Finding my Soul and Losing my Heart in the Equadorian Amazon: A Spiritual Journey With the Remote Huaorani Tribe
Juninto extended a hand and hauled me from the sludge in which I was helplessly sinking as I struggled up the muddy hill from the Cononaco River below. Wearing nothing but rubber boots and a traditional comé (a string supporting the genitals), his lips curled in a curious smile, long obsidian hair billowing down a muscular brown back. “Huaponi” he uttered. “Hello.”
We are deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, a world away from the slightly less alien world of the country’s more visible indigenous cultures. After a spine-crushing three hour journey from the small city of Coca in an open-air ranchero, a motorized canoe transported us 150 miles from civilization into the remotest bowels of the jungle.
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