SMC Amazon: Vista Alegre and Tambaquí

Our visit to the indigenous community of Vista Alegre was beautiful, especially because we were their first visitors since they joined the Turiarte collective. They welcomed us and each of the community leaders (the chief, along with the spiritual and medical leaders of the community) came and greeted each one of us.

A number of the residents then performed some traditional dances, including one that represented the creation of a primary tool in the preparation of manioc for consumption: the tipiti (pronounced chee-pee-CHEE). It is a woven tube/sleeve that helps them squeeze the potentially toxic juices out of the manioc before eating it. There was a big central pole in the thatch-roofed gathering area where we first met the community and there were ten ropes hanging from it. Each of the dancers took a rope and half went one way and half went the other way, crossing over and under each other’s rope until the pole was wrapped in a mesh of ropes. They then reversed the dance and undid the weaving that they had just done.

Once finished, they invited ten of us to do the same. We had to remind ourselves that some of the dancers who had just performed this task were small children, so we thought we would look really bad if we couldn’t. We had a few goofy moves in there but mostly did what we were supposed to do, perhaps a bit faster and more frantically than the locals had done it. They then pulled out every one of us who hadn’t already done the dance and had a new group do it again. Once again, not a total embarrassment. Whew.

They did another dance called carimbó, which reminded some of us of Mexican Ballet Folklorico, especially because of the kinds of skirts the women wore and the way they used them. The men (and boys) were shirtless and had straw hats that figured into the dance pretty significantly. Once again, when they finished, they asked us to come up and join them. Some of the women gave their skirts to some of our women and we did our best to follow the steps they were demonstrating. We were invited to look over (and buy) some of their arts and crafts, which meant a few of us really stocked up on gifts and souvenirs.

We then got back on our boat and took it around to a nearby point on the beach where the community members met us in their own boat. They lit five bonfires on the beach and set up a circle of posts that were strung together with some kind of wicking rope. When it was time for the ritual to begin, they lit the posts and the flames (more or less) carried over into the rope to make a ring of fire with a big opening at one end.

They entered the ring and did a series of rituals about the land, the rivers, the spirits of the forest, the food staples on which they depend, and their pride in being indigenous people of the Amazon. Once the fire ring was no longer ablaze, they invited us inside the circle and then bid us farewell.

While the ritual was unfolding, Louro was cooking tambaquí (a local fish) on an open grill. The night was growing long but we got out our beach blankets and stared at the dark sky full of stars (including some falling/shooting ones) until our late meal was ready.

We feasted on fish, sweet potatoes, beans, rice, eggplant (!), and açaí. The boat crew had put tables and chairs out on the beach so we were suddenly in our own private beachfront bistro, enjoying the perfect night sky, the lovely temperature, and each other’s company. We talked through a hypothetical talent show starring all of us and discussed what each of our talents would be. Our two students who are dealing with terrible news came out and joined us, still quiet and pensive but also able to manage a few giggles at the dopey talents that some of us identified.

We stayed in our easy conversation until almost 1am, which counts as incredibly late for us here. The boat crew had to stay up even later than that to gather up all of the tables and chairs.

Despite the late end to our night, the boat started up before 5am and we started moving by about 5:30. Most of us stayed asleep but Louro had breakfast ready for anyone who showed up hungry.

Right now we are making one last stop at a sandbar beach, this one called Icuxí (ee-coo-SHEE). We will be back in Anã before noon, which is earlier than we expected to arrive, so we will work this afternoon and get back in to full-on DIRTy mode. We’ve had a lovely time floating on the rivers and taking in new sites and cultural practices, but we also want to get some projects done.

We’re trying to backfill videos and photos from out on the water, as there is some signal out here that we can convert. Hopefully you can click back through and catch up with where we are. After we get off the boat, we probably won’t post again until Sunday, so come on back then!