Chazuta and modern madness

It’s Sunday in the lush, steamy and humid Amazonian village of Chazuta. The red soil covered streets are busy with tuk tuks whizzing past, hungry skinny dogs barking next to them, free and wild. The drivers, mostly men smiling that smile that seems to take up their whole face, and waving to each other like we are all related.

This one main street runs along the wide turbulent rusty brown river which is swollen to the top of the banks today due to the monsoonal like rainfall we had overnight. The mountains (Andes to one side) tower all around the village with low lying heavy cloud surrounding them, and a an austear blue sky above them that gives the day a mystical feeling.

I’m here with Luis, a local cocoa plantation owner who is visiting from Lima to check on his crops. I came across Luis on the locals vaquerino, which is a community bus, 10Sole per trip when heading back from Tarapoto. He was the first person on the vaquerino that spoke some English and he insisted I come and visit him and I am so glad I did. At first, I didn’t expect to because you get so used to empty invitations from friends and acquaintances these days that is seems like a passing comment. But he called saying he had secured a room in the only accommodation for the night – La Fiores, so I couldn’t really say no. Not letting the fact that I had just had some minor dental surgery and there was no way to get there stop me, oh and the torrential rain, I decided to hitchhike. Luckily for me only 20 minutes into standing on the road, two lovely locals stopped for me. They didn’t even blink at the fact that I was drenched from head to toe.

So, luis and I walked along the river acknowledging and responding to the beautiful, friendly locals who make me feel like I belong here. Cold beers, a meal at a communal table on the street of chicken and rice all cooked on the same small cooker for 5Sol. Why would you be anywhere else?

It’s a strange thing enjoying being the only one (apart from Luis tonight) that speaks English, being ok with looking so strange. I think it makes me calm. Modern first world society has a lot to learn from these people (people with a thousand years in their eyes). We’ve lost touch with our natural relationship with mother earth. And, I’ve learned here whether it’s my torn ligament or swollen lymph nodes I got from being so run down that mother nature has a solution.

So, as I look around at the generosity, openness of the people around me I think about this question I was asked when leaving the USA.

“are you actually mad?”

“Why in god’s name would you travel into the Amazon jungle alone, it’s dangerous, please be careful”.

Since arriving I have been on a local bus with 9 local men who speak no English, and not able to substantiate if I am in fact going in the right direction. I subsequently hitch hiked in to another village further in forgetting that I can’t use my translate app to say where I want to go as I have no data, wifi or anything to write on. Strangely enough I had a internal calm that told me I was going to be fine.

And I was, I am.

It was around this time that I reflected on a date I had with a guy I met at a bar in Punta Gorda, Florida the previous week. He had a double barrel sawn off shotgun, apparently for protection. Against what I asked? Oh, you know he said, people, the government…This is Florida baby…

Modern day society just isn’t for me.

I tried really hard to fit in and did all it asked of me. I studied hard, achieved multiple qualifications including an MBA. Bought and renovated houses, married into money, upgraded from my mostly poor upbringing, stayed skinny, ate at the fancy restaurants, had three perfect children, got divorced, wasted money, you know the rest. And then society spat me out the other end, wasted, tired, confused and feeling used and neglected. It was a one way relationship and consumerism was my partner. Aren’t relationships meant to be symbiotic?

Let’s add to that the statistics of women in the workforce. Women retire with less superannuation or savings and we know that in most industries women over 50 are not looked on favourably due to their age. But let this sink in, the world is being run by a bunch of geriatric white men.

Go figure.

Now that’s somethig we should be scared of.

Not the Amazon.