Drying the Paja-Toquilla

The paja toquilla leaves for weaving the diet hut’s roof were harvested in the parish of Canelos by the Kichwa in-laws of my friend and mentor Didier Lacaze. Each bundle of Paja Toquilla, or wangu in Kichwa, were transported by a large pickup truck to Didier’s house where we had to stack and dry them to be ready for weaving the roof.

The process of selecting and drying the leaves was much more complicated than I expected. Luckily for a true novice like myself, Didier’s father in-law was there to explain how to do it. The leaf of paja toquilla is wide, fibrous, and frays outward in the shape of a large fan. To begin preparing the leaf for drying and for weaving, it is split at the stalk and torn down the middle. This results in two separate leaves each with its own direction; one which bares to right, and one which bares to the left. The leaf is parted in this way so that when each layer of roof is woven, each new row of leaves is laid in the opposite direction than the row before it. By diagonally staggering every woven row of paja toquilla it creates an interlocking grid of leaves, and like the fan of a bird wings, it prevents water from percolating into the house.

So, we went forth separating the leaves into piles that corresponded to the direction of the leaf, either left or right.

Another tricky part of the process was drying the leaves in the beginning of the rainy season. We had to cover the stacks in a tarp, but this created an oven effect due to the heat produced by the decomposition of leaves in the center of the stack. By covering the leaves we were risking the danger of burning all the leaves due to rapid decomposition. To remedy the situation we had to make sure that the structure for the choza was put up as soon as possible so that weaving could begin as soon as possible. Yet at the same time, we had to make sure that the leaves dried enough so that heavy amounts of decomposition did not occur in the leaves once they were set onto the roof.  Every time the sun came out for periods more than an hour long we uncovered the leaves and gave them some sunlight to dry out more thoroughly.

Fortunately, everything came together in the end, and the leaves were well aged, dry enough, yet also pliable for weaving.