A unique community tourism experience on Ecuador´s Amazonian rainforest, part two
January 14, 2012
After our exciting two hours hike in the rainforest, covered in sweat and quite thirsty, we get back to the Shayari Community Tourism Center where the children are waiting to see us, urban creatures, return after a walk in the jungle. They smile and wave at us, displaying that genuine hospitality of the inhabitants of these remote corners of the amazing Amazon basin. We are offered a much welcome and refreshing orange juice and additional bottles of water to continue our journey. Geovanny, the Community’s young President, joins me to host the rest of the day’s outing.
We travel through dense primary forests nestled along irregular mountainous ridges and we frequently stop to look at and photograph the brilliant yellow-rump cacique birds and their peculiar long and hanging nests, looking like Christmas decoration over large ficus and kapok trees. Another stop is to watch a small troupe of woolley monkeys performing their acrobatic maneuvers as they travel over the forest’s canopy, alongside the dirt road. A large rodent, most likely a young capybara, scurries across the road and rapidly disappears in the dense vegetation. There is a pleasant scent of moisture, plant leafs and wood, a characteristic of such a pristine habitat. From a vantage point along the narrow road we emerge over the Lumbaqui Valley and get a great panoramic view of the namesake village, one of the cross-roads of Ecuador’s rich petroleum-producing zone.
After a short stop for refreshments and a light snack, we continue on, towards another remote community, El Cedro, located on the Upper Agurarico River area. Our first stop is at Santiago’s extremely modest home, surrounded by gardens, chicken all over the place and the backdrop of the omnipresent jungle behind. He is a mestizo settler, who migrated from the Andes, decades ago and now lives in convivial harmony with the Kchwa native population of the area. His wife and five children busily prepare lunch for us, the “special guests” of the day. Santiago’s dream, shared by many of the surrounding community members, is to create a “Sustainable Handicrafts Center”, which, by utilizing naturally decaying materials, would provide a decent source of income to the local inhabitants, otherwise dedicated to agriculture and farming, which often contributes to degrading and destroying the natural forests. This activity, instead, helps preserve the forest. He is a skilled artisan himself and shows us his most artistic lamps and decoration figures made of the fibers and materials of fallen trees and decaying tree barks.
While we share a succulent chicken soup, salad and lemonade around the dining table, we can feel the spirit of equity and hospitality which these people embrace… Opening the doors of their modest home is a demonstration of such spirit and we enjoy a memorable moment of true sharing the daily life of a local family. After lunch, Santiago takes us to visit his elder colleague, Don Ivan, in the small El Cedro’s main square. His driftwood handicrafts workshop is large and the amount and variety of objects, whether for decoration or for practical uses, is really amazing. Even though, the area is not one of high touristic visitation, they continue with their dream to convert their small community into a superb handicrafts center, characterized by the concept of preserving the rainforest, while recycling its natural materials into fantasy pieces of artisanal work. To end the visit, we drive a short distance away to reach a huge bend of the large Aguarico River’s headwaters, where I am really stunned at the bizarre and unique geological formations which shape the rivers’ shorelines at this place, known as “Las Pizarras” (which would translate into “the blackboards”)… With no geologists around to ask, I can only speculate that these are stratified lava rivers, spilled from the neighboring Reventador Volcano and further shaped by the force of the river’s water crafting the lava into the most amazing shapes, a startling sight…..!! As we make our way back to the petroleum hub city of Lago Agrio to catch my return flight to Quito, I tell Geovanny, my Kichwa host, how much I have enjoyed and learned on these days, sharing much of the daily life of these remote communities on Ecuador’s magic upper Amazonian rainforest…..
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