Life according to Conan
From Quito, we took a very early flight to little oil jungle town Coca, 30 min, on Wednesday, August 11. We met Numa the guide, who told us that we will be leaving late, around noon, since the Waoranís who were picking us up had had a motor breakdown, and wouldn´t reach the point of encounter before noon.
We met Waorani spokesman Penti Baihua, his wife and some younger guys at Coca. I recognized Penti right away from the many photos online and in books that feature him, and a few Youtube interviews. Live, Penti is a serious homo politicus; politics and his endeavour of conservation are always the first things on his mind.
We reached the meeting point, the bridge crossing river Shiripuno around noon, and the boat arrived maybe an hour later.
We were presented to Conan, the captain/owner of the motor canoe, and after loading the boat with a serious amount of equipment, food and people, we took off for only a few hours of ride, until Yunemo, the first Waorani settlement, or rather, family, headed by grandfather Gaba, quiet and dignified one-eyed warrior, watching over a family of at least 20.
Mounting the tents in Yuveno
I ended up chatting with opinionated Conan, born under the name of Bare to a Waorani family on the Cononaco. The chatting became conveniently unilateral when I pulled out my notebook, realizing that there was too much information at once. Here are his opinions.
Conan´s version of life
His name is Bare, but he chose an additional name for himself, Conan after Conan the Barbarian.
He says that his people is weakening these days. For example, in the old times, snake bites were healed with 4 different plants. Now people were taken to the hospital, so people become weak. In the old times, fish and meat was boiled, so people were strong and could run fast through the mountains. (Note: everybody calls the forest "la montaña", the mountains). Now they fry it, and this makes people weak. If kids eat a lot of meat, they get belly aches and don’t grow up strong.
He can sometimes live two months on only eating plantain. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. A family can stay around one place for one year, and food is sufficient. Then the family head can decide that they move elsewhere, to another garden (another “chagra”, the vegetable gardens planted earlier by them), and there they could live another year.
In the old times, children were punished for not working hard: boys hunting, and girls gardening and doing pottery. Parents used to hit them with a whip. Now kids don´t care anymore.
Conan explains the process of making dart poison out of the curane liana. Asked who prepares the curare, men or women, he says, both. Asked whether women hunt too, he says that he does remember one lady (“una señora”) who used to hunt. She was very good with the blowpipe.
For being able to hunt well, one must fast all day. For hunting jungle pigs, a chonta lance is used. (Note: Chonta is a very hard wood growing in a bamboo-like form; all Waorani lances are traditionally made out of chonta.) Chonta also gives a tasty fruit, like palm hearts.
Conan says he has no girlfriend, no wife. He says that he is a traveler, like a gipsy (he actually used the word “gitano”). When you are married and have kids, you can´t do this type of life. If you have kids, you have to plan ahead what to do next. Sometimes, he simply likes to hang out in a hammock, sometimes for two months in a row. You can´t do this with kids.
He has worked one year as a cook in a nearby lodge, and learned about tourism. He tells his family to learn about tourism, but they don´t want to.
He likes spending time travelling from community to community to community. (The triple expression is a faithful translation.) There are 36 of them, and he has family in many of them.
When he was maybe 25, he was travelling lots, sometimes rowing/staking all day upriver - before he had an outboard motor.
He learned to make bread in Tena, in a bakery. Then they sent him to Guayaquil. He sufferend a lot, too much heat there, too many mosquitos. This is how he learned Spanish. There were days when he was fed up with speaking Spanish all day.
When he was 9 years old, he left his mum and moved to the city (Tena). He followed some guy friends. A few years later, his mum died. He says he was not sad. He is not the type of person to whine.
His brother is an Evangelist. He is doing missionary work in the communities. His youngest sister is married on the Coast. He just calls her maybe twice a year. When he is okay, he feels, he has nothing to say. When he is not well, he talks and tells her about it.