Parasites in The Amazon

There are parasites in The Amazon and I don´t just mean the natural sort that are part of the natural ecosystem!

We just got back from a trip to the Ecuadorian jungle yesterday. I still can´t believe I have seen the Amazon. What an amazing natural wonder!

Which makes it sad to discover the mining that goes on here. The worst of the companies is US oil company Texaco that has extracted oil here in the jungle since 1972. Before this time the jungle was almost impenetrable and inhabited only by the various indigenous populations still living in their traditional ways.

I´m sure lured by promise of infrastructure such as roads by Texaco and the need for foreign investment, the Ecuadorian government agreed and the US company has exploited its mineral wealth for decades. The oil company and the Ecuadorian military forced the indigenous populations off their land and cleared huge tracks of jungle to give Texaco safe access to the jungle.

Unfortunately, Texaco had a monopoly for years on mining their oil and being in a third world country, I guess they thought they could get away with cutting costs (saving the company an estimated $300 million) by not following industry standards for oil extraction and production to increase there already obscenely greedy profits. As a result, the company is responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters ever. Oil spills and toxic waste has spilled into the delicate Amazon waterways as has caused all sorts of illnesses including cancer in the locals and has seriously damaged the ecosystem here.

The other sad reality that was very obvious to me while travelling through these towns is that the locals don´t benefit at all, even financially! They are dirt poor. What oil town anywhere else in the world would be considered poor! Just think about how wealthy the oil sheiks of the Middle East are. By all accounts these people should be rich, but the money ends up in the pockets of wealthy western shareholders and corrupt military and government officials.

The maddening thing about all this is that Texaco was bought out by Chevron and they don´t claim any responsibility for the environmental disaster it caused. A class action lawsuit was taken out on Chevron Texaco by a Ecuadorian-American environmentalist lawyer and I believe it is the biggest environmental lawsuit ever. One to watch out for.

Onto something a bit more positive. We did various activities while in the jungle, here is a journal entry from one of the days there.

27-5-09

¨We did another walk through the jungle today this time on terra firma. We headed off after breakfast via the pink dolphins (yes pink dolphins!) again to glimpse them across the surface of the water. Enrique (our guide) was full of knowledge about the jungle. It was so fascinating and I hope I continue to learn about this interesting ecosystem. We learnt about a sap that looks like blood (Like the Australian Red Blood Wood that the Aboriginals use), that is excellent for all manner of things from stomach problems to skin infections. This is so good it´s sold here in pharmacy´s.

The jungle is so full of toxic and venomous substances, highlighted by the beautiful colours of the insects, butterflies and frogs warning their predators of their toxicity. The substances are sometimes used for hunting, like the poisonous dart frog that we got to see. The indigenous tribes use the poison on the skin of these frogs to coat their spears. Some substances have been discovered that put people in a coma like trance, another one puts the person in a hypnotised state. There have actually been cases of people using this to rob or rape people. There are other substances that give the local shamans hallucinations allowing them to connect between the spiritual world and their people.

Everything fights for survival here, trees try all sorts of tricks to reach the precious sunlight and animals have all sorts of defence methods. It´s interesting to know all about their mechanisms for achieving survival. Fungus, for example has an extremely complex system for spreading. Firstly ants get infected from an already infected tree, the ant them becomes compelled to climb to the very top of the tree where it essentially dies, it becomes rock hard and the fungus starts to grown out of it´s body. A bird then will fly along and eat the ant and will spread the fungus after pooing onto some other unsuspecting tree and the process is repeated.

All sorts of trees, plants and animals have symbiotic relationships. There are trees that grow in the lakes and only survive with the help of the plants that grow on it. The plants help protect the tree from dehydrating in the sun and the plants get water from the tree. There are monkeys that live together and help each other out. One finds the food for the others and the others protect them from predators...

...The jungle really is a fascinating place and full of potential unknowns and undiscovered medicines. The big drug companies know this, so there is a big push to drag what knowledge the shamans have about their environment. None of their knowledge is written down and if a shaman dies, thousands of years of knowledge dies with him. However noble it is to document this knowledge, it´s certain that these drug companies act like parasites and use the shamans for their own financial gain and give little in return for that knowledge. Hundreds of current day drugs have already been derived from tropical jungles...

...I found the afternoon activities a little tedious. Fishing just ain't my thing. I did try pirhana fishing for at least 2 minutes, but the excitement level was just too much for me...¨

I have so much more to write about the Amazon, but I´ll save it for another day.

Here´s a quick run down on what else we have been up too since my last blog. We trekked to Machu Picchu via Sultankay, spent time in Cuzco visiting museums and art galleries, we travelled through Nazca and I flew over the Nazca lines (Nick didn´t think he could cope with the twists and turns in the small plane), Lima was interesting there we visited the Spanish Inquisition museum and the National Archeology, Anthropology and History Museum. I really liked Peru and found the people extra friendly there. In Ecuador we have stayed in Quito and spent time in the Galapagos, which was tops...before our trip to the jungle.

Now we are onto Colombia and Venezuela for the last stretch of this trip. Only 4 weeks to go and we´ll be back home. I´m looking forward to catching up with all of you.