( intro music )
I am in the jungle.
And I have absolutely no experience in South America.
I’ve never set foot there.
So, I went in the Amazon to look at
a specific community in Bolivia.
And more specifically
in a settlement called Anachere.
We went to look at the Tsimané.
And the Tsimané, they are about 2,500 people
living in the Amazon.
We went up river for about two days in dug-out canoes.
After, you know, two-three days flights, buses, cars, whatever.
We follow the Maniqui River right here
which is a tributary of the Amazon.
And eventually after two days we got here.
This is the Nate family welcoming us with SpongeBob.
– You see SpongeBob? – ( audience laughter )
They live in small family settlements.
They will have one settlement here.
And then you need to walk for 15-20 minutes, half-an-hour
through the jungle, up the river to reach another settlement.
And you know it’s very dense jungle.
They usually live in these bamboo houses
with palm leaf roofs.
They used to be fulltime hunter-gatherer,
only relying on hunting and gathering.
Now, about 200 years ago missionaries came there
and introduced them to cultivation, to agriculture.
And so they grow a lot of plantain and banana
a bit of rice as well.
And corn, which is originally from that part of the world.
And they do “slash and burn” agriculture.
They burn, they grow right next to their settlement.
Also there is a lot of plantain.
They eat so much plantain, it’s very dangerous
because, you know, you’re like,
“I’m going to skid on that, you know,
these banana skins and stuff everywhere.”
– ( audience laughter ) – And they take the plantain
and they throw it directly in the fire.
Or they leave the skin on or they shave it
there’s all kinds of things.
Let’s go for a little drive down the river.
( speaking in Tsimané )
( sound of motor boat )
( insects buzzing )
( speaking in Tsimané )
( girl laughs )
Matthieu: And so, the family gathers around,
often, the fireplace like this.
This is the kitchen, this is it.
You know, just an open space.
The youngsters will be around
and often the older men they are going out hunting.
And everybody hopes for some meat to come back.
But I am sitting there and I see the two girls
like standing up and they’re just leaving.
I am like, “Whoa, where are they are going?” You know.
I need to know anything what’s going on.
I don’t know, they’re just going into the jungle.
I’m like, “dude, but there’s
like snakes and all this stuff.”
Yeah, but that is their home.
This is, for them, like going around the block here.
And so they go out in the jungle and they start foraging.
They’re just, you know, sitting there
and they just get up at some point from camp
and just start walking in the jungle
“let’s go and find something to bite on.”
And found this palm tree and started to eat palm fruit
which is full of good stuff.
And I looked around, I saw these nice red berries.
I’m like, “oh, this looks good.”
They’re like, “you eat that, you’re dead.”
– I’m like okay. – ( audience laughter )
So they know, I don’t know.
They are incredibly intimate, this really impressed me.
To see especially youngsters go out like this.
It’s really beautiful.
They often go with dogs.
They have a lot of– a few dogs
lying around that they use for hunting.
And there’s a lot of rodents or
you know, various animals that live underground.
So they hunt it.
When the dogs find something, they go with the machete
to try to clear out the opening
to help the dog and find the animal.
My room was in the far right there.
I’ll show you because it’s such a nice spot.
So, this is it, this is my bedroom.
( audience laughter )
Cool stuff, there’s a minibar. Let me show you.
( audience laughter )
Matthieu: Oh! ( laughter )
Computer inside.
I was miserable in Bolivia.
I was really miserable.
There’s so many mosquitoes, it is incredibly hot.
I”m more like a, you know, yak high-altitude type
– than monkey-jungle thing. – ( audience laughter )
So, next day we go down the river.
We want to go to next camp and you know, what happened is…
This is the real evolution of diet
when you start feeding your camera with rice.
( audience laughter )
I fell, I fell in the river
my camera went fully into the river, and…
I had a back-up, thanks God for the back-ups,
so I could still shoot.
But it survived, so I put that in a zip lock with rice.
So, if it ever happens you all know the trick
with phone and stuff, and it worked.
A week later, ten days later, I switched it on, it worked.
You know we ended up going up river.
I have changed my camera, another camera, thanks God.
And we walked into this beautiful scene
where this old man, the older man
we saw him before in his plantations
standing there same again, I went back.
I love to go back to the same spot because he is at ease.
You know he is washing, he was stark naked
but you know, he’s seen me before
talked to him before, he just lets me there.
And all this butterfly flying around.
You can see the body of one of the oldest men I met there
and who has been hunter-gatherer all his life.
That would give this kind of body.
He is over 70, still very active, still physical because
yeah, he has to walk every day to feed himself.
You know, his kids will help him.
But they go hunting.
And so I went hunting, next day with his son.
They brought back food, finally.
They brought this armadillo that
they cut up in pieces and…
It tastes very much like chicken, like anything.
They boil the meat.
They also had this coati, which is a bit similar to badger.
They singe it in the fire straight in.
Protein is very important, protein.
This is the only way for them to get it.
They don’t get animals every day.
Yeah, if they get that once a week, they’ll be happy.
And then they do the gutting,
often the kids do the gutting.
The guys come back from a long day
some time the whole day in the jungle.
They are exhausted, they arrive back to camp
they bring the food.
They sit down, the women prepare fire
and then the kids are given the task
to go and prepare the animal.
Everywhere, mostly everywhere I went
it’s often the kids who do that task.
And so the pieces of meat are taken,
there is plantain that is shaven and boiled,
a bit of salt in there.
And they have this kind of porridge.
Quite tasty result in that plate there.
So, stomach full, you know, feeling quite content
I returned and I knew I was quite happy.
I knew what my next destination was.
I am in the jungle.
And I have absolutely no experience in South America.
I’ve never set foot there.
So, I went in the Amazon to look at
a specific community in Bolivia.
And more specifically
in a settlement called Anachere.
We went to look at the Tsimané.
And the Tsimané, they are about 2,500 people
living in the Amazon.
We went up river for about two days in dug-out canoes.
After, you know, two-three days flights, buses, cars, whatever.
We follow the Maniqui River right here
which is a tributary of the Amazon.
And eventually after two days we got here.
This is the Nate family welcoming us with SpongeBob.
– You see SpongeBob? – ( audience laughter )
They live in small family settlements.
They will have one settlement here.
And then you need to walk for 15-20 minutes, half-an-hour
through the jungle, up the river to reach another settlement.
And you know it’s very dense jungle.
They usually live in these bamboo houses
with palm leaf roofs.
They used to be fulltime hunter-gatherer,
only relying on hunting and gathering.
Now, about 200 years ago missionaries came there
and introduced them to cultivation, to agriculture.
And so they grow a lot of plantain and banana
a bit of rice as well.
And corn, which is originally from that part of the world.
And they do “slash and burn” agriculture.
They burn, they grow right next to their settlement.
Also there is a lot of plantain.
They eat so much plantain, it’s very dangerous
because, you know, you’re like,
“I’m going to skid on that, you know,
these banana skins and stuff everywhere.”
– ( audience laughter ) – And they take the plantain
and they throw it directly in the fire.
Or they leave the skin on or they shave it
there’s all kinds of things.
Let’s go for a little drive down the river.
( speaking in Tsimané )
( sound of motor boat )
( insects buzzing )
( speaking in Tsimané )
( girl laughs )
Matthieu: And so, the family gathers around,
often, the fireplace like this.
This is the kitchen, this is it.
You know, just an open space.
The youngsters will be around
and often the older men they are going out hunting.
And everybody hopes for some meat to come back.
But I am sitting there and I see the two girls
like standing up and they’re just leaving.
I am like, “Whoa, where are they are going?” You know.
I need to know anything what’s going on.
I don’t know, they’re just going into the jungle.
I’m like, “dude, but there’s
like snakes and all this stuff.”
Yeah, but that is their home.
This is, for them, like going around the block here.
And so they go out in the jungle and they start foraging.
They’re just, you know, sitting there
and they just get up at some point from camp
and just start walking in the jungle
“let’s go and find something to bite on.”
And found this palm tree and started to eat palm fruit
which is full of good stuff.
And I looked around, I saw these nice red berries.
I’m like, “oh, this looks good.”
They’re like, “you eat that, you’re dead.”
– I’m like okay. – ( audience laughter )
So they know, I don’t know.
They are incredibly intimate, this really impressed me.
To see especially youngsters go out like this.
It’s really beautiful.
They often go with dogs.
They have a lot of– a few dogs
lying around that they use for hunting.
And there’s a lot of rodents or
you know, various animals that live underground.
So they hunt it.
When the dogs find something, they go with the machete
to try to clear out the opening
to help the dog and find the animal.
My room was in the far right there.
I’ll show you because it’s such a nice spot.
So, this is it, this is my bedroom.
( audience laughter )
Cool stuff, there’s a minibar. Let me show you.
( audience laughter )
Matthieu: Oh! ( laughter )
Computer inside.
I was miserable in Bolivia.
I was really miserable.
There’s so many mosquitoes, it is incredibly hot.
I”m more like a, you know, yak high-altitude type
– than monkey-jungle thing. – ( audience laughter )
So, next day we go down the river.
We want to go to next camp and you know, what happened is…
This is the real evolution of diet
when you start feeding your camera with rice.
( audience laughter )
I fell, I fell in the river
my camera went fully into the river, and…
I had a back-up, thanks God for the back-ups,
so I could still shoot.
But it survived, so I put that in a zip lock with rice.
So, if it ever happens you all know the trick
with phone and stuff, and it worked.
A week later, ten days later, I switched it on, it worked.
You know we ended up going up river.
I have changed my camera, another camera, thanks God.
And we walked into this beautiful scene
where this old man, the older man
we saw him before in his plantations
standing there same again, I went back.
I love to go back to the same spot because he is at ease.
You know he is washing, he was stark naked
but you know, he’s seen me before
talked to him before, he just lets me there.
And all this butterfly flying around.
You can see the body of one of the oldest men I met there
and who has been hunter-gatherer all his life.
That would give this kind of body.
He is over 70, still very active, still physical because
yeah, he has to walk every day to feed himself.
You know, his kids will help him.
But they go hunting.
And so I went hunting, next day with his son.
They brought back food, finally.
They brought this armadillo that
they cut up in pieces and…
It tastes very much like chicken, like anything.
They boil the meat.
They also had this coati, which is a bit similar to badger.
They singe it in the fire straight in.
Protein is very important, protein.
This is the only way for them to get it.
They don’t get animals every day.
Yeah, if they get that once a week, they’ll be happy.
And then they do the gutting,
often the kids do the gutting.
The guys come back from a long day
some time the whole day in the jungle.
They are exhausted, they arrive back to camp
they bring the food.
They sit down, the women prepare fire
and then the kids are given the task
to go and prepare the animal.
Everywhere, mostly everywhere I went
it’s often the kids who do that task.
And so the pieces of meat are taken,
there is plantain that is shaven and boiled,
a bit of salt in there.
And they have this kind of porridge.
Quite tasty result in that plate there.
So, stomach full, you know, feeling quite content
I returned and I knew I was quite happy.
I knew what my next destination was.
Please follow and like us: