45 days among the Yanano (Warning: some pictures)

[Valle]

Hope Valle left 'em something to sharpen it with

I didn´t. I can even say their knives were only barely sharp.

I asked them how they sharpened their knives. They had no specialized "sharpening stones", they sharpened their stuff at an upper vertical rock slope by the river. Sections of this rock wall were flatted out from sharpening. Their technique was peculiar, they held the knife at an angle, put the blade against the rock, and strongly struck at the blade spine. No gentle strokes. It worked more or less, I tried to sharpen more gently at this same rock, but my results were not as quick as theirs, the rock wall was not very coarse. But I did get better results and when I showed it to them, they were not very impressed. They said something like "Yeah, if I stood half a day by the river doing what you did, I´d also get an evil blade". You heard it right, "evil blade".

But the fixed Grip is a though little bastard, I think it can handle punches in its spine for a while.

 

[pict]

"Evil Blade", I love that. Around here sharpening is done by grinding the blade on a cement slab. It is common to see produce guys out front on the sidewalk. Makes you wonder,"Did he rinse the blade last time?" It seems only the butchers here know how to sharpen. Mac

 

[Valle]

Another batch of pictures.

Fish trap:

Little I-Ybowa by the river:

Yanano kitchen:

Conference picture:

Big ancient rock:

Amazonia sunset:

 

[Slatts]

Do these people grow any of their own crops or are they solely hunter-gatherers?

This is a great journey you took, my friend.

 

[Valle]

They grow their own crops, like a variety of plants with edible roots, watermelons and bananas. But fish is by far the basis of their nutrition.