6
Location: Cabecar & Amubri Tribes
Today we woke up bright and early at the glorious hour of 6:00 am and headed out on the road towards the Cabecar tribe, the first of the two indigenous groups we would visit throughout the day. The first segment of our journey was largely filled with sleeping in contorted positions on the bus, with a bit of chatting, singing, and more than a little laughing mixed in. As one might imagine, the white-bread-and-cream-cheese sandwiches the hotel had made us for a to-go breakfast were neither filling nor particularly appetizing, so we decided to stop for a better brunch. As luck would have it, however, traffic had other ideas, and we sat in essentially the same spot for over an hour. The bright side to this annoying set back was that when someone, who shall remain nameless, desperately needed the bathroom, that someone was able to hop off the bus, do what they needed to in the privacy of the woods, and hop right back on! We eventually made it to a small restaurant/market, where those of us who hadn’t used the woods used the bathroom, and we all filled up on empanadas, got our caffeine fix with some “cafe con leche,” and quenched our thirst with coconuts or “pipas”. We headed back on the bus, and after what felt like a few years, reached the river we needed to cross to get to the Cabecar community. There, we said goodbye to Henry, our driver, and hopped on the back of what was essentially a pickup truck, which made its way across the shallow river and then began the bumpy ride through the woods to the Cabecar village. When we got there, we saw three different presentations. The first was on how the women of the village turn tree bark into material that used to be made into clothing and is now used for crafts, and the second was on how they turned a specific plant into a string. We were able to try both, which was fun, but hard work. The last presentation was on how the women make dyes from leaves, and when that was finished, we were encouraged to use the different colored dyes to paint squares of the finished craft material that we were given. We then had the chance to buy crafts and jewelry from the different villagers, all of which were incredibly beautiful. We won’t spoil what was there, just in case anyone purchased gifts!
The second half of the day we drove for two hours, and then we took a boat over a river and then a bus to Amubri tribe, we arrived around 8:00 pm. When we arrived, we had a tour guy name Roger that took us to his tribe leader to talk about his people and how they live. After we talked we had dinner with the group, we had rice and beans, chicken and their homemade juice. After dinner, we were unpacking and getting ready for bed around 10:00 pm.