June 1993

June 25, 1993 (Friday)

Worked with Danta. The cooked fiber of the small balso remained unsoftened by cooking. Today we stripped Jarumo 1” diameter and cooked it. Very difficult to strip and clean. We also cooked a piece of large Yurumo which is much easier to strip and clean. It seemed to respond to cooking better than balso. We also cooked small piece of marima (fabric bark) and made very small piece of paper with it. Shows possibilities. We stripped more bark from large Yarumo at work site and left it in water overnight. Green fibers of small jarumo we left to soak in cooking pot overnight.

June 26, 1993 (Saturday)

Worked with Mono and Danta. Cooked fibers of Yurumo (long leaf), 3” in diameter. Cooked with 250 grams of fine ash, 3.5 liters of water. Start cook at 10:30am. Added more water at 12:00pm. Other types of Yarumo are white leaf and colored leaf.

June 27, 1993 (Sunday)

The long leaf cycopia we cooked from 10:30am to 5:00pm were still a little stiff but did respond to the cook. Today we made more lye and continued cooking fibers. The fibers set overnight in the pot with spent lye.

• Cook today started at 9:30am.
• At 10:45 added more water. Used about 250 gr ash with 4 liters water.
• Cooked til 2:00 pm – still tough
• We beat the pulp for one hour then made our first full sheet of paper.

Alberto brought me seven fish for dinner. After dinner, I sat and talked with Isaac, Benjamin, Danta and other elders while drinking 3/? bottles Aguadiente. I talked much about how I see the world. Isaac talked about history of his territory.

June 27, 1993 (Sunday)

The long leaf cycropia we cooked from 10:30am to 5:00pm were still a little stiff but did respond to the cook. Today we made more lye and continued cooking fibers. The fibers set overnight in the pot with spent lye.

Cook today started at 9:30am. At 10:45 added more water (used about 250gr ash with four liters water). Cooked till 2:00 pm. Still tough. We beat the pulp for one hour then made our first full sheet of paper.

Alberto brought me seven fish for dinner. After dinner I sat and talked with Isaac, Benjamin, Danta and other elders while drinking three 8 oz. bottles agua diente. I talked much about how I see the world. Isaac talked about history of his territory.

June 28, 1993 (Monday)

After breakfast I set out across Baradors at 8:15. Loaded. Started raining at 8:30 and rained hard all the way. Arrived at 9:45, wet and tired. Ate fish and casabe before starting downriver at 11:00. We stopped at three different malocas going down the Miriti. The rain continued. Very cold going. Around 3:30 we arrived at Bogotano’s and were at Arturo’s at 4:00 pm. Rain had finally stopped. Greeted everyone. Met Olympo’s wife. Had fish and casabe. Later we made popcorn. In evening we sat and chewed coca until 8:30 pm. Talking etc. Then went to bed.

June 29, 1993 (Tuesday)

Very cold night. Awoke around 5:45 to howler monkeys sounding from across the river. Hubert and Olympo were already working of (?) Remo’s. Ricardito was working on a little one with a machete. For breakfast we had casabe with tukupi and grated fish along with an egg which Benilda found and cooked for me. Tasted very good.

After breakfast Arturo and Olympo continued working on paddles. After a while Arturo and I went to the forest to work on a 10 meter long dugout Arturo is making for someone in La Pedrera. We found some marima from which we stripped a piece of bark and examined the fibers for possible papermaking. We worked on the boat 1.5 hours then returned home. Next we went to pick coca leaves for an hour, after which I took a bath.

After lunch I went a short distance upriver with Olympo to look at a large boa he had seen earlier resting on a branch of a partially submerged tree. The snake was still there when we arrived; impressive, about five inches in diameter. I moved some branches near the snake in order to get a better view for a photo and it slipped into the water.

Benilda, Joanna and Maifa had gathered lots of yucca and spent the rest of the day peeling and grating it. Olympo, Hubert and Arturo finished the two paddles and Arturo and I processed the coca leaves we’d picked. They have a pet tirana (an interesting looking bird) running around and I tried to take some pictures of it.

In the evening, after eating popcorn and fish for dinner, Olympo and Arturo and I sat down to drink the Aguadiente I had brought with me. I had brought two pint bottles, enough so we could feel the effect but not enough to make us drunk. Good thing because if there was enough to get drunk on, we probably would have. We stayed up till 10:30 pm talking, chewing coca, smoking, drinking. I talked a lot about my perspective on Western civilization and the state of the world. Give and take, greed, energy, respect and tolerance for other peoples’ beliefs. Before retiring I sat by the river for a half hour meditating on the night sounds emanating from the forest beneath a 3/4 moon. Trying to absorb the music of the world.

June 30, 1993 (Wednesday)

Olympo and Hubert took off to go fishing about 6:00 am (returned at 2:00 under heavy rain). Ate a good breakfast of fried egg with toasted thin casabe. Very good. Hot chocolate to top it off. It started raining about 7:00 am. I sat reading while Arturo attached fish hooks to short lengths of line in preparation to go fishing.

It stopped raining about 9:00 and Arturo and I took off for the nearby lake. First we had to find worms. Arturo spotted an old tree which termites had done a number on, and worms were now living in the debris. He collected a fair amount and we started fishing. We pulled in about five or six small ones then set out lines with bait throughout a section of Rebalso. However we collected nothing for our efforts. We returned home about 12:30 and ate popcorn and fish.

Relaxed and read in pm. Talked with Joanna and Hubert. Listened to football game bet. Mexico and Equador – evening.