A JEW ALONG THE AMAZON: FRIEND OF THE TICUNA AND LOOKING FOR JEWISH HISTORY

 Within the course of one month: I was in Iquitos in Peru, Manaus in Brasil and Leticia in Colombia. 
Every where I went I met and made friends with the Indians. My friends the UmonHon in USA had taught me how to make friends with Indians.

 In Iquitos in Peru, I wanted to learn more about the History of the Jewish migrants from Morocco (mainly) who came here at the end of 19th Century at the height of the Rubber Boom! Many stayed, others moved to cities with larger jewish communities such as Manaus and Belem (still sizeable Jewish communities in these cities). Sami whose parents came from the erstwhile Russia (after the Rubber Boom, but to escape the Nazis) was born here and still lives in Iquitos. We had a pleasant time together, I have learned a lot about the Jewish situation in Iquitos where many Mestizos are claiming a jewish identity and some even migrating to Israel. 

 I was curious about these "wichetty Grubs" being sold in the markets, they are the larvae of the Palm weevil and supposed to be delicious, never realizing that further down the river I would be tasting an elegant version of this.

 There are two movies (may be more) in which the history and the times of the Caucha or the Rubber Boom can be seen. I highly recommend the movie Fizcarraldo starring Klaus Kinski with Werner Herzog directing. Beautiful landscape as a backdrop. Above the magnificent opera house in Manaus, in the Brasilian Amazonia.

 Here at the confluence of Rio Negro and Rio Solimaes, the Amazon looks more like an ocean than a river. Passenger boats slow and fast take people to the interior of the amazon and also to the villages lying on the Amazon itself.

 A short flight, less than two hours will take you to Tabatinga in Brasil at the border of Colombia and Peru.

 Ana Yudit, the owner of Hotel Amazon BnB, possibly the best place to stay in Leticia, drove over to pick me up which was nice of her.

 Esmeralda was ever attentive and made sure that I was comfortable. They assigned a nice cabana for me, No 3

 El Cielo is an Amazonian Fusion New Age cuisine, elegant and very tasty and adventurous.

 Here I meet the larvae, called Mojojoy along the Amazon, stuffed with fish and other marine creatures, on a bed of Cassava. Very tasty and on that hot day, POKER was a good accompaniment as a drink.

 I wanted to meet the Ticuna from an outlying village two hours by boat. I ran into my boatman, named Hannibal who offered to take me, but as luck would have it, the Ticuna were coming to town that day.

 This is my friend Omar on my left and his brother Miguee who is the actor from the movie The Embrace of the Serpent which was nominated for Oscar for the Best Foreign Film.

 I had a nice chat with Elcida, Omar's niece, who is staying in Leticia temporarily and she is so eager to go home to her village.

 Breakfast was filling and a good start to a hot, humid, rainy day in the Amazon.

 At 530 the trees at Parque Santander in front of the Church in town, millions of parakeets (similar) come back from their hunt in the Amazon to rest for the night. The evening sky darkens with the cloud of their presence and the squeaking noise is overpowering but reminds you of the cycle of Nature.

Enjoy the trailer and my friend is the younger Indian actor, who plays the guide.
As they left the wharf, I was so proud to say.
I, a Jewish Australian doctor, representing Cuba, will be privileged to work with them!
I plan to return in January 2018.

INDIAN CHEFS AND OWNER FROM THE INTERIOR: EL CIELO RESTAURANT IN LETICIA, COLOMBIAN AMAZONIA

INDIAN CHEFS AND OWNER FROM THE INTERIOR: EL CIELO RESTAURANT IN LETICIA, COLOMBIAN AMAZONIA

I had discovered El Cielo, the Amazonian fusion resto, during my first visit to Leticia, and had eaten there on my subsequent visits. It was the brainchild of a new age traveler, who with his Brasilian/Indian mestizo manager had managed to create an Amazonian Fusion Cuisine that you will not find anywhere along the Amazon. Two young Indian women had been taught the art and I enjoyed saying hello to them on each of my previous visits.

Menu at El Cielo remain unchanged. On this visit, I was informed that El Cielo had relocated. I took a Moto to their new site, the décor and the welcoming music was no longer the New Age Amazonia that reflected the owner/manager that I knew but that of someone from the Interior. (San Augustin to be exact).

The two young Indian chefs were still there. One chirped: I have not seen you in a while and gave me a big lovely smile.

The food was adventurous but delicious. Normally I would start the dinner with a Caipirinha but the weather being so hot, fans cooled the new location, and the local brew POKER seemed appropriate.

Before leaving I had picture taken of the Indian chefs with me and I asked them, what would you prepare for me, the next time?

A feast of Amazonian “seafood”/mariscos, they chirped.

I look forward to that ..

A DOCTOR WITHOUT BORDERS WITH A GROUP OF INDIGENAS SIN/SEM FRONTERAS/FRONTEIRAS

What is the nationality of this man, who is saying his Shabbat Brachas in a Moslem country with a glass of wine (sorry it was a white wine from South Africa, rather than the required Red!)

 You dont have to cross Borders to become a Doctor without Borders, even though this indefatiguable Mexican Doctor, Dra Estela Rosales from Muzquiz and Piedras Negras had crossed into the Kickapoo territory in Texas.

With the Portugese speaking Ticuna from Benjamin Constant, Brasilian Amazonia.

A Doctor without Borders with a group of Indigenas sin/sim Fronteras/Fronteiras

When people ask me what is that I do, trying to figure out my way of life, I evoke Doctors Without Borders. That venerable institution, one of the founding forces behind it, all of them were French, was the Jewish Doctor just completing his studies in Medicine in Paris in 1968, Bernard Kouchner, who would later become the Foreign Minister of France. He said: It is very simple, Go Where the Patients are. Don’t worry about the Borders:  Medicins Sans Frontieres. Or Doctors without Borders. Cuba has an excellent, possibly the best, record of Humanitarian Medicine around the world, I applaud them.

While they went to Biafra, Nicaragua, Honduras and other war torn or places with natural disasters, my destinations are usually calm and I usually visit indigenous people and instead of Treatment I am far more interested in their Culture and how to use it for prevention of Diseases.

Imagine trying to explain why I was in Rapa Nui, soon after visiting beautiful Minnesota with its thousand lakes and friendly people. Now I am on my way to Barranquilla where my colleagues, doctors and psychologists attending a Conference on Reproductive Health, do not yet know my dinner plans for them.

I normally do not identify myself as a Doctor, if pressured about my wandering professional style; I would say I am an Anthropologist. Most people seem to be satisfied with that answer, much like the life of the fictitious Maqroll, my alter ego, brought to life by the late Colombian writer, Alvaro Mutis. I do not easily open myself for examination of the symbolism of my persona. Like Maqroll, I too work hard to stay away from the mean spirited hypocrisies of the convictions of the bourgeoisie, which has spread around the world with the new colonization of the mind, the Globalization.

As I am interested in promoting Cuba, conversations would include that country and its lovely people, otherwise well used passport(s) bear no resemblance to the symbolic references to my ancestry, place of birth or place of growth, and the current strong connection to the future through yet another language.

It was the director of Museu Maguito in Benjamin Constant in Brasilian Amazonia who reminded me: I speak Portugese, but I am a Ticuna. The Colombian Ticuna identify with their Indian Country rather than the Colombian Nation, the same applies to Peruvian Ticuna. We are Ticuna first and last, they tell me. They all speak their language, so they do not become dependent (or remain colonized) in the language of their conquistadores, to connect with each other. Across the Amazon, a Brasilian Ticuna can connect with a Colombian or Peruvian Ticuna but may not be comfortable with other Brasilians or Colombians or Peruvians. The school at Nazaret, where my some of my Ticuna friends live teach the youngsters the culture of Ticuna in the language of Ticuna. To them speaking Ticuna among themselves seem natural.

My Kickapoo sister, Mena, once told me, when we were living in Mexico we did not become Mexican, so I don’t see why we should identify ourselves are American when we are living in USA?

So this Doctor without Borders is already looking forward to his return to Nazaret, possibly in January, to his return to the Ticuna, the Indians without Borders in the Amazon.

MAGIC IN BARRANQUILLA: MY CUBAN LOVES

THE TWO MUST DO THINGS IN LETICIA, COLOMBIAN AMAZONIA

Leticia in the Colombian bit of the Amazon River was left out of the riches of the Rubber Boom that made Iquitos in Peru and Manaus and Belem in Brasil world class cities in their time. Now one can marvel at the extensive baroque architecture borrowed from France and Europe and the magnificent buildings in Manaus especially and also to a lesser degree in Iquitos in Peru.
Leticia was a backwater then, a residence of the Ticuna Indians who still live nearby. Peru which lies just across the river, occupied this village which to this day is not connected to the Interior of Colombia (Leticians call the rest of Colombia, Interior as Rapa Nui refer to Chile as the Continent). One of the many skirmishes for which Colombia was famous for, one can read it with joy in the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, they established this slice of Amazon as their southern border and Leticia was born, possibly named after some newly born child of an illustrious family who had moved here?
Of the three Amazonian cities that I know, Leticians are certainly the friendliest, I was taken aback when a young policeman greeted me as I was walking away from the Parque Santander where a statue of the National Hero graces the entrance and millions of querulous birds descend on the tree tops to spend the night before flying off at sunrise into the Amazon Rain Forest.
I am always surprised when people recognize me in these outposts, the father owner of a shop,I am friendly with his daughter and her young daughter, greeted me asking whether I was still in the region, to which I had to reply: I just arrived today, and the fact that I have not been here in more than one year seems not to bother him.
The owner of Amazon Bed and Breakfast, without doubt the best place to stay in Leticia drove over the border and picked me up at Tabatinga airport in Brasil and when I arrived a new recruit, Esmeralda looking very Ticuna Indian, was more than friendly. They had upgraded me to a nicer room and soon enough I was settled down to my two days of stay in Leticia. I had to do some chores but mostly I want to rest in between these hectic days of travel as well as a surprise visit to my Cuban colleagues up north in Colombia.
The second best thing about Leticia is the Amazon Fusion Restaurant called EL CIELO. It had moved its quarters and changed hands, I could tell from the music being played, rather than the world fusion music, there was a distinct touch of Colombiana but the new owner and his family welcomed me, they are from San Augustin near the Capital. Both the chef,both Indians, greeted me with joy and exclaimed: we have not seen you in a while. Can you expect a better welcome than that? by Indians? in this corner of the Amazonian rain forest.
I sat down to order CANAJOIS which is much like the wichety Grub
Mojojoy is a grub that is found all along the Amazon and i had them swim in containers waiting to be eaten at Iquitos. These indian chefs have stuffed these grubs with fish ( i did not want meat or chicken). The stuffing tasted good and I followed it up with Rollitos Numakee: Casabe rolls stuffed with vegetables, a touch of olive oil and i tasted some cheese as well. Delicious.
One could choose a Caipirinha but the hot weather was conducive to a colombian beer, Poker, as I will not trust to drink wine in these climes. It went well with the meal. 
After paying for my meal, it came to less than 10 dollars. I thought of my Miamian eating Buddies M and G and I know that they would approve of this fusion Amazonian cuisine. I was invited into the kitchen where I took the pictures and I asked the younger of the two Indians: what will you prepare me tomorrow, they looked at each other conspiratorially and said: we will prepare a seafood feast for you!
I got on as a pillion passenger and the breeze was welcome as the driver guided his motorcycle around the potholes of this city by the River. 
I thought to myself
I am grateful to be enjoying the two best things about Leticia
Amazon Bed and Breakfast under the kind guidance of Ana Yudit and the El Cielo restaurant, Amazonian fusion restaurant!
Tomorrow I will look for Ileana Vega,a  Cuban music teacher and also visit the market area where I could talk to some Ticuna from the village of Nazaret, perhaps go across the border to Tabatinga and look for the new batch of Cuban doctors on their humanitarian mission there.
I will end the day with a nice meal at El Cielo.
(when I have faster Internet, I will upload pictures from today)

TRAVEL IS AN ENDLESS PLEASURE

Arriving in a city after midnight brings with it exhilaration as well as trepidation, especially if it is Manaus in the Brasilian Amazonia.
Brasil does not have a reputation for being a safe destination and Manaus has its own problems.
I arrived from Miami just past midnight. The Immigration Officer had a cursory look at my Brasilian visa which I had obtained two years earlier in Leticia, Colombia. In 2018, Brasil is doing away with Visas, but I will cherish the 10 year visa I have in my passport (I also have a ten year visa to India, despite their abolition of visas).
Why do ATMs charge so much to change money? At Manaus Airport it was nearly 8 dollars to withdraw regardless of the amount, ah well, one pays for the convenience.
I opened my Uber App, my Miami Based T Mobile number gives me access to telephone services in more than 100 countries, within minutes Marcelo, a local Manaus Uber driver arrives and we try to speak in the mixture of languages. He had given over 600 rides, and was a good driver and of course with Uber you feel a little bit more confident as we cruise along the empty streets of Manaus, past the purpose built football stadium for the recent world cup. 
When one begins to feel comfortable in cities so isolated as this one, Manaus, is in the middle of Amazon, even though they have recently constructed a road to Boa Vista which has connection to Santa Elena de Uiren in Venezuela (I remember a visit with my Japanese friend some years ago). But the small neat airport has many flights to other parts of Brasil: direct flights to both Sao Paolo and Rio as well as Brasilia and Belem and then with the Brasilian airline AZUL one can get connected to all parts of this vast country.
Marcelo said that he had been accepted to study Medicine in Cuba under a plan in which he had to pay money, and he decided not to pursue it. I told him of the various Cuban doctors working in all the isolated parts of Brasil including along the Amazon and that I might run into some of them in Tabatinga on the border with Colombia.
It is nice to arrive in Manaus, to take in its late 19th century grandeur as we drive past the famed Opera House. I arrive at Seringal Hotel where I had stayed on my previous visit and I was welcomed by Indio, who was as Portugese looking as any but he smiled at his nickname. It is nice to be loyal, come back to the same places, as I could have chosen one of the many other hotels, but the anxiety of arriving in Manaus at midnight is mitigated by the fact that I had once stayed at the very same hotel and that as we approached it along Rua Monsenhor Coutinho, I recognized the building and the area and looked forward to the rest, and cafe de manha.
Isnt it amazing, a short 5 hour flight from Miami and here you are, in the middle of the Amazon,in a large portugese speaking city!
If the Rabbi Reichman doesnot look for me in the morning, I shall visit the Opera House once again and marvel at the confluence of Rio Negro and the Mighty Amazon..

GOOD DEEDS HAVE A LONG MEMORY: THINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN FOR A REASON

It is a Sunday afternoon, I arrived at Miami airport as usual a little earlier to enjoy the ambience of being in the liminal world of travel and enjoy the thought of movement from culture to culture.
Things almost sound a routine, Uber from Kendall area, this time Nestor from Santiago de Chile married to a Cubana from Havana he met in Caracas, we had such a pleasant talk and the ride seemed so short. Priority line and a pleasant agent issued me a Boarding Pass and an effortless Security line at TSA Pre Check and here I was on airside!
It has also become a custom for me to stop and smell the parfumes at the Duty Free, to sprinkle a few drops on to my scarf that I can carry the fragrance for the trip of 5 hours 30 minutes awaiting me.
Hermes had the best, as women's perfumes are much more enchanting, and so many others with slight varietal change. I looked up from the spot and I noticed that a young woman, manning the area where I was savouring the perfumes. She had a badge which said Yarelys, Never to miss a chance to strike up a conversation, I told her, I have a friend in Havana with that name. She kept on looking at me and she said: My uncle has a friend who looks like you! Is he from the Orient? meaning Eastern Cuba where my looks are common, No, she said, he now lives in USA. How long have you been here, 7 years, have you finished your studies, yes, I have completed my accountancy qualifications while working at this duty free store for the last five years but I am leaving to take an accounting job next Monday. So the pleasant conversation went on. 
Then she asked me a surprising question, is your name Sudah? I looked at her carefully and I remembered the 15 year old girl from San Nicolas de Bari in the countryside whose Quincenera celebrations I had missed 11 years earlier. It is true I was a friend of her uncle and her grandmother, who is here now, worked as a nurse at the Polyclinic.
Pedro had already been in the USA when I met him casually in Miami at a store where he was the clerk and we had become friends and I had made special efforts to visit his family on more than one occasion in San Nicolas de Bari. In those days it was no mean feat to go from Vedado in Havana to San Nicolas even though there was a dilapidated Hershey train service that passed through San Nicolas at irrelevant hours.
In a strange twist, more like fiction, my sisters son had fallen in love with a girl from San Nicolas and I was involved in getting her a Jamaican visa many years earlier. 
Our lives are stranger than the novels we can read in the trade. That 15 year old now lives in Miami, holds no grudges against the village and the country she left behind, is nostalgic about the humane nature of the society she left behind. Your life and future is here I reassured here but do come and see us now and then and always give us your moral support, and stand up to the people in Miami, ignorant in most cases, who talk badly about the beautiful island we all love CUBA..