Back to the Amerindian village

Once I returned from the Amerindian village to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira and bought my passenger boat ticket back down the Rio Negro to Manaus, I had a couple of free days left in the area. Although I was wanting to get into the Yanomami tribal territory, it was going to be a complicated and expensive option, having to hire a pickup truck and private guide. Instead, and as I enjoyed my stay in the Amerindian village so much, I headed back there, to spend more time with the family and go exploring. They welcomed me again with open arms and it felt like being back at home when I arrived.

I took some print-outs of the photos I'd taken, which they loved and which proved to be a great source of amusement. And now I was the official family photographer! There were a couple of families visiting, and everyone lined up and got into groups for their photos.

This one is of old man Jose, Miguel and two of his five children (an average amount of kids for Amazon families), under the big tree of the village.

Miguel, with more of his children.

The big tree outside the old man Jose's house was a popular place to sit and meet people.

The football pitch, church, school and old man Jose's house.

I slung my hammock up in the school teacher's house, who was away for the holidays. The chickens were upset to lose their roosting place.

Lunch-time with Andre and the dog under the table. Old man Jose, sitting in the kitchen in the background.

We ate some fish caught by Andre in a spicy sauce, along with crunchy cassava bread and bananas.

Home-grown and home-made acai juice and crunchy tapioca balls cooled my burning mouth.

Women peeling cassava, freshly brought in from the fields.

Andre had caught a baby turtle, some crabs and a frog whilst fishing with a net. He was keeping the turtle to give to one of the kids as a pet and the crabs to eat, despite being little more than outer shell.

One of the village cows. There were only a handful now, but they'd had up to 45 before.

Us and the kids going up-river to a large sand-bank. The kids boat was full of giggling girls and young boys.

View to the range we had climbed a couple of days before.

A small sandbank on the way, which would be covered in a couple of weeks' time as the floods came.

Kids boat again and the Bela Adormecida range in the background.

On the sandbank. We all went for a swim upriver to another part of it which wasn't yet submerged.

Getting back to the boat for our return trip.

Late afternoon thundersclouds and strong winds. The rain just missed us.

Andre fishing at sunrise.

As bait he was using a paste made from the fruit of a palm tree.

His catch on the rocks.

Andre took me on a walk through the forest, showing his area of land, were he would make a clearing and build a house and cassava plot. Here he was showing me how lianas are made into a ring, wrapped around the feet and then used for climbing up palm trees to gather bunches of palm nuts. 

Cutting the bark off a felled tree to show how its wood was yellow. There were many types of trees he showed me as he worked as a timber cutter and plank maker- some had red bark and a rose-wood fragrance. A few seconds after this photo, he cut his toe badly on the machete blade and had to rip off a strip of his t-shirt to plaster it up.

Myself and Andre back at the river, after a swim.

With Miguel's brother on a motorised canoe back to Sao Gabriel. Sad to leave.

Families from up-river who were sleeping under tarpaulins on a small island close to the port, while in town for a few days. It looked like a refugee camp, but was infact just temporary shelter.

A fisherman walking back in the rain in Sao Gabriel.