Day four in the Yura village, Manu National Park. These people are definitely the least contacted of any Yura that I have met. They are so curious that they ask questions non-stop. It's difficult for me to even get clothes out of my pack; they all want to see what is inside. I try and do it at night, when the Yura are sleeping in their hammocks.

Last night didn't get much sleep as the men were taking ayahuasca, a powerful hallucinogenic drug, quite near to where I was sleeping. In fact, a group of men has taken ayahuasca every night since I have been here. One reason is because there is plenty of ayahuasca growing in the vicinity, whereas near the mission town it has all been used up. It was probably three in the morning or so before the last of the men stopped singing and I went to sleep.

Yabidawa asked me if I wanted to join in, but with the interviews, censuses, etc., I have been pretty tired since I arrived. Besides, ayahuasca has a powerful effect. If you're tired, it's like taking a mental roller coaster without a seatbelt. I hear that adolescent Yura are afraid when they first start taking ayahuasca, and that's very understandable. The visuals are so impressive that our best IMAX theaters seem like kids' play in comparison. I noticed Yabidawa today readying a collection of ayahuasca roots to take with him when we go back.

A group of Yura whom I had never seen arrived today carrying woven baskets filled with turtle eggs. They had gone by foot and canoe down the Manu River, collecting turtle eggs from the beaches as they went. So tonight was a turtle egg feast, and everyone in the village was industriously boiling up as many of the little oily eggs as fast as they could get their hands on them. There was also a tapir shot in the forest, and some of the Yura are going out to bring it in tomorrow.