Vicente...Today was such a great day. It was hard for me to pick out just one picture to post. This is a photo of a ten-year-old Kichwa boy named Vicente. Our group stopped in his village to stay the night. We met him and his brothers -- Paúl and Andrés -- we swam in the river, climbed trees, and played a game of soccer.
We had a traditional meal for the village (it was called Comunidad Venecia) which consisted of tilapia, vegetables, rice, and passion fruit juice. For dessert, we had a cup of pineapple.
All of the guys in the group (8 in total) stayed in an outdoor loft. I was the only one to stay on the top bunk (all of the beds had mosquito nets covering the beds) and it was an interesting experience. Parts of it felt like camping in boy scouts and then another part of it felt completely foreign.
Earlier in the day, we spent a lot of time talking to one of the leaders of the village. His name was Domingo, and he showed us the arduous process of panning for gold. In the Comunidad Venecia, this is one way for the people to bring in revenue. When panning for gold, one will typically spend all day (from 5AM to 7PM) digging rocks into a wooden bowl, washing it out in the river, and looking for very miniscule specs of gold remnants. If it is a successful day, one can bring in about 1 or 2 grams of gold. This will retail for about 20-30 dollars.
