I was studying in Mexico and then I had a month vacation afterwards, so I wanted to explore the pacific coast because it´s very difficult to access, so I went there and volunteered for a month in a hostel in this area. Then, I heard about this indigenous tribes and many different stories, a lot nature, a lot of cool areas, and things to do in this area. So, I went there.
Its’s a pretty difficult area to get to because you can only fly there or get by boat.
Tell us about your indigenous tribe tattoo.
And in this area, there are different indigenous tribes living, so I went to visit one of the communities for a day and they paint themselves with a fruit called jaguar and this fruit has a black color and when you prepare it, you can paint it on your body and it will last for like 10 days, roughly.
What´s the meaning of the tattoo?
It’s actually just decoration as far as I know, for party, when they have celebrations, they would all get painted with this, and with different patterns. But you also see women on the street like covered full in black with this jaguar paint because it also works as a sunscreen, I believe it is, or as a repellant when they´re in the jungle. They could use it for other purposes than just decoration.
Overall, what do you really love about South America and what did have learn about that experience?
I really enjoy it because, first of all, the language is roughly the same everywhere, like they all speak Spanish, but in their own way. And then, it´s just rich of culture, rich of nature, so many things to learn, and also things to bring back home. In my country at least, people think that they do everything the right way, but then you come to another place and you see that people actually live completely different. Completely different houses, completely different manners and I think we can learn from each other. So, these cultural exchanges I think are really important.
What stood out, that you were like “wow this is so different”?
What I think is cool, especially in this area in the pacific in Choco, which is the name of the area, is just that people are much more using nature, in terms of, if you go out to a picnic, you would create your own bonfire with banana leaves, and cut some trees, use coconut milk, take down some coconuts and prepare it with this.
People are just using nature differently and they´re just so fit. It´s just cool to see different views on life and resources. We don’t have to be so dependent on everything we have in the cities. It could be so much simpler and still be perfect.