The setting is deep in the Amazon Basin. The company is a family, part of the Shuar tribe still living and working off of the land in Southern Eastern Ecuador. The evening is my first experience of their home made drink and overall nutritional master … Chicha.
I had heard this word muttered for a few weeks working with the tribe and had wondered why one certain word in particular had cropped up at most points of the day and at any given occasion.
I’ll simply tell you what the drink is made from as, well this is what you want to hear.
The main staple of the diet there is Yuka, a potato like vegetable but ,well drier. This is boiled then mashed by the women of the village over a hot fire, any parts which haven’t mashed properly are brought out of the mixture chewed up for a minuet or two then spat back into the pot. This process happens over the course of an evening (ONLY by the women), the finished product is then left to ferment for however long the people responsible can go for before they need a hit.
The result a thick, lumpy, potato like mixture which tastes sour yet sharp and remarkably like spit.
Having half the village and the family your staying with watch you drink it for the first time isn’t helpful … neither is the re-filling of the bowl once you’re done. Again, and again and again.
If your passing through Ecuador and are in need of a slow, full, lazy kind of drunk experience I recommend full heartedly!
