From the Satellite Table

We've met a few remarkable people since arriving in Mitú, people who have been embraced by the community since their arrival here, and who have now embraced us in turn.
Luis, a Brazilian fellow who's been working in Mitú for a few months on a contract from a sister geo-survey company to the one Gabriel is contracted by, was the first one to welcome us. He picked us up from the airport and showed us around the uncomplicated network of this town's streets and businesses. Open hearted and polite, Luis makes friends easily and shares them eagerly. Through him we met Marcela and Jeanette.
Marcela is a vet and a Bogota native who transferred to the Amazon to work with the indigenous communities. No, I'm not trying to be offensive, just keep reading. Her help comes in form of rabies control, which is spread by Bloodsucking Fruit Bats and plagues the remote rural settlements. Marcela and a team of technicians travel, often by boat, into the individual villages in the district to administer vaccines to the people and poison to the bats. Her and the team capture any bats that had been feeding on a particular population and apply a small amount of poison to the nape, where they can't lick it off themselves, and allow them to carry the poison to their nesting place for others to consume. They know they're capturing repeat offender, because the same bats always come back to a location they have previously fed in. Once they discover a source of food they return night after night until their resource is depleted. When not in the field, Marcela takes care of city and farm animals at a clinic in town.
Jeannette is a Mitú girl through and through. Vividly coloured, woven head bands and playful braids in her raven black hair, and all. Her personality is as rich and lively as the surrounding jungle. She studied dentistry in Villavicencio and came back to her home town to practice. Cheerful and gregarious, Jeanette knows and is know by everyone in town.
By the grace of these ladies we also met Julio and his family, Diana and Luciana. Julio and Diana are  architects, who left behind prosperous careers in the big city of Bogota to return to their native Amazon. They said they grew tired of the grind and longed to return to the simple life they once knew. We liked them instantly. Julio and Diana invited us over for a BBQ at their spectacular jungle house that they've designed and constructed themselves. It grew slowly out of simple, sketched out plans that morphed and developed as the house itself did. The result is a unique wood and corrugated sheet metal structure that integrates the surrounding nature, and contrasts it at the same time.

View from the Satellite dining room to the forepeak
loft space at the front of the house

As we approached the house, a lofty A-frame roof line protruded right out of the ground, instantly forming angled walls for the space enclosed within. To us it looked like a forepeak of a boat and Julio confirmed that the front of the house is in fact designed after the bow of a ship. We like him even more now, he's a man after our own hearts. Walking to reach the main entrance door we were lead up onto steps made out of stacked and staggered disks of old cable spools. Together they form a mosaic of thick wooden disks, each one different, with its own imperfections. We were led inside into small, modest interior that opens right back up into the outdoors on the opposite side of the house. Like most homes in Mitú, Julio's house doesn't have glassed in windows, only netting to keep out the insects, giving the place continuous connection with the surrounding natural environment (minus the bugs, of course). 

Gabe and Luis making drinks
 with regional Agua Ardiente, an anise-flavoured liquor

Marcela, Jeanette and Luis at the
kitchen counter

Once on the other side of the house, I noticed that some of the walls are straight and some angle in or out, creating lots of dynamic lines for the eye to follow. Julio and Diana have done a great job giving this rustic dwelling lots of charm and functionality, it has everything they need to live comfortably without excess. The home is a statement against consumerism and it's evident through their use of discarded items. Like a bike wheel used in place of a round window or an old TVDirect satellite antenna that serves as a table base. 

Gabe supervising the grilling

A smaller antenna is used to form the bottom of an outdoor grill. The house is full of resourceful surprises, which we took in with delight.



After the tour of the house we got to cooking. Potatoes, guacamole, corn on the cub in husks and Cachama fish smoked in banana leaves. Yeah, they say Cachama, I say piranha.
See for yourself.

Cachama, rubbed with garlic, salt and lime juice

Julio stoking up the fire

Jeanette preparing guacamol

For long hours, after our feast, we talked at the Satellite table about the life and the people of Colombia. And by we talked I mean they talked, while I sat quietly trying to decipher the conversation, occasionally tugging at Gabe's sleeve to translate the most important bits to me. My Spanish is coming along and the fact that I know Portuguese helps, but I was still way out of my depths on that night. Julio is an eloquent speaker who is passionately involved with the indigenous communities around Mitú through a number of social projects. He lead the conversation with stories about magic of the land and its people, and about how he works to encourage them to go to College and University and play an active part in growing their country into a place they want and need it to be. Being vastly underdeveloped, this region truly is a land of opportunities and Julio hopes that those opportunities are not missed by the very people who rely on them the most; that the natives can find a way to build on their strengths, retain their land and resources and not get left behind by the modern world already encroaching on their own. 
Gabe and I can't help but grow more fond of this little oasis and its residents with each passing day. With only two weeks left in Mitú we're beginning to bring our focus to the next challenge, which is refitting our new boat, but we hope with all our hearts that the following contract term brings us back this way. There is much left to be discovered here and ways in which we can make ourselves of service to this community.