San Francisco de Yarinacocha

The largest Shipibo-Conibo village on the lake, a centre for textile and ceramic arts.

San Francisco is the largest Shipibo settlement on Yarinacocha — about 4,000 people, a wooden church, a school, a small artisan cooperative and several family workshops where you can watch women painting kené designs onto cotton cloth or hand-coiling ceramic pots. Visits work best when arranged in advance through one of the Puerto Callao boatmen; show up at random and you may find people busy with their own work.

The textiles and ceramics sold here are the real thing, made by the women who painted them, and prices are roughly a third of what you'll pay for the same work in Lima or Cusco. Bring small soles in cash; nothing here takes cards. Respectful behaviour, and asking before photographing people, are basic decencies that go a long way.

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A story
The Shipibo-Conibo are the indigenous people of the central Ucayali. Their distinctive geometric *kené* patterns — labyrinthine designs painted, embroidered or sewn onto textiles and ceramics — are said by elders to be visualisations of songs received in plant-medicine ceremonies.

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