Afacha Marama - The Maleku Indian Medicine Man

For thousands of years the various Central American Indian Tribes have had Medicine Men, or Women  who passed down through the generations the wonders of the medicinal plants in the jungle. It has grown and been fostered by generations of trial and error to the point that some of their remedies and cures for many ailments are far superior to modern medicine.

I recently visited the Medicine Man on the Maleku Reservation about an hour north of the Lake and sat down for a long and interesting talk about the history as has been told down through the years.
Although Alvino Solano has taken a Spanish Christian name, he is pure bred Maleku. He is almost 70 years old and doesn't look a day over 50. I asked him how and who taught him the Indian medicines as far back as he could remember. He called his wife and some other members of his family into his small treatment  and consulting room and through their collective memory they went back quite a ways. His mother, who lived to be over 100 years taught him, His mothers mother, who also lived to be over 100 years taught her. His mothers, mothers grandfather taught her and that is as far as they could remember.
Sometimes The chief or Cacique will act as the chief and the medicine man also, or he will add to the knowkedge of the current medicine man.

He brought out a book and a binder in which were written the plants and herbs from the jungle used to cure various illnesses, how much should be taken and for how long. His binder was full of newspaper and magazine clippings from all over the world where some of his treatments had cured various forms of cancer, diabetes and other ailements.

He said that to find all the plants he needed, he had to travel far and wide into the various micro climates of Central America to find all that was necessary to treat the various illnesses. However a very rich area of the deep primary forest could produce as many as 1500 useful plants per manzana {1.7 Acres}.

He is also very cognitive of diet and health and advises his clients where they are going wrong on their eating habits.

His treatment room is full of various types of bottles and small plastic bags full of different colored liquids and dry plants which were proportioned doses of the various cures. As a matter of fact he had just brewed a fresh warm batch of various potions and extracts he let me touch and smell. He asked me what was ailing me, did I have pain anywhere. I told him I would be back very soon to try some of his remedies.

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