Exploring Lagunas: A Reflective Journey Through the Amazonian Community

A 5-day adventure in the Amazon, canoeing down the river, in a remote location, with nothing but fresh air and no cell service. While exploring my own journey, I took the time in Lagunas, which is an Amazonian community, to not only observe the wildlife but to observe the people within the community.

In a short story, Lagunas is a closely-knit community of about 9,000 citizens, with no crime, and no cars, where each home significantly lacks the bare minimum of what one would call a home. Doors are curtains, windows are merely squares in the wooden home. There wasn't a grocery store in sight.

During my adventure, we stopped at a campsite where a shockingly young spirit who was 78 years old ran one of the campsites.

Here we are...In the middle of the Amazonian rainforest...where a 78-year-old was moving as fiercely and as sharply as the rest of us 22-year-olds.

Beyond admired and deeply moved, I pondered my own ability of what I would look like at 78 years old, let alone my parents. What are the foundations for such admirable strength and energy in old age?

From what I gauged, simplicity and strength go a long way.

On our trip, we had a guide and his wife. She sat in the back and prepared three meals a day for the five days we were together. She used 6 ingredients: tomatoes, onions, rice, eggs, plantains, and locally caught river fish, and she prepared something different for each meal. On the other hand, our guide, Javi, was a 60-year-old who didn’t have one grey hair or lacked vision. In fact, he has better eyes than me. Spotting animals that were waves ahead and catching crocodiles in the pitch black. Heck, he even paddled us up and back the river with full force for 5 days!

I noticed they washed their clothes, dishes, bodies, and hair with the same soap, which is despicable to a consumer-like mind. I noticed their beautiful natural nails, strong dark hair, clean baby-like skin, and a wrinkle-less face with maybe more than half the life complete.

Every night on most corners there is a family or a group of women selling food for the community. People walk the streets staying close to their homes, eating freshly home-cooked meals. The encouragement of "all is welcome” and "my home is your home” goes a long way. The energy of people setting up shop on every corner for one another to join was something I felt every community could use. People in the community buy from one another, use it to make goods, and sell at a very low rate for the benefit of all.

Without the worry of material possessions, safety, and having daily homecooked dinners with your community, what do you think we would look like?

Lagunas is a community that fosters a true sense of belonging. It embodies pure love—The right every man has on this earth: a feeling of fellowship with one another.

The energy in Lagunas feels circular, much like the essence of life itself. You help someone, they help you—it flows reciprocally, in all directions and dimensions.

Nothing unites people quite like a good meal. Food is universal; everyone desires and requires it. It provides essential energy and nourishment, transcending religions, ethnicities, and politics. It's a moment to engage one of our strongest senses—taste. Savoring the simplicity of a modest life, a routine with little financial concerns can make money seem less burdensome.

Imagine life without the stress of money. Would we age differently? Could there be less hate, fewer lies, less ego, fewer wars, less class division, and less abuse? Is there an alternative way to reciprocate kindness that doesn't involve money? What might our world look like with a different form of currency?

Leave No Man Behind encapsulates my experience in Lagunas, Peru. It's a principle that resonates deeply within us all. It guides us towards a world where community is paramount; where we rely on each other. Without strong community bonds, life would be unrecognizable. We need others to help us understand our truths, to navigate our paths, and to fully experience the senses of touch, taste, sight, sound, and love.

Love, in particular, acts as a sixth sense. Embracing it fully reveals that the universe is always on our side, despite any obstacles we may face.

This to me felt like the best way to explore the Peruvian Amazon.

Xoxo,

Chelsey