El Oriente (Part 2): Ecotourism/Development, ‘A Love Story’, An Hour in the Forest and El Laboratorio

For October 7-10. I’ll get caught up one day.

After the game of soccer we boarded a motorized canoe (the preferred method of transportation on the rivers in this region) and headed up river to a lodge where we were going to spend the night. This lodge, the Arajuno Lodge, is owned by an American named Tom bought the land in 2002 and start construction in 2003. I won’t go as far as to say that this lodge was as nice as the first one. But, that said, it was pretty nice. Are group was split among two cabins, there was a communal lodge type building where we could hang out and where meals were serve, Tom’s house and a couple of other buildings (but I’m not sure what they were used for). And, I think the food here might have been even better – not in Amazon terms, but in a general sense of the word.

We spent most of the remainder of the afternoon swimming in the Arajuno river. After the soccer game this was a nice way to relax and cool down. However, while we were ‘relaxing’ we were constantly remembering how the ‘don’t pee in the river’ rule applied even more here – in rivers in the Amazon River basin. Basically there is this small, not so nice creature that is attracted to pee and if it catches you peeing in the water it runs up your urethra, lodges itself in there and the only way to remove it is by having an operation (sorry to be so explicit, but no one is making you read this and it is just the truth). Oh, and I forgot to mention, it is supposedly REALLY painful. So, anyways, we had a good reason to be on our best behavior in the river.

After swimming we helped (translation = watched) Tom feed the fish and the turtles he has in his breeding ponds. Since his lodge is based on ecotourism he has undertaken the task of repopulating the river with native species and, at the same time, working with the locals to make their practices more sustainable. In general it is a very interesting approach I think he has taken. He has worked with the local communities (he calls it his ‘zone of influence’ which includes about 12 miles of the river) to end the practice of dynamite fishing on the river. But, what he has been smart to realize (he wrote his master’s thesis on this) is how when you talk with communities you need to address how the issue affects (1) their income, (2) their health or (3) the future of their children. So, what he did is he worked with the communities to build fish ponds within the communities. The communities can now breed their own fish for consumption or sale and do not need to fish out of the river. As a result there is no more dynamite fishing. So, since the river is now ‘safe’ for aquatic animals he is breeding a type of fish and a type of turtle that are both native to the river. However, this is a very long term project (8 years to go, 7 already invested in it), but he is using the time he has left to work with the communities to make sure they do not hunt the turtles when they are introduced (he’s trying to work out a system where the locals agree to only consume 50% of the eggs for protein, which would allow for a sustainable turtle population).

I came away from the talk with Tom impressed by a form of development that BOTH provides alternatives to the community and creates a more sustainable environment for all inhabitants. However, I was also disheartened by this one fact… Tom has been working with the surrounding communities for 7 years, but his ‘zone of influence’ only includes 12 miles of river. This just goes to show that if we want to work with communities effectively to ensure local sustainability it is going to be a very labor intensive process. I know this is dumbing down development big time right now. But, there will be more about it in coming posts.

I met the girl of my ‘love story’ while Tom was talking to use about the fish and turtles [And I will admit I am borrowing the term ‘love story’ from the South Carolina governor, for those of you that know about that whole situation. It’s just too good to pass up…). However, I am not referring to a typical ‘love story’. Nor am I referring to a typical girl. I am actually referring to a woolly monkey named Mona. Mona was captured by hunters after the same hunters killed her mom. She started off with a different family, but Tom came across some time later and fell for her (who wouldn’t?!?) and the family gave her to him. Although the law prohibits having woolly monkeys as pets, Mona is an exception. For, once a monkey is captured they cannot be released since they won’t be able to survive in the wild. But, that aside. I do not feel bad for Mona AT ALL. She has all of Tom’s land (88 hectares I think he said and the surrounding forest) to run around, play, eat fruit and do other woolly monkey things and then she has all the human attention she could ever ask for. The one other guy in the group of 11 and I also benefited since Mona much prefers to hang out with guys (the girls of the group did NOT like this fact. I think they referred to her as ‘sexist’ on at least a couple of occasions). So, Mona would come play with me and the other guy in the group, climb on us as we walked around and sometimes sit in our laps. What a rough life!!!

Wednesday morning we made clay pots. Interestingly enough, though, the indigenous people say that if men make pots (using the coil method) they lose their masculinity. So, being culturally sensitive (and maybe a little lazy, just a little though) I opted out of the making of pots using the coil method. However, I could do whatever else I wanted to do with the clay. In the end I made a replica (in a loose sense of the term) of Mona and tried to give it to her as a gift (I told you, I had fallen for her). However, Mona failed to appreciate the gift and simply stole some of my clay and ate it… So much for that! However, she did take offense that one of the girls was sitting between me and the other guy. Mona made this very clear and I ended up switching spots with the girl so Mona would stop attacking her.

When we arrived back at our ‘base’ lodge we had a talk from the son of a local Shaman. It is very interesting because here in Ecuador doctors often work side-by-side with shamans. Shamans respect conventional medicine and send their patients to doctors at times. And, most of the doctors respect the work of the shamans. It is a very interesting system and shaman have a lot of power within communities. However, one of the directors of our program told us that once she visited a shaman because bad things were happening to her and her kids – they were getting sick, their house was robbed and many other unwanted things. They went to the shaman and one of the things they had to bring with them was uncooked chicken eggs. The shaman ran the eggs over their bodies and then broke them open. The insides of the eggs were black… Something to think about. If so many Americans believe in God or some other force/power/existence out there that cannot be explained, how can they be so quick to dismiss a form of medicine that addresses powers and forces that exist around and within us? Just a question to dwell on.

Thursday morning our small group walked into a mixture of primary and secondary forest and we were individually ‘dropped off’ to spend an hour alone in the forest. I used the time for reflection, but (to be honest) not just about the forest (a lot of things were running through my head). However, during the hour I overcame my fear of the small creatures crawling around on the forest floor. At the end we sat as a group and reflected about this experience. Everyone had reflected differently. One of the statements I remember… “If everyone spent an hour in the rainforest, no one would cut it down.” Although I wish this were true, I’ll ask this one question in response. If people are willing to kill over money, how can we expect that people will not cut down the forest for money, their livelihood or whatever it might be?

In the afternoon we took another motorized canoe upriver to a place known as ‘Amazonico’. This is a rehabilitation center for animals that have been illegally captured and/or are being bred for reintroduction into the rainforest. Two things I found interesting… First, 25% of the animals die as a result of captivity, 50% can never be released and only 25% can eventually be released into the wild. I just found these very surprising numbers. Second, it was weird seeing all of the animals in what were essentially cages. Cages might be an unfair term. These were more like pens that you would see at zoos. However, I have just gotten so used to seeing all of the animals in their natural environment it just felt… Wrong.

Thursday night most of the group (only two people stayed at the lodge) went to El Laboratorio. If I’ve ever seen a dichotomy (I think that’s the word I looking for), this was it. Here we were in the Amazon and we were at a… I don’t even know how to describe it. El Laboratorio is a medium sized (100 feet long or so), ovular shaped building that is elevated off of the ground, with a ceiling and with walls that only come up to your chest. Basically there are a couple of tables, a bench runs along the wall and the middle is a dance floor. All of this is topped off by a functioning disco ball hanging from the ceiling. So, there you are surrounded by music and a random assortment of people, with a cold beer in hand AND able to look out into the Amazon… It was really a sight and experience to remember. And an experience I don’t expect to repeat anytime soon.

On the bus ride back from the Amazon we stopped at a small town to have a quick lunch. Midway through the lunch my chair started to rock back and forth. I look around to see who could be shaking it or to see if anyone was shaking the table. Nothing… “You guys feel that,” asked one of the directors a moment later. We had just experienced a small earthquake. Another first to add to my list of things accomplished to date.

Later Friday afternoon we arrived back in Quito and, as I said early we had an evening to do laundry, catch up on email and organize our suitcases before we were to move in with our Quito host families on Saturday. My adventures in the Amazon had come to an end, but hopefully only to an end that is only temporary.