My first experience of living with the Pemones (Indigenous of Venezuela)

in #travel7 years ago (edited)

Hello friends of this community Steemit, today I will tell you my story of how I lived with the Pemones for a month.

Many Venezuelans do not know the culture and indigenous language of our Venezuela, which have a different culture; such as Waraos, wuayuú, yanomami, timotocuica, pemones, etc.

To the south of the Bolívar state, El Salto Ángel, the highest waterfall in the world, with a height of 979 m, generated from the Auyantepuy, I undertook a trip to the unknown, to live with the Pemones for more than a month.

They call us (Toponkek) in Creole Spanish and I got to know a little of their language, understand their beliefs, their myths and work with them in the field or conuco.

They are reserved people, little expressive, sometimes unfriendly, they welcome you and invite you in what they can humbly give you; the Zacura (Agua con casabe wet) carato of green plantain, the cachire that is made with yucca and sweet potato, the atol, the tuma de kuruzuzú, in Spanish (Sopa de busca) as we see in this image and the comache that humbly he offers them to you welcoming you.

They live in the countryside, like the planting of yucca, sweet potato, ocumo, auyama etc, it is incredible that by sharing with them in the field of harvesting, cleaning, sowing or as they say, leave a memory of what you have sown with they.

It is not an easy job for a creole, but there are criollos who adapt to the countryside to manufacture the indigenous cassava.

You have to extract the yucca, mount it in a wheelbarrow depending on the content of cassava that you are going to load between 50 to 60 kg, take it to the place where it is peeled, scratched and wait for the next day to bounce all the liquid, squeeze its mass in a (sebucán) indigenous squeezer, and to be squeezed should be set and left as if it were a precooked flour to be assembled in the budare where indigenous women are responsible.

The man in my case, has to find firewood, riding it between the shoulders or carry it in a wheelbarrow. At the beginning it was not easy for me because at the end of cachire, according to his belief, he gives strength and among other things according to his beliefs.

To be accepted into an indigenous community you have to live about 8 years and be a hard worker because they do not tolerate the lazy person in their culture.

Being accepted as was my case, they invite you to face the danger of nature as you go to explore virgin lands that only they know, in this case I have a walk of several hours, where they hunt, fish and I assure you that it is not easy Go trot them because they are used to the field.

I adapted and socialized with them, which has helped me grow as a person and have new experiences in my life.

If more nothing to say friends Steemians. this is the culture of our country that few of us know how to share with them.

A Wuakupuero (Hello) and (Anok adecek) in Spanish my name is Felix Rubén and this is my story of how to live with the Pemones.
regards

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Really interesting post, I wish I can go there some day! Love your pic :)

thank you friend, this is how our Venezuelan landscapes are, despite everything there is a bit of tranquility with nature.