One afternoon, Penti took us to an official visit to his father Awua´s hut, and Awua, who I think is the unofficially designated story preserver of the Bameno, sang us some songs that he learned from his grandfather, and it can only be assumed that they have been transmitted like this for several generations.

The songs do not contain a lot of ( Read more... )

One day, Penti and his dad and some more Waorani asked us whether we want to go paddling on a lake.  We had no idea what to expect, so we said sure!

They took us on a canoe ride of maybe 15 minutes, and then, ashore, we walked a short way, maybe 10 or 15 minutes on some old trails, and then we arrived at the shore of a swampy lake, long and narrow  ( Read more... )

This story was one of the stories told to us by Penti´s dad Awau ( Read more... )

On Saturday, we went on a “hunt” with Penti, his dad Awua and his uncle, famous Quemperi. They picked us up in the morning, and all dressed up for hunting, with The String, one chonta spear, one blowgun, and each one a tubular with curare-drenched poison darts.

As a party of eight, we took the boat and rode maybe 15 min upriver, where we went ( Read more... )

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Penti has eight children.  I asked him with how many wives (since he had explained me before that a Wao can have up to three wives, which, according to him helps everybody to live well and avoid divorces), and he said, just one, his present one.  His oldest son is 23 and is a nature guide working for a travel agency in Coca.  The youngest is 5 ( Read more... )

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Second night in the jungle. After having spend the first night at Gaba´s community, Yunemo, this night we are camping at some abstract sandy river beach in the very middle of nowhere. When night fell at 6.30pm sharp, we were still a few hours from Bameno, and with the river being so low, it would have been close to impossible navigating at night, ( Read more... )

Remember that it took us 2 full days to by canoe to navigate to Bameno.  Here are some pictures.


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From Quito, we took a very early flight to little oil jungle town Coca, 30 min, on Wednesday, August 11.  We met Numa the guide, who told us that we will be leaving late, around noon, since the Waoranís who were picking us up had had a motor breakdown, and wouldn´t reach the point of encounter before noon.

We met Waorani spokesman Penti Baihua, ( Read more... )