The arribal at the secoya community

The arrival and the daily life.
I arrived in Sushufindi, a little city north in Ecuador, 10 o’clock in the morning, 14 hours after I left Quito, which means I were about 6 hours late. Luckily couldn’t the delay take away my excitement when I met Fausto, a secoya who I later found out is the oldest son in the house and the family I lived with.
Fausto was in town because of his sick mother. As the local shamans hadn’t managed to heal her, she had been sent to the local doctor and later to the hospital.
Fausto and I left sushufindi after a quick lunch and spent the to hour tractor ride to Rio Aguarico watching the colonists banana plantations a long side the road. A terrible sight with the fact in mind that this once was untouched rainforest.
When we arrived at the river port Fausto left me in the hands of his family and friends that were waiting us with a canoe, as the last hour of travelling had to be done up river.
In the beautiful little community with about 100 habitants I was at once introduced to the family I was going to live with and the traditionally secoya life. The family consisting of the father Roberto, five of his seven children and two grandchildren, are all living under the same traditional secoya roof in the only room in the house.
The days and time in the jungle passed by without a sound, as Roberto and I were wondering trough the almost to amazing forest, fishing the family dinners, planting corn and visiting and talking to friends and family alongside the violent river. A fantastic and easy way of life some where lost on the way in our time fighting, western society

The history of Seguaria or Remoino Grande

The history
After the Hispanic invasion of the timeless world of the rainforest more than 300 years ago, the secoya culture and their way of life have been through some huge changes. At one point the secoyas counted more than 30000, with a proud culture and spiritual tradition. From that point the population has dropped profoundly, and today no more than 500 secoyas are still alive. The Hispanic introduction of alcohol, Christianity and the European diseases, not only cut the population with nearly 98%, but changed ,at the same time, the secoyas relationship with their own spiritual and healing tradition forever.
The other big explosion hit the timeless world for no more than 30 years ago. With the first oil findings in the region in the seventies, the coming of the oil companies and later the colonists, forced the secoyas to change their way of life yet another time. From living in big communities, where as many as 15 families could share the same house. The secoyas had to divide themselves along all of their area to prevent further invasion. The families that traditionally had no more than 2 children decided to get bigger. Resulting in families today where it’s more common to see 7 than 4 children.
All of this has changed the traditional shamanism..
Shamanism today, my meeting with the two shamans and the Yagé

Don Cesario

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Don Cesario. He is a small and frail man around the age of 90 with a constant smile on his mouth. Unfortunately did I only get the chance to meet the experienced shaman a few short, but interesting hours.
Cesarios healing qualities have made him a big national and international reputation as a powerful shaman. And when I met him at his little farm, a family from Santo Domingo had just arrived. The mother of the three grown up children were sick, so sick that she couldn’t stand up. Their plan were to stay at don Cesarios farm for about a month, so that the shaman and the powerful nature could get time to put their healing hands on the sick women.
The very process of healing, hearing, breathing and seeing the enormous nature for a period of time, is as important as the shamans work in the healing process, could don cesario tell me.
Another interesting point for me in the middle of all this, was that don cesario, as the old shamans, just got paid in presents. In this case, a large quantity of salted and smoked fish and the working force of the three children for the whole month.
The other secoya shaman that lives in Ecuador is Julio. A private man in his early 60. who came to the community for no more than 4 years ago after his wife died. Julio was also the man to lead my only Yagé ceremony with the secoyas.
Before I came to the secoyas I had tasted the magical jungle medicine two times earlier, when I visited a community of indigenous tsatilas. That time I was given two beautiful experiences. But I never reached just the point I wanted, where the snakes and the spirits shows you what you just might see in your wildest dreams.

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