The boat sailed towards the harbour. We were on the deck contemplating the people walking on the long pier. We couldn’t wait to disembark and finally visit that incredible town. The main attraction of this Brazilian industrial city is that it’s been built in the shore of the Amazon River surrounded by the Amazon Rainforest which makes an incredible scenario to live in for the over one million people living in Manaus.
We had been there to learn more about Banibas culture, an ancestral tribe that had inhabited the Rainforest for centuries and centuries.
After landing we decided to rent a car, a jeep probably could work out pretty well, because according to Gilberto, our guide, the area was pretty swampy. The small aboriginal village was around ten kilometres far from the town. However, due to the roughness and many curves of the road it took us nearly an hour to get there.
We glimpsed the huts between the thickness of the forest. When we reached what seemed like the entrance to the village, flanked by two huge trees, two brown tall individuals with short curly black hair approached the vehicle. Our guide, who spoke Mbangâ language, told them we were two architects who came to learn from them, we wanted to spend a few days to see how his tribe lived. They answered that their leader, Dtíaga would we who will decide whether we could stay or not. We were taken with him immediately and after giving the same explanation he consulted with who seemed to be the older in the tribe. They agree in leaving us live in one of their huts.
A huge surprise was to us when at dawn we heard as if someone was dancing and singing. We peeped out of the hut and we could see that whole tribe was dancing in long rows and singing around a big pyre decorated with iperângas a small tropical blue flower.
This ceremony is conducted every 40 years according to Indian calendar which is governed by the sun and the moon –equivalent to six months in the Gregorian calendar– to worship Adão the god of fertility.
They build a pyre and crown it with iperângas, and then perform the ritual dance and the sacred song of banibas. At the end the flowers are burned because they believe that will bring abundance. We were lucky to be in the precise moment to witness the ceremony. Even, as we were special guests, the elder of the tribe invited us to light the fire of the pyre. It was a great experience, but we had to rub two sticks with each other, of course they don’t have lighters.
The next day you go hunting cause is supposed that Adão will provide enough food. Banibas hunt with spears made of trees branches and with nets woven with fibres of some plants of the jungle. Among the animals of the area we could see something very similar to alligators, birds like the pigeons and rodents they called nenguè.
We had an incredible experience and learn a lot about their way of living. For example they drink an infusion of iperânga very similar to mate tereré of Paraguay and argentine north.
We could notice a great development in the construction of huts, very proportionate. Moreover, the paths were well diagrammed to allow a fluid communication among the members of the tribe. We returned to our beloved Paraná where we now drink the iperânga infusion we learned to prepare meanwhile we walk over the new waterfront of the city.
Welcome to the jungle
