow dug-out canoe and all 10 of us nestled in for the motorized cruise back up the river from where we started.  We had hoped to encounter alligators, anacondas, exotic birds and such--unsuccessful, but the adventure itself was so enough!

 Drinking rainwater from a tree!

 Ready to cruise!

Amazing Amazonians

 Lunch on the riverbank.

The Waorani people formally welcomed us into the village by wearing their traditional "clothes" (or not), painting our faces with red paint,  dancing and monotone singing that we got caught up in ourselves!  A night I'll never forget--filled with love for a people who gave themselves to us and we got to love in return, even though our lives are worlds apart.  

 

A stop in Misahualli, famous for a cadre of monkeys adept at swiping sunglasses, hats and cameras from visitors or screaming in the faces of people who touch their tails, Ellie!  And our final adventure--Cuevas de Jumandi-- cave exploration, headlights piercing the darkness, sloshing through rivers and waterfalls, through narrow, winding rock formations, stalactite and stalacmite dodging, scrubbing the fine clay on our faces, then climbing up up--out of darkness into the light. Is this for real!?

Monos!

 Fresh talapia right out of the river never tasted so good.

 Not a parrot, but just as incredible a creation.

Thank You, Father, for sharing Your people, Your land and all the wealth of Your creation. 

 All of it shouts your glory!  I stand amazed, swelling with praise and thanksgiving. 

 You draw so close to us as we declare Your majesty, Your goodness, Your whispers of love.