ABSTRACT What makes a piece of research decolonial? Do participatory or co-creative approaches make research participatory and co-creative? These reflections are raised in this article, which looks back at methodological choices made and adapted during a three-year study with riverside communities in the Amazon Forest, in Ecuador and Brazil. Originally designed as grounded research, the project was seriously impacted by restrictions imposed by the global Covid-19 pandemic and, in addition in the Brazilian case, by political issues arising during the 2022 national presidential elections. This article discusses how these unexpected limitations influenced the fieldwork approach and the resulting answers will be presented as a pedagogy of listening, inspired by the work of Paulo Freire. The recognition and experience of limitations triggered a reflection about disruptive theoretical frameworks and methods. Instead of advocating one precise method, this article advances the relevance of a trans-methodological approach that allows the emergence of new – and/or disruptive – knowledge.