Yesterday I joined an all day tour Terraventuras Bribri Culture, where me and two ladies from Spain spent the day in an indigenous village near Puerto Viejo including first the Shaman, then medicine man (I got herbal medicine for my
diarrhea), a plant study hike in forest, chocolate harvesting and production demonstration, indigenous lunch of boiled root vegetables and chicken, and a visit to the local teen hangout waterfalls where I photographed local teens jumping off the falls into plunge pool. A cool day! I will present in installments.
First is a slide show of our visit to the Shaman, their spiritual leader and trainer of the medicine man. We got lots of knowledge about the Bribri culture and their use of the conical structure for spiritual and history training of the children and various ceremonies. Then we were “cleansed” in their cleansing ceremony where we had a leaf heated over the fire whisked over our bodies with some Bribri words uttered.
If people can’t acknowledge the wisdom of indigenous cultures, then that’s their loss.
~Jay Griffiths
¡Pura Vida!
Hi Charlie!
My name is Erika and I am an energy medicine practitioner but moreso a student of energy medicine first and always. I am traveling to CR this week and wanted to explore the Puerto Viejo Talamanca area and of course visit the indigenous tribes of the area. I would love it if you can share how I too can sit with a shaman of the BRIBRI tribe or other area tribes.
I spend a week in the Caribe Sur (south) every September and now always stay at Hotel Banana Azul and use Caribe Fun Tours (office at that hotel & link below) to set up all my tours and visits anywhere in the area. I did the Bribri tour you read about above through them. You will love it and learn a lot about that particular indigenous tribe on that tour. There is also a small village on the edge of Puerto Viejo named Kekoldi that has no tours but I went birding there once with a Bribri young man as my guide. And then the most immersing in culture visit was with a birding club to the Bribri Yorkin Reserve that must be arranged in advance that included 3 nights sleeping in an elevated simple hut and eating food they cooked over a wood fire. No electricity. See my photo gallery from that trip at: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2015-Aug-21-24-Bribri-Yorkin-Reserve If you really want that kind of immersion, I suggest that you Google Bribri Yorkin Reserve and find out how and through whom you would need to schedule it, probably way in advance.
Use the contact form on this site to write me if you have more specific questions, but to repeat the tour in this blog post, work with Caribe Fun Tours: https://www.caribefuntours.com/?utm_source=GMBlisting&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb
¡Buen viaje!