A VISIT TO THE SIONA INDIGENOUS VILLAGE
The Cuyabeno Tour includes besides walking tours at the jungle by day and night, tours with the paddling canoe or swimming at the Laguna Grande, also a visit to the Siona indigenous Village.
What will you expect there? Find it out here:
After breakfast we will start our tour with the canoe and follow the Cuyabeno River downstream to reach the Siona indigenous Village. On our way we will search for some wildlife.
Once arrived a habitant already is waiting for us to welcome and to invite us in their traditional built house.
Inside she will greet us in her traditional language which is Paicoca and your guide will translate this for you. The people who live in the community speak mostly their native language Paicoca, but some of them also learn a little bit of Spanish, so if you know Spanish you can communicate with them.
A traditional drink at the community is Chicha. It is a fermented beverage usually derived from maize. It was already drunk by the Incas. Usually they serve it in a bowl made out of wood. Take a sip and try it!
After this warm welcome we will learn how to do another traditional thing of the Siona community. Now, as we already have our drink, the food is missing. So let’s do a homemade bread!
The Siona’s make a yucca-based bread, which is the tuber of the plant manioc. They call it “casabe”.
First of all we have to find the plant to harvest the yucca and to peal it. Luckily there are a lot of at the community, easy to find.
When we harvested enough to make our bread, the yucca has to be wash. After this we can finally start with the procedure:
First the fire has to be lighten. The bread will be bake on a plate made out of fireclay.
After this we start to rub the yucca, it looks a bit like to rub a radish. The rasp is not a usual one as we know. It is handmade and fixed at a half of a tree trunk. Now you can show how strong you are. Can you rub the yucca as fast as the indigene?
The next step is to put the grated mass of yucca in a natural material, which are palm leaves. Why? The leaf of the palms are really robust and perfect to use for squeeze the water off the yucca. For the bread we just need the dry mass without any water.
This dry mass of yucca you will put on a strainer made out of natural material and sieve it. On this way you will get a yucca powder comparable to flour.
Afterward you take a bowl of this powder and place it on the hot plates of fireclay. The bowl helps you to bring it in the right form. It has to be round and thin like a big crêpe.
After a few minutes baked on each side the casabe is ready for eat. Split it in a few pieces and try! The taste is different from the bread we know, but so delicious.
Before we leave back to the Lodge, we will try another traditional thing of the Siona community. Strengthened by the bread you are ready to prove your hunting skills! Do it like a real Siona!
Lastly the indigene takes us for a walk to show us the whole community. We will see how they live. Currently there are about 100 inhabitants. To support them please bring USD 4 and if you which you can buy some handicraft jewellery as well.
After this we will say goodbye and set off back to the Cuyabeno Lodge where lunch is already waiting for us.