Random Thoughts Prior to Entry

(June 21st-24) Here at the Lodge (El Monte) in the week before our entry date. A rough day mentally as Joe, Tom, Mariela, and I went through some of the logistics of Joe and I´s journey in and supposed life within--3/4 of which is uncertain and unknown. Much talk of the questionable safety issues as there has been recent killings by the uncontacted tribes (March) and a more recent (last week) threat over the short-wave radio that some Huaorani went out to try and kill members of another tribe. Tom has promised to keep up on the situation but I have a feeling we are going in without the knowledge of that outcome. Too many unknown variables, which is weighing heavily on my brain.
We still need to buy a ton of supplies and it has been really hard to gauge how much we need for 6 weeks of living and the fact that we dont know how many more people we will be feeding beside ourselves is also troubling. Tom is lending us two roll-up solar panels so we are going to try and charge a motorcycle battery on that to keep my camera and my life support system (IPOD) rolling throughtout the trip.
Tom gets a call from our Huaorani contact and Otobos brother Bartolo, who is in Coca with the canoe and wants to take us in early. We find out this new info with about 30 hours advance notice before we need to be in Coca (10 hours from Quito). Spend the following day with Mariela racing around Quito buying food stores and other supplies. Mariela gives me $1,000 in cash to give to Otobo as part of their loan to him to keep this operation going. Not feeling too safe in Quito en route to the dismal oil town of Coca with this amount of money strapped to my waist. We end up spending about $300 on the food that is supposed to feed several for 6 weeks---seems a bit low but i guess there is always hunting.
Spend 10 hours on an overnight bus to Coca, where Bartolo greets us at bus station. Spend the next 4 hours running around Coca buying building supplies and about 80 gallons of gas, which is very difficult because of strict government regulations. Spend two hours crammed in a hired truck taking our supplies to the river where we get on the canoe. Arrive and load canoe, which contains Joe and I along with about 20 Huaorani---so packed that I am almost certain that we are going capsize as there is only about an inch of clearance between the water and the top of the canoe. Whoever is driving is displaying the most expert outboard motor skills that I have ever seen in my life. Hard rain commences and does not cease for most of the 3 hour trip to the small village where we will spend the first night. Once arrived, we enter small hut to find about 7 Huaoranis (along with a couple pet Macaws) sitting around small indoor fires talking and drinking chica (a traditional semi-alcoholic drinking fermented with their spit). We eat a simple dinner and have some small talk with them. They sing us a traditional welcoming song and ask us to sing them a song and explain its significance. We can think of nothing good on the spot so Joe and I give them the best rendition of Amazing Grace we can do (which, I must say was quite good) and lie and say it is a song about ¨meeting new people.¨
Some of the older Huaos give us the Huao names Eme (me) and Nampawe (Joe), and explain the stories behind these names--which was a bit disconcerting as both former Huao individuals who we are named after ending up dying tragically......