The Peruvian Rainforest

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The Peruvian Rain Forest

Its long, sad, desert coast is soon over and most of the flight takes place over the peaks of the Andes.

Then all of a sudden the landscape changes, and there it is, this incredible mattress of green, eventually meandered by broad, brown, snake-like rivers.

Coming down from the aeroplane, you are greeted by the tropical heat of the Amazonia: humid, vapour-like, in the small airport. Soon that unpleasant feeling is replaced by the friendly atmosphere that is the landmark of Iquitos, the capital of the Amazon. From the airport to the city you go along a rural landscape with some scattered buildings, but it is the green vegetation that catches your eye.
The city has obviously lived much better times; there are old buildings proudly decorated with Seville tiles, there is even one house built by Eiffel: yes - the one of the Eiffel tower! There are some villas which bear witness to the local splendours brought about by the rubber boom. Whole theatre companies were brought from Europe to entertain the rubber barons.
The majestic river Amazon is the heart of this town, whose streets are transited by few cars and thousands of 'motonetas', motor cars with a tarpaulin roof, very convenient in this eternally tropical weather.
Life in Iquitos accommodates itself to the weather. Businesses open very early in the morning, and close for siesta time: unavoidable during the day when it is almost always over 32 Celsius. Life resumes its course after 4 p.m., and there is intense social life at the parks in the evening.
What pleases you most in Iquitos is the attitude of the local people, especially the women whose smiles and openness are famous. They go out of their way to help you and are such extroverts! I remember going to a small ice-cream parlour to get a soda. The attendant was a young woman, about 20, who was very friendly and showed me the ring her fiancé had given her. "But I have a problem," she said. "I have two fiancés and I never know which of the two is going to show up, so I keep both their rings in my pocket... a pity that I cannot show them both, don't you agree?" I asked myself, 'wherever else in the developed world would you have such a dialogue in an ice cream parlour?'
The rubber boom was replaced by the oil boom, and there has been a mass migration to the Rain forest in search of jobs related to the oil industry. The shanty towns have surrounded the city and bridges have even been built to communicate with the town when it rains
For a person from Lima, rain in the rain forest is an unheard of phenomenon. Lima has very scant, tiny droplets that we call `garúa' and there is never need for a raincoat or an umbrella, whereas in Iquitos, heavy showers can prevent you from going out for hours during the rainy season, December through March.
Going to the docks is another milestone in Iquitos; you can see the floating village of Belen and the motor boats that are the main communication means of the rain forest. We visited some villages, a Catholic mission and then went along the Amazon, our boat merrily escorted by river dauphins.
The Amazon river, born in Peru of the Ucayali and Marañón rivers, is extremely wide, almost like a sea, since you often cannot see the other border. We went by canoe to a small school that the children usually reach by walking along an earth path, but which during the rainy season is totally covered by water.
People come and go in the Rain forest by river, in small long canoes or more modern motor boats, and sometimes you can even see larger vessels. We visited the house of a volunteer of the women's grassroots organisation. She had eight children and during our conversation she kept caressing first one of them, then another. This woman was simply overflowing with tenderness and affection towards her family in the most open, natural and simple way. During the three hours we stayed in her home, all her children had been pampered at least twice and her husband had been kissed equally often. This woman followed a short first aid course and is often called by her neighbours for help. She had taken a woman with childbirth problems to the mission, on her boat, by herself, on an eight hour journey and never expected anything in return.

The Geography
Part of the world's richest rain forest is in Peru. This region, whose difficult access made it Peru's natural border, is known by Peruvians as the Forest. The Forest's meandering rivers are also its main communication means. The Peruvian forest is 747.288 sq.km..
The Amazonia is five times bigger than the Coast and almost twice as big as the Highlands (the other two geographical regions of Peru).

Its Inhabitants
Human occupation of the Forest probably started thousands of years ago, in several waves. Home for Caribbean and Central American fugitives several centuries BC, the Forest became the refuge of rebels under Incas, Spaniards and Hacendados or Estate-owners.

There are presently thirty ethnic groups living in the Forest. They have different origins and can be grouped according to their language. However, only thirty years ago, 150 ethno-linguistic groups could be identified. The greatest populated groups are Ashaninkas, Shipibo and Aguaruna.
Forest contours are constantly altered when heavy rains deviate rivers' courses causing tremendous floods. During the floods, tons of valuable soil nutrients are dumped into the river bottoms. For this reason, land in the forest can only have agricultural use for a period of four to five years.
In harmony with nature, the Peruvian Forest Ethno-linguistic groups have been the respectful guards of the Forest wealth, and thanks to them we still have one of the few rain forests left in the world.
The isolation of native communities came to an end with the arrival of missionaries, Catholic first and later on Protestant. The new religions influenced traditions and customs and gradually changed some of the native ancestral life patterns.
Economic booms in the Forest never favoured the natives; rather, they were always their abused, deprived, tortured and slaughtered victims. Rubber, oil, fine woods and more recently gold booms sparked the arrival of merciless adventurers, with dramatic consequences to the natives.
Under the rubber boom, native communities were imposed rubber quotas to be delivered to international enterprises. The incomplete delivery of the quotas was cruelly punished and, although the trial of the Putumayo River is heavily documented in the National Library, the massive massacre of natives has been kept in silence and oblivion.
Due to their way of life and the fact that they only remain in one place for four or five years, the exact location of native groups cannot be accurately established. However, they tend to follow the course of the Forest's main rivers and we can broadly locate them as follows:

N.W. Region:
Aguarunas and Jíbaros at the Upper Marañón, Cenepa, Santiago and Morona rivers; Jeberos and Chayahuitas at the Huallaga river; Huambisas at the Morona; Curarayes on the banks of river Curaray; Andoas and Shapras at the Pastaza, Tigre and Corrientes basins.
N.E. Region:
Cashibos at the Upper Ucayali river; Comona, Inca, Capanahuas and Panos on the Ucayali banks; Boras and Ocaynas on the Putumayo and its tributaries; Ticunas at the Yavarí river; Huitotos and Yahuas on the shores of the Amazon river; Shipibos on the Pachitea and its tributaries; Mayorunas at the Oroza, Manití and Napo basins; Shipibos also live near the mouth of rivers Ucayali and Marañón.
Central Region:
Ashaninkas on the borders of rivers Perené, Tambo, Upper Ucayali and Apurímac; Marinahuas on the Purús and its tributaries; Amahuacas on the Urubamba and its tributaries; Amueshas near the rivers Pozuzo, Pachitea and tributaries.
S.E. Region:
Mashcos on the Madre de Dios; Piros on Upper Madre de Dios; Sirineyes at the Pantiacolla Chain; Machiguengas on the Urubamba and its tributaries.