AMAZON!!

On October 26 to 29^th, I went to the Amazon for a 4-day class field trip. The purpose was to familiarize ourselves with the climate and culture, and to visit prospective placements for the second half of the program. Although my expectations were low for this field trip (I really hate sticky, humid heat), it ended up being my favourite so far. I really hope to be able to carry out my placement in this part of the country.

DAY 1 (Oct. 26):

It was an incredibly early start. We started our day at 3:30-4am by hoping on a bus that would take us the 4-5 hour bus ride to the Amazon from Quito. I woke up a few times on the way there: once to look at the absolutely stunning and gigantic Volcan Antisana at sunrise, second to look at a terrible car accident, third to use the washroom at random modern low-flush toilets in the middle of nowhere, and forth to watch the scenery as we descended into the Amazon basin. We got into Tena, the capital of the province of Napo, around 9:30am and had a chance to get settled in the hotel, to wander around a bit, and get breakfast.

The major difference about being in the Amazon was the climate. It is warm and extremely humid. Quito is hard to breathe because of the altitude and the Amazon is hard to breathe because of the humidity. Everything also has a particular smell: damp and musty. Once we got back to Quito, everything I had brought with me had the smell embedded into it. This smell was not noticeable while in the Amazon, but as soon as we were back to the Andean air, the smell was overwhelmingly awful.

Other than that, I did not find it as shockingly different as I thought I would. Yes, the vegetation was lush and new but the communities looked much like those in the Andes – square cement structures.

 

The next thing on the agenda was a speaker from Oilwatch, a division of Acción Ecología (Ecological Action: Ecuador). She talked to us about oil development in Ecuador, and specifically its detrimental effects on communities in the Amazon, where most of the exploitation occurs. She specifically talked about the communities of Rucullacta (Roo-koo-yak-tah) and their resistance against the Canadian oil company, Ivanhoe Energy. Ivanhoe won a bid in 2005 by the Ecuadorian government to extract heavy crude (their specialty as they also have projects in Alberta) from the areas in and around Rucullacta. Unlike many communities resisting oil development in the Amazon, Rucullacta had done their research and has successfully resisted Ivanhoe to date, although their fight continues (without the help of the government).

We then went and visited Rucullacta (a coalition of 17 communities), which is about 30 minutes outside of Tena. We met with the leaders of their resistance movement and they told us about their project. They have had to rely on other organizations to help them in their struggle against Ivanhoe as the government is backing the oil company. The company has also been bribing each of the individual communities in order to break the coalition. So far they have succeeded in turning over 6 of the communities, but the other 11 hold strong. The communities take pride in their traditional Kichwa ways of living, and grow and process organic, fair trade, and shade-grown coffee for a company called Jafé Café which is based out of the province of Guayas. They ship the coffee around the world but have an especially big market in Germany.

The coffee drying tents, with one of the community leaders (middle) & the speaker from Oilwatch (right)

The coffee processing area.

Processed coffee beans!

Coffee cherries

Coffee field

Sunset on the Amazon

This community might be my placement for the next semester (January through to the end March). I am going to visit them again on November 18 to find out if this is a possibility. They were initially hesitant accepting a Canadian into their community because they are fighting a Canadian oil company but I have tried to convey that I am also resisting the oil development happening in my home province of Alberta. They concluded that they would discuss the possibility with the other communities and then make a decision. How incredibly democratic! Now that is something I can absolutely respect.

After a long day we went back to Tena to relax and sleep after an exhausting but amazing first day in the Amazon.

DAY 2 (Oct. 27):

The day started early with rain falling on the roof. I was still fighting off the Quito Cold (a cold due to pollution and stress) but the warm, thick, humid air was certainly helping. Everything is brilliant green and even at 8am, it is quite warm. We went to the community of Santo Domingo in the morning. This small community is beside Rucullacta and is also resisting Ivanhoe Energy, but they are at a different and earlier stage in their resistance. When we arrived, hoards of children ran out of their school building in their uniforms and stood by the bus, waiting with giant smiles on their faces. The families in this community also greeted us with incredible warmth, and expressed that we are a part of their family too. This was unexpected and utterly touching to come from completely strangers. 

We were then we were split into 3 groups and were asked to photograph, video, interview, and take notes of everything that was said and done. This is because this community mainly uses traditional Kichwa forms of agriculture in the Amazon and it is being documented by a researcher named Cynthia as a way to preserve their traditions for the communities that have already lost this knowledge. For our group, I was the photographer, and took an exhaustive amount of photos. Here is a sampling below:

Cocoa Pods & the cocoa meat, with beans inside (right)

 

Field (left) , Fresh Cilantro, Mango Bird Nests (Right)

Yuca and Bananas in a Basket

Our group's guide carrying the basket from her head

Fresh river fish, fiddleheads, and fern meat for lunch on a banana leaf!

Torrential Downpour

During the day, it rained periodically and then was sunny and hot immediately after.  It was completely strange not having any warning about the weather, as well as experiencing the many weird living creatures and plants in the rainforest.

After visiting Santo Domingo, we headed back to Tena in the pouring rain and had a relaxing evening eating order-in pizza, and watching a chick flick with the rain absolutely pounding on the roof. The day was quite an experience and prepared us for the dramatic weather of the rainforest, with... you guessed it, rain!

DAY 3 (Oct. 28):

On the third day, we visited the community of San Jose, another community beside Rucullacta. We visited this community because the women in the group have organized in order to produce crafts and beautiful jewellery in order to earn enough money to earn back their land that was taken by the church in some land reforms. They are also trying to create eco-tourism to their community to visit the extensive network of caverns and caves they have on their land. The women showed us how they make their products and we also slid down a mud bank into a cave and then climbed through one. Below are some pictures of our adventures:

Our guide and I in one of the caves.

Scrapping the leaf away from it's fibers to make twine.

Dying the twine with natural dyes.

After our tour, we had an opportunity to buy some of their products, which we almost bought them out. Then we played with the kids for awhile, soccer, tackling, and tag. Then they demonstrated a few of their traditional dances, and after we were fed lunch by the community (some sort of bird in an oil broth, yucca, and cold tea). From the time we got there to the time we left, we were greeted by warmth and welcoming. When we arrived, we went around in a circle, and said hello in Kichwa (Alli puncha, said: Alli-poon-jha) to almost everyone in the community. It was an incredible experience to be welcomed by everyone in the community with smiles and welcomes! The kids especially warmed up to us incredibly fast and while we were watching the dancing later on that day, they were playing with my hair, hanging off my arm, and not shy at all. It was a lot of fun and one of my friends fell in love with the community so she will be doing her placement here. 

The children dancing.

 

We had to leave pretty early (around 2:30pm) because we had another appointment at 3pm, with none other than Ivanhoe Energy. We had acquired this meeting through the Canadian Embassy and were supposed to have a tour of one of their facilities, but instead we were treated to a very different experience. We arrived to the very edge of Tena in our bus and it looked like we were completely lost. Maria called Ivanhoe and we backed up and pulled up beside an unmarked grey cement building with an extremely high fence with broken glass and barbed wire at the top. Not imposing at all... We were let in through one of the gates and introduced to their parking lots, baking in the mid-day sun. We then were met by a man in shades and were given a 1 minute spiel on what Ivanhoe was and if we had any questions. We all looked at him blankly, because most of us were still filing in through the small gap they left for us in the gate. We asked him a few questions, but then another man came in to relieve the first man, and the first man in shades dashed off into the building, only to return 10 minutes later and stand silently beside the second man with his hands crossed.

After a few seconds, it became apparent that the second man was trained in Public Relations because he gave us a run-down on the company, and what they do. They framed themselves as a sustainable oil company (oxymoron?) and are respectful of indigenous peoples on whose land they are drilling on. He also told us that they do not have any drilling sites in the area as they are still exploring, however we know this to be a lie. I was impressed with the questions we asked him as they were to the point, but not blaming or geared to cause them to become defensive. They also did the typical skirting of some of our harder questions, including mine, and after about a half hour of questions in their parking lot, they grew tired of talking with us we were obviously informed. They then sent us on our way with business cards and we were treated to a closed sheet metal gate. 

We were not really surprised by the reaction we got as they had obviously done their homework on our program, being social science students studying international development, and were evidently not given the same treatment as engineers or business students would be welcomed to. Regardless, it was a good experience in a diplomatic conversation with a company that obviously was lying or diverting the truth from us. Seble, the only other student interested in oil, and I are thinking about planning another meeting with them in the spring in order to get some more information.

The rest of the night was relaxing and a few of us sat in the pool at the restaurant and then went out for dinner and drinks.

DAY 4 (Oct. 29):

On our last day, we got up early and drove 2 hours south to the city of Puyo, the capital of the Pastaza province. Just outside of this city is a wildlife reserve called, Centro Zanjarajui, where they take in and rehabilitate Amazonian animals who are being trafficked or mistreated. In this lush part of the jungle we were introduced first to the many trails of army ants carrying leaves on their backs in long, long marches to their home. Soon afterwards, we were welcomed by about 10 squirrel monkeys all playing on or around the main building. I did not pay much attention on this trip to anything other than the animals and taking pictures.

Afterwards, we then went around the back of the house to meet two kinds of turtles, green parrots, a red macaw (they mate for life and it’s mate died shortly after arriving here from being manhandled while being trafficked as pets), and an agouti. We then moved up a hill to an enclosed area that housed 2 tortoises. The squirrel monkeys followed us the whole time and at points used us as launching pads onto trees or other people. After visiting the tortoises, we moved to another section of the forest and visited a large pond with to fully grown yellow caimans, and a few full grown turtles (they were huge).

 

An agouti

Tortoise

 

Caimans

We moved the moved on to visit a tapir and two other rodents I don't remember the names of. Finally, we walked farther into the forest with our guide making guttural noises from the base of the throat and calling “Nikita”. We soon learned that there was a group of woolly monkeys living here. They have massive tails and for their size, are incredibly graceful in the trees. Our guide fed them bananas so that they would come down from the tops of the very tall trees, before climbing swiftly back up again. They did not have beautiful faces but made up for it in their grace.

A tapir

 

The Forest Canopy

A Woolly Monkey

After our trip to this place, in which another friend of mine has chosen this as her placement, we drove into Puyo, ate dinner, and then drove the 6 hours back to Quito with most of us passed out. Overall it was a phenomenal weekend in an extremely fascinating part of the world, the Amazon Basin!