Shintuya, Peru

Salvation, Shintuya and the way into the jungle

From Cusco we take a minibus towards Salvation. First we go over a mountain, then down to about 500m. From here a gravel road leads 100km through the jungle. It's crazy that you can drive here and even more incredible that we also encounter huge trucks. There is fog in the air and it keeps raining while we drive through rivers, over streams and around the narrowest curves through the pampas. In front of us sits a little girl with her grandma, who entertains us very well during the 8-hour drive.

In this starry night we arrive in Salvation and decide to spend the night outside, as our bus leaves at half past five in the morning. We sit around, look, although there is not much to see here, except for a few motorcycles and stray dogs.

When we get tired, we find a covered bench where we spend the night more or less sleeping. After another exciting drive, which we sleep through, except when he throws our heads against the window, we arrive in Shintuya. It is a small community in the middle of nowhere. A nice man shows us the house of Willi and his heavily pregnant wife Isabell. The two are a bit exhausted, as there has been a celebration in the village in the last few days, which actually fits quite well with our mood. The house is simply a roof, with wooden walls, without doors or any other fancy stuff.

Together with Willi, we take a walk into the jungle, where he has partly built two houses made of wood with palm leaf roofs. Here we also get water. There are lots of fruit trees, bananas, carambolas (star fruits), cinnamon and many other tasty plants. We settle into the hammock and chill here for the next few hours while it's pouring with rain.

Isabell has cooked us a soup with bananas, corn and chicken. We enjoy it by candlelight, do crafts, make music and write a bit. Here in the selva (jungle) you go to bed early, there is not much light here at night.

Hey, here we just sleep in a bed without a mosquito net, without anything. You hear millions of sounds that you can't assign, but it's really romantic. The next day consists of housework and of course chilling. And since it more or less rains all the time from noon onwards, our handicraft skills are getting better and better.

Isabell and Willi went to the 'city' for an ultrasound and shopping. They cannot tell exactly when they will be back, tonight or tomorrow. And we, yes, we now have a house in the jungle all to ourselves ;-)

The next morning the two of them return, we have breakfast together and then head to the jungle house. Today, we are reforesting the rainforest. Equipped with machetes and gloves, we clear the ground of undergrowth, trees and whatever else grows and thrives. Willi handles the machete quite skillfully, we can learn something from him. While working with the blade and our hands, we see giant ants, tarantulas, rastakäfer, and countless creepy crawlers.

The bananas now have room to grow again and we have space to plant. It is extremely hot and sweat is running down our faces, then it's already time for lunch. We collect firewood and put green mini bananas in a pot. They are cooked and taste a bit like potatoes. Served on a leaf, with lime, salt and aji (chili), we feast like jungle queens. After that, we chill in the hammock and since it's raining again, we do that for the next few hours.

Like every day, we wake up at around five-thirty in the morning, there is simply a different rhythm here in the selva. In the morning, there is enough time for yoga and a little meditation. Every morning you can watch some hummingbirds gathering food. So the week passes by quite quickly. Every day we work a bit, chill and eat lots of bananas.

Today is Saturday, the weekend, which is also taken seriously here in the jungle. Not much work is done, more celebrating, friends come to eat and it's time to relax! We have a cozy brunch and then go fishing. We wait for the village's fishing net at another pond, it's nice that many things are shared here. The net is laid across the pond and the men enter the water. Now the net is pulled to the other end of the water, and of course we help. There are now some fish in it, which Willi takes out with his hands and throws into a cloth bag that I hold. It's quite sad to see the fish suffocate in the bag... seeing this hurts a little bit, but alas, asi es la vida (such is life)...

Willi and I walk a bit on his property, crawl under bushes, and suddenly he swings the machete and cuts down a bush, pulls vigorously on the thin stems and says he does it like pigs do. Suddenly, huge tubers appear, yuca, which we will eat with the fish. We head back home with our loot. Clean the fish inside and out, peel the yuca roots and cook them together with, you guessed it, bananas :-)

The fish is prepared at the campfire, some simply on the grill rack, others wrapped in leaves by Iris. After a while, one fish is ready and we start eating, not all at once, no no no, here it's a leisurely affair. We tear off a piece here and there with our fingers and stuff it into our mouths, then we also add aji and later the bananas and yucas. It's really delicious, especially because we caught everything ourselves.

So the afternoon passes with delicious food, making music, playing with the kids from the neighborhood, drinking coffee, and gossiping with Isabell. Now it's already eight o'clock, dark for a few hours, really dark, because there is no electricity in the whole village, and soon we will go to sleep ;-)

In the last few days, two girls from Vorarlberg have arrived. A house full of women, almost like home!

Together we hiked to a 'chakra'. A friend of Willi's has a piece of land somewhere in the middle of nowhere that he cultivates. We had to cross several rivers and hike through narrow jungle paths. After that, we found ourselves in avocado paradise. We help him create a bed and yes, afterwards we had an avocado and papaya brunch! The harvest of avocados looks like this: one person climbs the tree, Willi stands below and catches the 'paltas' with his hands, one after the other. There are different varieties of avocados, here long (like pears) grow with a smooth skin. The fruits are also harvested here when they are not yet fully ripe, and people here do not eat bread with avocado, but simply avocado in large pieces. After that, we head to the river where we take a little bath, and on the way, we dig out an extra large root that is said to be very healthy.

All in all, we had a very beautiful time in the selva. In the last few days, we continued to help with the work in the house and in the jungle and enjoyed the time here. We have also gained a lot of banana knowledge. For three days we fasted and only ate things that were also available here in the past. Animals without teeth, bananas, soup, and avocados - that's how we prepared ourselves for a very special ritual. On the third day we fasted and rested until noon, in the evening the four of us, Willi and the four girls, went to the house in the jungle. We all sit down on blankets on the floor, it is completely dark and quiet. We are deeply relaxed and in the glow of the thick tobacco cigar, you can see the silhouette of a man with long black hair, half a coconut shell, and a box with many pre-rolled tobacco cigars. There is a very calm and pleasantly mystical atmosphere. Each of us drinks a very natural-tasting brew from half a coconut shell and we set off on a journey to Ayahuasca. The ritual lasts all night. In the morning, we are all probably asleep, because suddenly we hear a voice. 'A ver a ver un chancho' (Let's see a pig). Willi has hunted a wild boar. So we get up with a pleasantly pure and light feeling, take a shower at the water source, and spend the whole morning preparing the wild boar. Iris helps Willi butcher the boar and we chop up a lot of onions and garlic. The wild boar is cooked for several hours over the fire, and truly, it has become a really good jungle feast. We gnaw, smack our lips, and slurp, and when we're done, the other 15 portions are packed into a bucket and taken to the village. Here, people from the government, who are currently in the village for a meeting, get to enjoy the tasty meal. Unfortunately, the river here in the village, like so many other rivers in Peru, is contaminated, which is why the government has supported the people here in building fish ponds so they can provide for themselves. The village of Shintuya is an independent community and has its own laws and rules. It's really interesting that we could be here for a while.

As a finale, we had an 'antes babe party' tonight, as Isa will give birth in the next few days. Pancakes with the jam that Iris cooked so delicately, music, and a few beautiful people decorate the evening!

Thanks for this wonderful time in the jungle ;-)

After two weeks in the jungle, we are now heading back to civilization. We come to the next town together with Willi and Isa in a jeep, so crossing the rivers is also quick. Carrying a bus full of watermelons to Pilcopata. Here we spend the whole day at the market, sit around, feast on delicious fruits, and wait for our luck to find a truck that will take us to Cusco, preferably for free ;-)

So we approach some and yes, if they drive, it's only in the evening. So we just wait. A truck would take us, but somehow it's strange, they want us to somehow take bags of coca leaves with us, and yes, we don't want to do that, later we realize why.

We see a truck full of young guys, joke around with them, and hey, they will take us later. So we wait until it gets dark, everything is a bit uncertain, they come back, they take us with them, if not, what do we do here in this tiny place at the market for another day? All worries for nothing, the guys come back and we jump on the back of the truck, underneath us the whole floor covered with the most beautiful wood from the jungle, behind us a huge pile of pineapples. We start and gradually more people join. It starts in the next town. About 20 Peruvian mamas with all their stuff and another 10 children step onto the loading area. How are we all supposed to find room here with all this stuff? Yes, exactly, it seems to be really uncomfortable. When everyone is somehow sitting, of course already a floor above us, because below us there are hundreds of bags filled with different types of vegetables, clothes, and not to forget several hundred bags filled with coca leaves. There is rustling everywhere and the women are trying to find the best hiding places for their bags. They tie the sacks around their bodies, stuff them in small nooks between all the things, hide them in the cloths where the children are wrapped, and yes... you can't imagine how hectic it gets when 20 people want to hide everything at the same time. Apparently, it is forbidden to take more than one bag of coca leaves out of the jungle, we still don't know exactly why.

So we drive off, squeezed in between the mamas, we can no longer move. There are women sitting on our feet, children lying down, or heavy sacks standing. So yes, it's really damn uncomfortable and we don't know how we should endure this the whole night.

Everything keeps falling asleep, the body parts, the people around us, only not us. It's more like enduring and occasionally trying to find a slightly more comfortable position. Suddenly we stop and men with flashlights and machine guns climb onto the truck. They snatch the bags of coca leaves from the people and search everything, we have to get up and every now and then they find a sack that they throw 'overboard'. It's a brutal affair, like a raid. It doesn't feel good to witness this, and especially the rough and reckless treatment of the people is hard to watch.

We keep driving and the hours pass. The feelings alternate between feeling like pigs in a cattle truck or being on the run in a smuggler's car. But when it becomes light and the mountains glow in bright gold and the many colorful people, it's much more pleasant. People also get off here and there, and it becomes a bit more comfortable. We drive all the way to Cusco, where we arrive at around two o'clock in the afternoon instead of six in the morning...

This journey was really exciting and thrilling ;-)