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Shipibo Indian Village in San Francisco

On Wednesday, we took off for the Shipibo Indian village about 1.5 hours by boat from Pucallpu.  We had our gifts to take them and little did we know what surprises awaited us.

With Frank (our interpreter) in hand, we boarded a small boat with seats and a cover (and life preservers!) and went up the lake to the village.  We were greeted at the shore/natural dock by a band, dancers and a bunch of kids.  What a reception!  They grabbed our hands and took us into the village - into the center to a covered concrete pad.  Here the children, orphans and elderly came to greet us and receive their gifts.  We were honored in a ceremony and speeches given by the leaders of the village.  The children put on a show for us with native dances.  One dance was a "surprise" dance and the children came and grabbed our hands and had us dance with them.  It was a wonderful reception.  We felt very honored.  Then they gave out the gifts.  Unfortunately, we didn't know they were giving them out individually.  We had brought stuff to outfit the school - not individuals, so felt a bit bad.  The clothes I brought were good, but not enough.  We know better for next time!  BTW.  Their phone service is like in MASH.  You call and they use a microphone to let the person know someone is calling them. They go to the central phone location, and the you call back in 5 minutes and they are there to get your call.  Felt like the MASH shows!

We then had to shop through all their little booths.  Then back to Pucallpa to go where the healing ceremony was to begin.  Every where you go, the indians and natives are showing you their crafts and wanting you to buy.  There is so much poverty so you are overwhelmed by all the people selling!  The houses are shacks with dilapidated outhouses and outdoor "showers" with plastic around a platform and a bucket of water.  All laundry is done by hand in buckets or the river.  The streets (except the main roads in the center of town) are dirt with HUGE ruts and holes.  Transportation is by these 3 wheel motorcycle vehicles and a few cars.  The vehicles make for a dirty, harrowing ride with lots of dodging of pot holes and other vehicles.  Lots of horns honking and noisy engines.  Can't hear anything!  Hopefully, my pictures will give you an idea of what it is like here.  Guess this is pretty common throughout Peru.  Even with all the dirt and scant facilities, the people are always clean and well groomed!  Don't know how they can keep their whites white!!!!

(More information from Monique:  San Francisco is a Shipibo village about an hour's boat ride from Pucallpa. It has 3000 villagers and 700 schoolgoing chldren. We took some presents for the school. We thought it was just an outing. But considering that the director of tourism of Pucallpa met us at our hotel yesterday, we ahould have known something was up. They met us at the pier with a band and girls dancing. The mayor of San Francisco gave a speech and they did some traditional dances. Later on they announced a surprise dance and the surprise part was that we had to dance. We received honorary visitor status. It was all very formal. Well as formal as things get here. They had a journalist taking picutres to write an article. I will try to get a copy. It was amazing and very heart warming.)

In the late afternoon, we went to the conference center facility that the ceremony was to be held at.  It was actually under construction, so we ended up camping out.  There was a shower and a toilet and sink and lots of uncompleted grass-wood floor buildings.  They were building a swimming pool with slide, aquarium for Amazon dolphins, conference buildings, fish ponds, sleeping huts etc.  Will be an incredible facility when it is done - especially down here.  We were just outside of Pucallpu in Yarinacocha - out in the country.  However, it was very loud even then with microphones blaring from town.  They are having elections right now and campaigning is going on around the clock. 

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