Man, 23, who moved to the Amazon for love reveals grim truth behind tribe's favorite drink
A 23-year-old man from the US who decided to ditch his life in America to live deep in the Amazon rainforest is not a fan of one particular drink in his new life.
Justin Alvo always felt ‘something was missing’ back home so he decided to move to a remote part of the eastern Ecuadorian Amazon called Tres de Noviembre, where his father grew up.
He soon met his now wife Maria while she was working as a chef at an Amazonian restaurant.
"I basically said, 'Hey, I like you a lot, you're really cute, and I want to make documentaries and videos about the Shuar people,'" Justin told UNILAD. "She said yes, let's do it."
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While Justin is evidentially loving his new life in the Amazon, there's one drink in the tribal world that he finds pretty grim.
Justin told UNILAD: "Another culture shock was chicha, a fermented drink. It's made from cassava root - the women chew it up for around five minutes to soften it, spit it into a big container, and let it ferment for about a week, and it becomes an alcoholic drink.
"The first time I saw it made, I remember thinking, 'What on earth am I supposed to do with this?'
"In their culture, refusing to drink it is seen as disrespectful - as turning down someone's invitation into their home. So I drank it.
"The first time gave me the worst stomach ache of my life, and bad diarrhoea. But after about a year and a half of drinking it, I've got used to it - I actually love it now."
Justin went on to tell UNILAD that the drink gets him 'very' drunk, to the point where he's 'stumbling' if he's had three bowls of it.
Speaking of how the tribe consume the drink, Justin added: "They drink it from cups carved out of huge gourds grown on rain trees - cut in half and scooped out, so the cups themselves are handmade, traditional pieces."
Justin's routine in America consisted of the same day of waking up, going to work and coming home to ‘basically live in a box’.
His life now in the Amazon couldn't be further from that as he's surrounded by nature every day, seeing 'parrots flying overhead [and] monkeys howling in the background'.
Justin and Maria have sine reaffirmed their long-term commitment to each other by marrying and they welcomed a child together earlier this year.
Callum Jones