Today I went to visit my friend Baldemar’s community. It is some 20 minutes outside Tena. We spent the morning wandering on a short walk through the rain forest to some small cascades. Baldemar was such a great guide for our short trip and we came back refreshed to the house of his wife’s family where we had lunch. At 4.25 ready to take the bus back to Tena I began to feel a little peculiar. I hoped I wouldn’t spend a 40 minute bus journey throwing up!
Alas, 2 minutes up the hill I had some tough decisions to make.. carrier bag or al fresco. I guessed it was something I ate and I didn’t want Baldemar to feel bad. How best could I get away with it..?! Quite frankly I spent most of the following journey (not 40 minutes an absolute lifetime!) trying not to care as I ,discreetly as possible, threw things forth from the window whilst sweating profusely… just about ok whilst bumbling through dusty tracks outside of Tena but oh, the indignity in the town!
Bilma, my God daughter’s mother is the resident medicine woman. She prepared me some very special teas (especially nauseating but the sentiment was there!). It appeared I was unable to keep anything down at all.
Bilma returned shortly to share a new possible theory. She explained that here they believe that sometimes if you walk in the forest in places unknown [to you], you can come across ‘ malaires’ – like ‘bad air’ or ‘evil spirits’ and they can attach themselves to you and make you ill. Bilma suggested what I needed was a cleansing ritual. In my delirious state I think my answer was.. “errrrr. Yes well I’ll try anything that can make me feel better’. Bilma returned after a while with a large bunch of different herbs and leaves. She briskly brushed these repeatedly over all the parts of my body for some minutes. The smell was agreeable and it felt as though the leaves stimulated the blood circulation in my skin.
Indeed about 4 hours later I felt well enough to shuffle to the shop in my pyjamas and buy a special secret remedy of my own… dare I mention it…’Coca Cola’!
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