Navigating the rainforest is a tricky task when you consider that for over half of the year many of the main trails are completely flooded. Even when the floodwaters recede during the dry season, the rivers still serve as the main thoroughfare to get to isolated corners of the jungle. Figuring out how to get around was an essential first step for the first indigenous residents of the Amazon, and dugout canoes were their solution.

As the name implies, dugout canoes in their simplest form are just hollowed out tree trunks. Around the world, archaeologists have unearthed canoes that date back over 8,000 years to the Neolithic Stone Age.

How dugout canoes are made

1. The first step is choosing the right tree, and the Amazon has always offered indigenous communities a wealth of trees to choose from. The tree must be thick enough around to accommodate the navigators.
2. Cutting down the tree. This is a particularly challenging task, since the most ideal trees for dugout canoes can easily weigh hundreds or even thousands of pounds. Depending on how many people will fit in the canoe, the size will vary. Single passenger canoes can still be large and unwieldy at first.
3. The tree must then be de-barked, which should be done as soon as it falls so that the sap doesn’t adhere the bark back to the tree.
4. Carving and digging are what make this a canoe – using metal tools, the craftsmen can create their canoes and smooth them out.

Before metal tools were introduced in the Americas, some tribes would burn the trees at the base to fell them and then use fire to craft and dig them out as well. Even nowadays, it’s not uncommon to find indigenous communities using their old methods and practices to carve their canoes.

If you’re lucky, your visit to the local indigenous communities on your trip to Sacha Lodge might include a demonstration on how these canoes are made and even how they are navigated.