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Yesterday I didn't write because as it turns out, our charger died. I was worried about draining the iphone (on which I'm writing).
The most memorable part of our day yesterday was our tours of both the community of Libertad, here, where we are staying, and San Miguel, just down the Ucayali a few kilometers. Larry led us in a tour, discussing things like cultural values in the jungle (settling down and raising a family comes in the late teens, and woman typically have many--i.e. 10 or more--children, although efforts at birth control have begun), religion (many of the locals are "Christians", but in a fairly loose sense; they hold onto many indigenous beliefs and encourage people generally to be good to one another), pets (often any baby animal from the jungle, such as the capybara we saw, parrots and other birds, and snakes and lizards), sexuality and marriage (not surprisingly, homosexuals leave the jungle for the large cities as there is really "no place" for them here). It was a truly educational experience and I was glad he not only took the time to talk with us, but made it a point that people here are quite happy with their "primitive" lives, a fact not lost on Reilly nor me.
I suppose that's what I enjoy most about traveling with the kids: this opportunity to experience the world as it is, not so much as we think it "should be". Larry explained that they have jungle medicines for almost everything; today he told us how they treat cavities with jingle medicines to numb or even kill the tooth before extracting it. It is probably the most-enjoyable part of my travels with the kids, as I think it teaches them things nothing else could.
This morning we spent a few hours fishing, neither Reilly or my favorite activity! But it was entirely enjoyable because of the newness of baiting hooks with raw chicken to lure piranha (I caught 4 and a poisonous catfish--all piquitos that had to be thrown back) while listening to Larry recount his childhood and many of the spiritual beliefs of the jungle.
Most interesting of his stories were those of his father, a hunter who often spent a week at a time in the jungle, and more than once experienced the jungle and spirits of ancestors speaking to him. Interestingly, the passed ancestors usually are ascribed the form of an animal (a jaguar, one of the river dolphins, etc.) and then speak to the living in their dreams. Most fascinating, though, was Larry's enthusiasm for the subject, even though he "believes in Jesus Christ".
Before we finished our not-so-successful fishing (Reilly caught a few piranha as well), he told us of his great-great-grandfather, who was a cannibal who especially like the taste of the white man! He said the flesh was much "fattier, like fried", which they enjoyed thanks to the presence of missionaries to the jungle (this was back in the 1800s...). We couldn't help but laugh.
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