This afternoon we said goodbye to Rio Aguarico. A river that for generations provided the communities we visited with much of their life’s sustenance. Each evening I watched women wash clothing along its banks, families bath, and both men and women attempt to catch fish. This river
has seen much, both pain and joy. Yesterday we rejoiced at the sight of a fresh water dolphin surface out of its waters for an instance and then dip back out of sight. And later I rejoiced at the break from humidity and heat that the river gave me as Kate and I swam about remembering our childhood water games played with siblings while watching the Secoya community’s children above stream from us make up their own. As short a time ago as three months, this river felt its waters mix with toxins from a small oil spill just a few miles away and carried the bodies of dead fish down stream. People must now rely on rain water or wells for their water source. Yet at times even the rain falls black from the clouds of smoke that are emitted from oil wells burning off excess toxic gases.

Yet our group saw very little of this sort of hellish scene that has all too often passed through this area and if I wanted I could have imagined I was on just another ecotour. The impacts may not be seen but they are still felt by the people we talked with. All of us left these communities with the recognition of HOW central the Rio Aguaruico is for these subsistence cultures.

Many of the people we spoke with want to maintain their culture and way of life, to pass it down through future generations. They tell us their fear is that they will lose it, but that their hopes lie in the possibility that they will find ways to preserve it. One Seconyan community has created a wildlife reserve they hope to use for an ecotourism project. Others maintain bilingual schools for their children. However, every community we visited has moved away from what was a largely land bases subsistence economy to one that is based on cash. They have had to in order to survive. The fish are gone, the helicopters that fly daily overhead have scared away the forests animals, their water source is contaminated, and new diseases have entered their communities that their shamans do not have the knowledge to cure. They have to make cash some how to now buy the food they once got from the land, to pay for wells for clean water, and to bring in doctors.

I hope that these communities are successful in protecting their way of life, that it does not continue to be sacrificed for the rest of the worlds desire to continue growing its cash based economies. I leave feeling blessed at having been able to once again make my way though the Amazon Rainforest and to have been able to talk with the people that dwell within its boarders. This is a beautiful and yes, at times dangerous land. May we recognize its worth and not further cause it harm.

Thank you Secoyans, Cofans, Sionas for sharing your homes and stories with us.