Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Delightful Indigenous Folks We Met

Indigenous Peoples, aka Native Americans in Central America

We hired a guide, Jackie, and explored territory near Cahuita where the indigenous BriBri peoples live out their lives in simplicity, tending cocoa plants for cash, raising chickens, living in palm-thatched huts as their ancestors did.  Jackie taught us some BriBri words, and I only remember "Evishkena," which is "hello."



A BriBri chief talked about ancient spiritual practices.

A puppy owned by an indigenous family greeted my sister the traditional way.

Lying in the hammock is "Abuelo," or "Grandfather," a 111-year-old BriBri man.  He asked Jackie, our guide, sitting on the floor next to him, to send him someone to teach him English.  The walls of his hand-made thatched hut come only to the waist.  The house is open to the wind and rain, but the temperature is always moderate.

Abuelo was only reachable via this handmade bridge.

A BriBri woman, Abuelo's daughter, ground up the cocoa on this concave rock.

After the roasted cocoa is ground up, she makes little round balls of it, wraps them individually in cellophane, and sells them to the people that guides like Jackie bring to them.  It was the most delicious chocolate I ever tasted.



No comments:

Post a Comment