Kichwa Anangu

 Wednesday February 18

In order to make our 10:40 flight from Coca to Quito, we had to leave the lodge at 4:45 this morning. Sunrise is at 6:30, so the entire 4 mile canoe ride out to the welcome center was in the dark. The only illumination to guide navigation through the winding creek was a headlamp on the foremost paddler. It was an eerie experience! We transferred to a larger motorized skiff for the 2.5 hour ride upstream to Coca. 

There is so much to say about the Napo lodge and the Kitchwa Anangu community that manages the reserve and the lodge. Kitchwa is the local indigenous language; Anangu is the local name for leaf cutter ants. The village chose the name because “they are always working”. It is absolutely true. The sheer logistics of building and running an upscale ecolodge 4 miles from the last place you can take a motorized boat and 80 kms from the closest real town is impossibly impressive. 

The Kitchwa Anangu community began when five families from further north on the Napo River moved to the area in the 1960’s. In their previous home there was not enough land to grow their own food, so they moved in hopes of being more self-sufficient. While other indigenous communities along the Napo signed deals with oil companies, they did not, in order to preserve their farming and way of life. 

In the 1990’s, eight men in the community convinced the other members to try a new model that would bring in enough money to assure education and health care for the community: to create a nature preserve and an eco-tourism business. This included a commitment to cease subsistence hunting on their land. They attracted some outside investors, and in 2001  began construction of the lodge. In 2006 the community became the sole owners of the lodge and the reserve. 

In order to build the lodge, they had to create access: the four-mile creek was hand cleared with machetes and chain saws. These are waters where caiman and leeches thrive, not to mention other creatures. The lodge staff still go out (usually barefoot) to clear any trees that have fallen in the creek. 

Then they had to transport all the materials by canoe— larger items like floorboard and appliances were strapped across two canoes during high water conditions to be able to make it. For four years they labored before enough money came in to pay back the investors. Their earlier commitment to conservation means that their reserve has a higher density of animals, birds, and mature rainforest trees. They have increased the size and amenities of the lodge over time. 

The community now has 34 families (600 people), and the lodge we stayed in employs 60 people. The lodge offers employment to any community member that wants it. There is also a rustic lodge in the village center, a few miles upstream on the Napo from the welcome center of the reserve. Almost all the lodge employees are male. The women and children live in the village, which we visited on Monday.

The village has a modest health center that serves the whole region, a covered sports center, a soccer pitch, and a 10-room school. They are building a computer lab. The school is mandatory for all children and is bilingual in Kitchwa and Spanish. The women of the community created a “women’s center” 17 years ago. The center employs 24 women in two teams (10 days on, 10 days off). They host information sessions for tourists and sell traditional handcrafts as both a source of income and as an incentive to preserve traditional culture in the younger generation.

The women demonstrated traditional instruments, dances and songs, as well as kitchen utensils and cooking and food storage methods. They also explained the construction of the buildings. Both in the village and at the lodge, support pillars and crossbeams are made from re-purposed oil pumping pipes. Other structural members are from ironwood or other forest materials. 

Traditionally they used land snail shells as a kind of horn to call people from far away. One of the older women was much better at it than our young guides! The women also explained the construction and use of blowguns, the traditional silent hunting method for large birds and monkeys. One of our guides said that his father could shoot a poison dart 60 feet into the air with accuracy. Several of the folks in our group tried the blowgun (without poison and with a small hanging target) with mixed success. 

We sampled traditional foods: plantains, heart of palm, cacao beans, manioc and grilled grubs. There was a homemade hot sauce as some of the foods are a little bland. We also had some yuisa tea, made from leaves of the local plant and high in caffeine and antioxidants. 

Throughout our village visit, it was clear that while the traditional roles are quite gender-specific, that there is real admiration and respect for the women’s tasks. We were also impressed with how confident and comfortable the women were in hosting groups of tourists. 

Pictured: our hostess Maribel by the kitchen hearth, our traditional snack, Kevin with the blowgun (yes, he hit the target).