The camp in Miazal, Ecuador is a hardcore Amazon experience with shamen performing rituals, white water rafting in dugout canoes, learning to shoot blowguns, and plenty of jungle time. One of the high points is the three hour hike through heavy jungle to their sacred waterfalls. You can touch both hot and cold running waterfalls, just five feet apart, coming at you like a fire hose. The entire area is bright orange from all of the iron in the water and Shuar say this has healing properties.
The Shuar were also the inventors of head shrinking, but they no longer practice the ritual. In the past, if a Shuar man wanted to marry a woman, he would go to the father of the woman and ask permission. The father would only approve when the man killed an enemy and brought back his severed head. They would remove the skull from the flesh and sew it back up, also sewing the eyes and mouth shut to prevent bad spirits from exiting. After repeatedly filling the the head with hot sand and smoking it over a fire, it became the size of tennis ball.
It takes 3 planes to get to this remote area of the Amazon where the Shuar live, and the last plane lands on a slippery mud runway. Sitting in the copilot seat, I watched as mud flew up on the windshield and the plane fishtailed, thinking this is more like riding on a sled. Shortly after landing, we were hit by a flash flood with water that went up to our chests within 10 minutes. Then we got in dugout canoe riding an inch above the water on and Amazon feeder river and manged not to sink arriving at camp to a smoking fire and comfortable hammocks. The first hour in Miazal, lets you know this is not going to be the usual adventure.
Best Time to Visit: It's on the equator so its always hot and humid year round
How Long to Stay: 3-6 days to get the full effect
General Costs: Moderate to expensive
What To Do: Visit sacred waterfalls, learn the Shuar culture, hike to other villages and the hot and cold waterfalls, have a shaman perform rituals diagnosing what is wrong with you.
UNESCO World Heritage Site? No
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