Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...in the Amazon?

This past week we left Quito at 6:00 a.m. to begin our journey to the Oriente.  We stayed at Tiputini Biodiversity Station, a place six hours removed from civilization.  Because of this, we had to devote a whole day to traveling, with quite the progression of transportation: bus to plane to bus to boat to bus to boat.  Finally we had arrived at the small human habitat in the middle of the jungle. 

The knowledgeable Mayer and I  

The following day, the group split up into 3, each led by a guide from the station.  My group was led by an elderly man with a kind face named Mayer.  Remember, we were in the middle of the jungle; clean, paved paths were nonexistent here.  One of my first thoughts was “How is our guide going to hike with us?”  However, it didn’t take me long to see that Mayer was perfectly capable of getting by, having the agility of a man half his age.  Another thing I realized about Mayer fairly quickly; he loved the jungle.  An hour hike was stretched out into three because he stopped us every few paces to inform us about something.  It sounds frustrating, but everything was so informative and with purpose, that before I knew it we had been out on the path for four hours!  

His knowledge was endless, not only in biology but on the history of the area.  He identified plants that have medicinal properties used by the indigenous peoples for centuries.  All of the information he told us seemed like it was from another time. It seems barbaric to run out into the forest, pluck some leaves off of a tree, mash them up and boil them in some tea.  After all, we live in the age of CVS, where neat, coated pills come in a convenient, sanitary bottle.  I was shocked when he told us many of his stories were from personal experience!  He recounted stories from his childhood about his village using the plants from the jungle to cure illness.   As a child, his mother would often make him tea from a certain type of tree bark to remedy his colds.

 

One of the Ninja Turtles.... Michelangelo perhaps? 

After pointing out a tree that’s bark had recently cured his arthritis (proven by his expert hiking ability), we came across a turtle.  Mayer crouched down slowly and picked it up.  After a few minutes of coaxing, all of the turtle’s limbs were extended quite comically.  With a gleam in his eyes, Mayer turned to me, pointed at the turtle and said “Neen-ja…tour-tell.”  At the moment, I burst into laughter at the reference, not thinking anything of it.  Now looking back on it, it’s a little strange that Mayer, the king of indigenous home remedies, would know a reference so deeply rooted in American pop-culture.  It’s amazing to think how small the world has become, that something as trivial as the Ninja Turtles has made its way into the hearts of the people of the jungle.  Mayer is a prime example of how fast culture can spread.  Here is a man who was raised in a household of indigenous remedies, yet the Ninja Turtles are in his repertoire.  In one single generation, the world has shrunk to the point that while a person may seem completely different, you can most likely stumble upon a reference that brings you together.