This past weekend I was lucky to be able to experience a completely different type of Ecuadorian culture when I visited the indigenous group called ¨Los Tsachilas¨ with 4 other chicas & 1 chico from Ecole Idiomas. Saturday morning we left Quito via bus and headed towards Santa Domingo. Just over 100km away from Quito, getting to Santa Domingo is an adventure in itself. The highway runs through the diverse landscape, often with a steep cliff on one side and plenty of fast moving traffic also on the highway. The twists and turns were enough to make a number of people vomit around us during the journey. On the way home they even handed out bags to throw up in as we sat down! Clever thinking. You could feel the humidity and heat increase as we quickly descended from Quito´s high elevation.
On arrival in Santa Domingo, all five of us piled into a taxi and headed towards the ¨mini terminal¨where we would catch a bus to ¨kilometer 21¨ where Los Tsachilas lived and where we would stay for the weekend. The directions getting to this particular kilometer were a bit sketchy to begin with but eventually we found our stop. Coincidently, one of the members of this particular tribe was also on the bus (and could be spotted by his traditional dyed red hair) and so he was able to walk us up to the cabanas where we would stay.
Los Tsachilas are an indigenous tribe which origianlly came from Venezuala and Columbia. Now, their culture and traditions are struggling to maintain their place in Ecuador, as it is subject to lots of discrimination not unlike most indigenous cultures I guess. Between kilometer 13 and 21 there are approximately 25 members left. Kilometer 21 is where the house of the leader is ... Alfonso. Alfonso, Freddy, Betty, Debra and Richard (only 20 years old and the only young member left) were nothing but hospitable and fun. We stayed in cabanas on their property, ate their fantastic food (fresh caugh fish wrapped in banana leaves!), played games, danced, ate some more, drank beer and went on nature walks, made sugar cane juice, ate some more and relaxed down by the river.
The men all shave the sides of their head and leave the top long which they dye with a particular berry. The dye job is very distinct as well as the body painting, however, more and more have stopped with this tradition due to the discrimination. When the Spaniards took over Ecuador, they of course brought disease, so this typical painting and dye was thought to ward off illness. Herbal medicine is very important to them, and they performed a shaman ceremony for us, purifying us all of bad spirits. We too now have body paint on that will last a couple of days (nothing too intense .. just on our arms). We went on a nature hike the first day to see all the different plants that are used for medicinal purposes. Also, we were lucky enough to be toured around their land which is used for agriculture. Here we enjoyed fresh fruit plucked from the branch, as well as some yucas which were later roasted and eaten.
On Sundays, the public is welcome to come and visit and we happened to be there when a man came to offer them land to live on on the coast so that he could make them a tourist attraction. Part of the ignorance and assimilation that they must put up with everyday. In the most polite way I could imagine, Alfonso declined.
On top of their generosity, they gave us parting gifts of trees that we planted so that if we ever return, we can see how our tree has grown. I planted a plant used for making houses. Also, they gave us bracelets and necklaces to remember our time there.
In return they asked nothing but to share pictures and stories of their culture so that it might be able to be preserved a little bit longer.
No comments:
Post a Comment