Laura Alban is a spry 78-year-old woman who spends two days a week walking barefoot through the Colombian rainforest. Despite her advanced age, ‘abuela de las hormigas’ (the Ants’ grandma) forages diligently for arriera or Atta Sp ants, which she uses to make cooking condiments for its high proteins and sell in a local market. Famous chefs like the Brasilian Alex Ajala have also been using ants for their culinary properties - cooked ants can fetch as much as $30/pound.

The “Ants Grandma”, from the Huitoto-Murui tribe, lives with her family in Leticia, an area known as the triple frontier on the borders of Brazil, Colombia and Peru. The region is home to many indigenous people displayed from the Putumayo region by brutal Amazon rubber business. Laura’s parents fled the area in the 30s taking her to Peru where she lived before moving to Leticia.

Laura allowed me to accompany her on one of her walks in the forest to her ant hunting grounds to document this traditional practice almost in danger of being lost, as it is not being passed down to the younger generation.

Back home Laura will get the ingredients for her recipe “Ants with tucupi”. There is a long process of making aji negro, a fermented yuca (manioc esculenta) sauce. The aji is considered a medicinal plant by the huitoto women as well as a condiment for cooking.

Traditionally, the indigenous people lived from plants and animals provided by the jungle. They had a diet for cleaning their bodies and for austerity times when there was not much to eat. Laura recalls “My grandparents never ate big animals, they ate ants for their proteins, they just took what they really need from the jungle”.