We slept well in our hospedaje in Pebas after our tough trip from Brillo Nuevo. On Saturday, we took a motorcar from Pebas over the 20+ rickety bridges crossing streams to Puca Urquillo.
We met with both Bora and Huitoto artisans in the seats overlooking an asphaulted basketball court. Yully and Marianela carefully reviewed a variety of hot pads, bottle and cell phone carriers made for our orders. I was again relieved that Yully embraced the tough job of rejecting ones that didn't meet high quality export quality. We then bought a few more bags and other items at a small feria.
I then saw a few artisans buying loose batches of white chambira fiber from a woman from Tierra Firme. While we are investing a lot of resources to help artisans from Puca Urquillo plant more chambira palms so they can have their own supply of raw material for weaving crafts, it is still easier for them to buy this from more distant communities who have a lot of forest but few artisans.
On the way back to Pebas, we passed several smoky fields being burned to plant yuca. It was inevitable that paving this land passage would lead to the clearing of almost every adjoining parcel of forest.
Andrea spent months working with this designer and four artisans to make dozens of colorful balsa wood birds and giant chambira butterflies. The birds included an egret, tiger heron, toucan, macaws and a kingfisher. When we stopped at the mall after visiting the aquarium, I loved seeing these creatures twirl around in a mild breeze.
I was most happy to hear the Chino artisans wanted to resume attending our bird ornament workshops. Half of them have made some birds based on what they learned five years ago, but they were eager to improve the quality of these woven animals they could sell to their visitors and have secure sales to us.
I selected a few baskets laid out on benches and placed an order for elegant two-color models. Lindy reported good progress making lady bug ornaments and planned to attend our artisan facilitator training. We were happy the group looked forward to hosting a bird-making workshop in July with artisans from 3 Tahuayo communities.
