"Tu-te, this will protect you during your next journey on the river and through the jungle," says Pedro. Tu-te is my Maijuna name. It means "white dove."
Pedro´s voice clinks like metal chains on an empty swing set. He traces my bare back with a fistful of achiote leaves. They rustle. I shiver.
Pedro is sitting behind me, cross-legged. Because he arrived after dark, I cannot make out his face, only the outline of his body. He must not be more than four feet tall, and everyone calls him "Pedrito," or "little Pedro."
Pedro breathes warm tobacco on the nape of my neck. Then, with his thumbs and pointer fingers, he forms a triangle on my right shoulder blade. His lips, slippery and scaly like a fish, find the center of the triangle. Pedro removes his fingers and sucks that center.
He continues "chupando and soplando" --- blowing tobacco and sucking my back and head. Then he rubs my spine.
Pedro Lopez Algoba is 58 years old, and he is the last Maijuna shaman.
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