Running from the jungle tribe..

Wow! What a week I have had! So on Monday, I made my way to Irshim with Katie, Helen and Chad. Jorge who lives in Irshim accompanied us on the 3.5 hour trek through the jungle. We were supposed to leave straight after breakfast around 8 am but it started to rain so much that we waited and left around 11 am. So the trail to Irshim was so so muddy! We arrived there soaking wet and I had mud up to my thighs!  Luckily we didn´t have to carry our backpacks because a horse accompanied us too and carried them for us which was amazing! We named the horse Shelly but later realized Shelly is a boy named Macho!
Oh my god! I thought the food in Arutam was bad! I take all of the bad things I said about Arutam back! In Irshim all we had to eat was boiled yucca, boiled plantain and boiled papachinos (some kind of potato)! I hardly ate whilst I was there, it was that bad! I´ve lost so much weight, I´m definitely pigging out this weekend! We did have 2 soups which were pretty good though. One was made with rice, yucca, carrots and chonta (which is a palm), the other was a heart of palm soup! It was actually quite yummy!
Irshim is completely different from Arutam. It is in the middle of the jungle, there is no road, no electricity. It is so much more authentic and primitive in comparison to Arutam! In Arutam they have mobil phones and matresses. In Irshim we slept on wooden bunk beds.. comfy! However it did wonders for my back!
Working in Irshim is like a labour camp compared to Arutam! We worked from about 8 am until the afternoon and only breaked for lunch. I should really stop complaning though because (thankfully) mother nature was not on my side and I left Irshim on Wednesday. So I only worked there for one day. Which was plenty for me anyway! In the morning we chopped down some bamboo with machetes which is such hard work. The bamboo was to be used for the roof of a water tank they are building and also for the floor of a new house. In the afternoon, we went into the forest to find heart of palm (coeur de palmier). I didn´t realise where the heart of palm actually came from. We chopped down five 100 metre high palms, called Chonta. Once the tree has fallen, towards the top of the palm there is a dark area where the heart is. Then we had to slice through the several layers surrounding the heart. We taste it fresh from the tree too! It is nothing like the one in cans. When we got back to their house, the mother made a soup from the heart of palm which was really good! So on Wednesday I left in the morning with two of the family´s young daughters: Dollis who is 12 and Reina who is 10! Funny right! I was so happy to get back to Arutam which feels like luxury in comparison to Irshim! I was starving when I got back and I missed lunch too, but the volunteers who had stayed were kind enough to give me some bread they had brought.
A new volunteer arrived this week, whilst I was in Irshim. Her name is Liv. We´ll most probably go travelling together after this, as well as with Chad and Helen.
On Wednesday evening, we went back to Enrique´s parents house to dance to Shuar music and drink yummy chicha! On thursday, we went into the jungle to dig up and replant banana trees. That was so much hard work! We rested in the jungle after. Jaime´s wife (Jaime is one of Enrique´s brothers) joined us and kindly offered us more chicha and sugar cane which was really nice! It rained in the afternoon so we didn´t work. So me and Liv went to the shop in the next village, Pitirishka and we got caught in torrential rain but luckily managed to catch a bus there and back!
On friday, we cleared a path through the jungle with machetes. I am becoming quite a pro with that thing! Liv got stung by an insect on her hand and her whole arm started to burn for about two hours. Enrique and Alex (his cousin) kindly told her she wouldn´t die! I would have freaked out! HAHA!
This morning, me, Liv, Katie, Helen and Chad made our way into Banos which is about 3 hours from Arutam. It is absolute heaven here! It is surrounded by green mountains and our hostel has the most amazing roof terace with the most amazing views!!!! I´ll upload some photos from my trip so far tomorrow before I go back to Arutam.
Right now we are going to find out if we can go zip lining accross one of the valleys and then we´ll go make the most of happy hour in Casa Hood and drink some Mojitos!

Miss you all so so much! I wish you were all with me to see this!

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