Chambira Crafts on Amazon Tours
Domesticated llama and alpaca species are raised commercially
Southern Explorations offers eleven Peru Amazon tours of varying lengths and six Ecuador itineraries that travel to the Amazon Rainforest on four or five day trips. One of the Peru tours and most of the Ecuador Amazon tours put visitors in the regions where chambira palms grow and handicrafts from the trees’ fibers are made.
Return to previous page
Chambira Crafts
-
In the Loreto region, Peru’s most northerly area of its rainforest territory, visitors will find chambira crafts, among them the shigra bags popular with women travelers. One area where the chambira palms are found in abundance and protected is the million-acre Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo Communal Reserve that lies thirty-seven miles south of Iquitos. Passengers who take our four to eight-day M/V Aqua - Amazon River Expedition Cruise will be passing by the reserve on their way to the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve. During their time in Iquitos before and after the riverboat trip, these passengers will also find the finished chambira fiber products sold in the craft shops of Iquitos. While shigra bags may be purchased elsewhere on Peru tours, the best prices and the most profit for the craftswomen will be obtained by buying during one’s travel to Peru Amazon region.
-
Five of the six Ecuador Amazon tours we offer pass through the gateway town of Coca on the Napo River in Orellana Province. These trips travel in the environs of Ecuador’s largest national park, Yasuni, where the palms grow in some areas. Chambira handicrafts are often sold in the shops of Amazon eco-lodges. The Huorani people of the Ecuador Amazon are known for their chambira textiles. Southern Explorations’ eight-day Amazon Kayaking Adventure stays in a Huaorani village at a lodge along the Shiripuno River where guests will learn about the tribe’s chambira craft-making.
-
The town of Puyo in the more southerly Pastaza Province is also well known for its chambira crafts. Two of Southern Explorations’ tours visit Puyo, the nine-day Explore Ecuador trip and the twelve-day Andes, Amazon, Galapagos Multisport trip. Southern Explorations’ nine-day Ecuador Highlights trip visits the town of Riobamba where the Saturday market in the Parque de la Conception is filled with crafts of all kinds, including shigras and other plant-fiber items.
