The Length of the World: Cian

Saxon, along with his sister, Kaitlin and her daughter, Rachel, traveled by river boat to Manaus, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon.

Kaitlin had worked on her ethnopharmacopeia for years and now she wanted to locate the village of Alichapon-tupec where she believed she would find rare and exotic medicinal plants. She needed to collect specimens and learn from the Yanomami natives about their use of the plants. This would fill out the last chapter of her manuscript.

An unusual young woman they met on the dock at Manaus changed their plans.

They hired the woman to be their guide. She spoke no English or Portuguese while Saxon and Kaitlin understood not a word of her Yanomani language. However, Rachel at the age of seven, having collided with the language barrier many times in their worldwide travels, communicated to the native woman by primitive sign language that they wanted to go upriver to find strange plants.

Apparently the woman understood. She led them to a dugout canoe and helped load their gear, then when everyone was on board, including Rachel’s dog, Hero, she shoved off and began paddling upstream.

Saxon, in the stern of the canoe, took up a paddle and wondered if they had just stolen someone’s boat.