Giving a Living to a Life in the Rainforests of Peru

This past Saturday morning we woke before dawn, scrambling bleary-eyed to brush teeth and cram miscellaneous items into our bulging packs.  We piled our bags on top of a tiny, worn-out sedan and set off for the town of Chazuta.  In the wee hours of the morning Tarapoto seemed almost peaceful with only one or two stray motorcycles wandering the roads and a notable absence of blaring music.  We departed so early for Chazuta because the road that connects it to Tarapoto is under construction, meaning that cars can only pass between the hours of 6:30 pm and 6:30 am.  The hour and a half journey bumps chaotically over the mountains and drops gradually into what can truly be called ‘jungle’, where dark tangled trees saturate the land and a huge muddy river pulses below.   On the way we narrowly dodged oncoming traffic barreling in the opposite direction on the one-lane road and had to stop while our driver fixed a flat back tire.  Fortunately the breathtaking scenery and low-floating clouds reflecting the sunrise were enough to calm our frazzled nerves.  It wasn’t until later that we heard a story about how, just two weeks prior, a four-by-four carrying five passengers slipped off the road and went flipping down to the river below, chucking three of the passengers free and taking the other two into the water.  As if that isn’t scary enough, the car and the two people sank and still can’t be found!  A little unsettling, to say the least.

                We arrived safely to Chazuta at about seven in the morning and drove along the main street which runs parallel to and sits directly along the Huallaga River.  Compared to Tarapoto, Chazuta seems small, poor, and dusty, though much more beautiful and tranquil.  We got dropped off at a nice little ‘hotel’, named Los Cedros (The Ceders), which is unlike anything I have ever seen but very pretty in its own way.  It is completely open and full of plants with dirt and wood floors and some little wooden rooms that remind me of cabins. There are only one or two other people staying here besides ourselves so we pretty much have the place to ourselves.  The only real difficulty is that there is only running water early in the morning or late at night, so we are learning very quickly how to bucket shower and manually flush toilets.  However this is only a small inconvenience, especially as the price (roughly $45 a month per person) is so agreeable.  We are moving around furniture and cleaning a bit as we unpack our things and get settled for the next two months.

                Quickly after we arrived to the hotel on the first day there was some commotion in the street and then a parade, led by small children waving white flags, began to pour through the town.  There were people from many of the indigenous communities just down the river (including Chipaota) dressed in traditional clothing and chanting and beating drums.  They were marching to mark the one-year anniversary of the deaths of about forty indigenous people and local police who were killed by the government when protesting the entrance of big companies into the forest.  We followed the parade in the scorching sun and, once they reached the central plaza, listened to a few speakers talking about how important it was to commemorate the deaths and to maintain resistance through peaceful protest.  It was a really moving event for us to see right off the bat and gave us some insights into the struggles that persist in this area.   I hope to learn more about this over the course of the summer.

                We will finally get to visit Chipaota, the community we will be working in, on Wednesday when Lucia, the awesome Peruvian coordinator of the Rainforest Partnership, comes back down from Tarapoto.  For now we are just getting more accustomed to our surroundings and to the day-to-day life here.  We walked to a smaller river today and swam around between the many people washing their clothes and children washing each other’s hair and jumping off of rocks into the shallow water.  Just down the way some men had driven their cars into the river to be washed.  It is hard to watch so many heavy soaps and chemicals mix with the water and get carried down to the Huallaga.  This is just such a beautiful place and it is hard for us, as privileged outsiders, to fathom doing such a thing.  However it is clear that for these people this is just how life is and the river is the most convenient option.  There is not really an understanding of the detrimental effects of such chemicals and, even where there is, necessity takes precedence.   Similarly the people here eat massive amounts of fried foods (chicken, platanos, etc.) that would make people in the US cringe.  However this is what has traditionally been made and what is affordable, so it continues.  We are getting acclimated to it quickly enough, though, and I am already craving the fried sweet platanos that we will probably cook up for dinner.

For now it is off to find some coconut popsicles and a nice cold shower…

Hasta luego amigos!