Buen Peru Village - Traditional Maloka, July 12 2017
The day began early again but this time to barking dogs and roosters. Not the chorus of insects I was used to. I was missing the remoteness and serenity of the previous camp, even though this village is as remote as you will find anyway. I guess its like leaving a beach campsite for a caravan park in town, you just want to go back to the peace and quiet. Paul, Kane and I had a casual 'production' meeting in the hammocks before we set off again for our next stage of the journey.
Kids of Buen Peru
We waved goodbye to the wonderful and kind people of Buen Peru Village and also our small aluminum ‘tinny’ for even narrower, more uncomfortable canoes. It was a traditional hollow log canoe (with old lawnmower engine) that we were needing to travel a further 20 hours in over the next few days ( like a Melbourne - London flight) before a final 50km trek through dense jungle back to relative civilisation.
Our new transport
The reason for us changing boats; it was the dry season and the river upstream narrowed and was shallow meaning fallen trees and logs blocked the passage proving difficult to travel through in days to come. It was imperative that we canoed as far as possible towards our destination; we didn’t want to walk any further than we had planned.
Google showing rivers in region
Just to get a sense of the remoteness, the photo above on Google shows the river on right of frame (also the border of Peru and Brazil) with no civilised towns anywhere. We have spent the past week on and around Rio Galvez, (river upper frame). The photo below shows the village of Buen Peru which is not actually identified on Google maps yet. It can be seen as a cleared area south of the river Galvez and home to approximately 50 families, including our guides - the Matses chief, Hernan), Denis and his father Armando.
Buen Peru Village in cleared area by river, lower middle
The many hours in the canoe were pretty interesting, I was able to hold a good sitting position to film river wildlife and it did not disappoint again. We saw the usual families of Macaw eating in the trees, eagles, Toucan and families of otter, poking their heads out of the water before racing off at the sign of a boat coming. They often waddled out of the water and into the jungle, which I now think, may offer them up to a hungry Jaguar or large rodent. We also cruised past pristine sand banks, home to breeding turtles, where some of the eggs are often raided by tribes people for food, but not enough to affect the future of the species. These waters are truly diverse and healthy.
Macaw in flight
Drone shot with fallen trees and turtle breeding sand banks
Our next 3 nights were spent living with a family of Matses, completely separated from village life in their traditional house, an Amazon maloka (long house). After arriving, it was a short walk up a steep hill from the river, in a stunning landscape, with views of the gently flowing water, and home to Caiman, Anaconda, Dolphin, Otter and the deadly Piranha. There were no barking dogs, roosters or groups of screaming kids, this was remoteness like nothing I had seen before. These indigenous Matses have rejected the partly civilised world (village life) for incomprehensible freedom, not too dissimilar to the un-contacted tribes that are known to live 3 days trek further south along the Javary River, in far Eastern Peru and into Western Brazil.
View from the maloka
Here lived two elder men Tumi, Roberto (Spanish name), and their three wives. They had two kids living with them; a boy and a girl, both aged about 5. It was intimidating meeting them at first; they didn’t really speak Spanish, only their native Mayorunas panoan dialect and we felt we were interrupting their peace and quiet.
The Matses LOVE having their photo taken
Their house was made of wood and thatched palm leaves from the forest, with dirt floor and they cooked on two open fires and slept in hammocks. It was so dark in there and when not hunting or collecting crops, they lay resting in the hammock, while the children played with machetes and climbed trees. Amazingly, they still mostly wore traditional garments and painted their faces, although I had suspected they did this for their special visitors. The women sat on the dirt and weaved carpet from palm leaves while the men showed off their spears and impressive necklaces, hoping to sell them to their guests. This was what I had expected to see in the Amazon and it didn’t disappoint.
Our first night with our new friends ended with a tobacco ceremony inside the maloka; a tradition of most native Indian tribes in South America.(see photo below) The chief blows a mixture of fresh tobacco and crushed leaves of the coca plant through a long pipe into each nostril and this ceremony aids in cleaning energies and empowers your well being. They believe it releases any sicknesses on the physical, emotional and spiritual levels, and opens up the third eye to more visual clarity, and that it certainly did. The men perform this ceremony with Indian chanting and smoke burning, often the night before hunting or war. Unsurprisingly it took me a long time to go to sleep that night, but I was cool with that as the stars were out and the Milky Way on show.
