Visiting The Siona People.

Part of our Amazon adventure was a visit to the Siona people, one of the indigenous groups that live in the Cuyabeno Reserve.

Before our second granddaughter was born, her parents, Teresa and Matthew, were looking for names on the internet. They ran across an article about the Siona people and really liked the name. They changed the spelling to Syona and the name stuck.

So when we found that visiting Syona's namesakes was on the itinerary, we were very curious to see them.

Our visit began with a session with the group's shaman, Tomas. We met him and one of his daughters at his house. He was dressed in his traditional grab for our visit.

The marks on his face represent the three animals that rule the air, the jungle, and the river. On his forehead, the harpy eagle, on his cheeks, the jaguar’s spots, and on his chin, the anaconda’s snout.

He performed a short ceremony for us. O volunteered to be the subject. For a real ceremony, he would drink the ayahuasca in the bottle by his feet and visit the spirit world to determine what was ailing his patient.

Afterwards, two of Tomas' daugthers showed us his cacao orchard, which has unfortunately become infected with the witches' broom fungus that is devastating chocolate production all over South America. They managed to find a few pods that were unaffected to show us. I didn't know that the pulp around the seeds is edible. In fact, it is sweet and delicious, tasting much like a custard apple. The girls saved the seeds for processing after we ate the pulp.

 Next, it was time to make bread. Really from scratch. We started by pulling up manioc roots.

 Once we had harvested enough roots, Gardenia, one of the villagers, showed us how to peel them.

 O got her technique down.

  Cassava bread is like a large flatbread or tortilla, cooked on a large iron pan over a wood fire.

 O helped Gardenia wash any remaining dirt off the manioc roots.

 And then grate them.

 Once the roots were grated, Gardenia rolled them into a squeezer woven from palm leaves.

 Wringing all the water out of the grated manioc. The water is saved and used for cooking.

 O helps sift the resulting flour.

 Gardenia spreads the flour on the hot pan.
 

 Once the bread is crispy on one side, she expertly flips it over.

 Then finishes cooking the bread.



 O enjoys the finished bread. With a little salt, it was quite good.

About 250 people live in this village. Conditions are fairly primitive by our standards, but there were a couple of satellite dishes and a school. Our guide told us that the government has put money into developing infrastructure here, but poor planning and lack of expertise have caused most of the projects to fail.

Two girls do the laundry in the river. The only transportation here is by motorized canoe. These have proliferated to the point that the pollution they produce is becoming a problem. The government is trying to get people to adopt less-polluting four-stroke outboards, but most people can't afford them.

 When we left the village, Tomas was there to wave goodbye. He'd changed for his shaman regalia to his everyday clothes.

P.