THE FLOOD

THE FLOOD


January 31 1995

Well, now I know how Noah felt.  When I wrote my last letter to you in the middle of the afternoon of January 31, I said that there was a deluge outside.  There was, and it did not stop but continued all night long.  In the middle of the night one of the watchmen came to waken us because some of the workers who live in cabins in the grounds of the dairy were marooned (basically because he, the watchman, had been asleep on the job and when he woke up the water was already high).  The river had risen by about 3m. and the cabins were now virtually in the middle of the water where the current was extremely strong.  Trees were rushing past at about 60m.p.h. (and that is NO exaggeration). The cabin where the vet stays  (Fortunately he was not in it at the time because he had gone to Santa Cruz) went sailing off down the river.  Since we have no boat or anything (Robert asked for a Zodiac and ouboard motor a year ago and nobody paid any attention), we got a couple of inner tubes from the tyres of one of the lorries and two of the workers who are strong swimmers swam across with them with a cable attached which was being held by Robert, Caruso (the Argentinian), the night watchman and a couple of others who pitched up.  They managed to reach the old carpentry above which lived two workers, one with his wife and a 10 day old baby.  From there they managed to get across to another cabin next to the one which had just been washed away and bring Gonzalo over to the carpentry shop.  

By then it was clear that with the inner tubes it would be impossible to evacuate the mother  and baby because the current was too strong and it would be too difficult - if not impossible - for the people to hold them.  What to do?  We got some stronger cable which they took across and tied to one of the wooden pillars of the carpentry and the other end we tied to a tree.  Things were getting pretty desperate because the water had risen another metre and a half and Robert was afraid that if one of these tree "torpedoes" were to hit the fragile structure again the whole carpentry would collapse and then there would be no chance of saving any of them.  The father was  too shocked to take the responsibility of bringing the baby across. Gonzalo and Milton were not good enough swimmers to be able to carry the baby, hold on to the cable and at the same time propel themselves across, and the mother was definitely not able to do that.  So, I asked one of the strong swimmers if he felt he could do it and he agreed, although it was a big responsibility because, if anything went wrong, I am sure he would always feel that he was to blame.  The other good swimmer was out of commission because he had been battered against a tree and his hand was injured.

It was a hard job to convince the mother to let go of the baby, but eventually it was wrapped up in a bit of plastic and then in a blanket and placed on the nape of this chap´s neck and the blanket firmly tied around him.  He jumped into the water and, holding on to the cable, came hand-crossing across the river with Robert and the others up to their necks in water pulling and hauling on this side.  I had dry things on this bank to wrap the baby in although they did not stay dry for long with the torrents of water that were falling.  The baby did not bat an eyelid!  When the mother saw that the baby was safe and sound on this side she came across too and then all the others followed, just in time to see two of the walls of the carpentry collapse.  They were going to call the baby Israel but Robert said they should call it Moisés.  Moisés it is going to be.


All the cabins will have to be dismantled and what can be salvaged will be used to build new ones on higher ground.  In fact nobody should ever have built anything down there because it is clearly part of the river bed when the river is in flood.  People say that when the Swedish missionary was building down there they told him this but his reply was "God is on my side".  What a cretin!  All the trees have been washed away too and now that the waters have subsided there is about 2m. of mud everywhere, including inside the electricity house which was full of water.

That was another worry, so all the electricity had to be shut off in case everything went up in smoke.  Now Robert says that he wants all that equipment transferred up to relatively safer higher ground.  Not a single soul from the UN called to find out if we were all right or anything.  Not a cheep.  Luckily the telephone to the house is still working because the wires come up a hill but all the other telephones in the area are out of order because the cables were washed downriver.

About midday the birds began to squawk and sing and move around a bit so we knew that the rain was going to ease off.  By late afternoon the waters had abated enough to be able to try and assess the damage.  When things had calmed down a bit we tried to get into Ivirgarzama.  That was not possible because the whole place was completely under water.  Several people were washed away.

At the height of the emergency I called the office in Chimoré and asked the watchman there to go to the UMOPAR (the military) to ask them to come and do something to help the people.  The reply was that they had enough to do looking out for themselves!

The other night watchman slept right through the whole catastrophe.   We had long suspected that he slept all night but had no proof.  This time he was caught red-handed.  Robert and Milton. the electrician, stepped over him about 6 times in the course of the night and day because he was sleeping in the generator house and, when they cut  off the mains supply and connected the generators, he did not even wake up!  At 5:30pm he emerged to start his night´s "work" whereupon Robert dismissed him on the spot.  He had the gall to say that he worked hard for his living not like these filthy foreigners who do nothing at all.  He was in his native country and nobody would dismiss him in a hurry.  He would take the whole thing to the Trade Union and then we would see because he was a revolutionary.  Robert said he was most impressed with his contribution towards saving his fellow countrymen in the middle of the storm, so good-bye.  Come back tomorrow to collect whatever is due to you.  Thank you and good night.  Off he stormed!

The roads to both Santa Cruz and Cochabamba were cut because several bridges had collapsed.  Filippo and Monica arrived back in Santa Cruz yesterday morning and, since the driver had almost been washed away on the way to collect them, he tried to take the old road from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba.  It took them 10 hours to get there because there were avalanches all the way.  They will try and come in to the Chapare from Cochabamba today, although last night the road was closed.  It has not rained since so maybe they will make it.  

My conclusion from all this is that the rainforest should be left as Nature intended.  Everyone should go back to where they came from and the Yukis and Yuras, the tribes who have lived here for centuries, should be left to live as they have always done.  The more trees that are cut down the worse this kind of situation will become.  

SAMAPAITA

SAMAPAITA

The weekend of November 25-27 we went to Santa Cruz.  The idea was to visit the ruins of Samapaita which Monica had visited with her mother.  Driving out of Santa Cruz along the old Santa Cruz - Cochabamba road one realizes for the first time why Santa Cruz's official name is Santa Cruz de la Sierra.  It had been a mystery to me because the perspective from the Chapare road into Santa Cruz is absolutely flat.  However, about 40Kms. out of the town the foothills of the Andes begin and the road which follows the course of the River Piraí begins to twist a little.  

The river which rises at Samaipata has cut a great canyon through the mountains which rise fairly steeply on either side.  The geological formation of red and yellow sandstone is very young and unstable, which means that avalanches are frequent, bringing huge rocks down on to the road.  They are made more common by the tremendous erosion caused by burning the forest on the slopes of the hills to make way for cultivation. The rock faces are quite dramatic with huge medallion "sculptures" where great slabs have fallen away. This area is being invaded by landless peasants from the Cochabamba valleys and elsewhere who simply arrive, decide where they want to stay, cut down the trees, burn the remainder and start  planting.  At first they erect a precarious structure of wooden poles which they cover with plastic.  As time goes by they progress to a more stable dwelling with a palm roof and wattle walls and later perhaps mud bricks and corrugated asbestos sheeting.  Human pressure on the land is the main cause of deforestation, erosion and destruction.

The vegetation is tropical at first but, as the road climbs, it becomes more temperate or sometimes Mediterranean with pines on the upper slopes. One of the most exciting aspects are the rock faces completely colonized by orchids or every kind which cling precariously to the smooth surfaces. There are some magnificent properties along the route, obviously the mansions of drug barons.  The people in this area are a mixture of Andean, Amazonian and lowland peoples because this area is a point of convergence of the Amazonian and Andean cultures.

120Kms. out of Santa Cruz is the signpost to "El Fuerte" or the Fort.  On the left a dirt track heads into the hills.  At first it descends and crosses the incipient River Piraí at the bottom of the gorge and then climbs steeply up to the "fort" which stands at 2,000m.  Fortunately it was dry because otherwise the road would have been impassable.  It was also fortunate that it was cloudy because up on the crest with no tree cover the sun is strong, even on a cloudy day.  There was also a stiff breeze blowing which was welcome and a novelty because in the Chapare winds are very rare.


The "fort" was not really a fort at all but a ceremonial centre of some kind.  It is a solid rounded rock of red sandstone forming the crest of a hill.  Into the rock a series of incisions have been made.  At the top there is a rounded, flat table.  There is also a kind of well-like depression with three seats cut into it.  This is where the priests would have sat.  There is another well and from this there descend two rectangular channels in one of which diamond shapes have been cut representing the skin markings of the rattlesnake.  The purpose of this is not clear but it would appear that liquid, either water or chicha, was poured into the well and flowed down the channels.  The incisions made the liquid flow more slowly so that by the time it reached the bottom it had become warmer.  At the bottom of the rock there are a couple of medallion shapes.  The one on the right is badly eroded but the one on the left clearly depicts a puma shape.  There are other carvings also depicting tropical jungle animals such as jaguars. The authors of this stage of the centre were the Chané, an Amazonian Indian tribe.

According to Chacho González, the UNIDO Bolivia national representative who accompanied a now famous achaeologist friend of his on some of the earliest studies of the rock, told me that some archaeologists believe that the site was a huge meteorological station because it sits astride a point where the tropical and Andean winds meet (This explains the fact that there is tropical vegetation on one side and barrenness on the other).  The two rectangular channels would therefore have acted as rain gauges.  On the right-hand side there is apparently a calendar cut into the rock which is hit by the sun in such a way that, in conjunction with the wind and rain information, it would allow them to determine the onset of the rainy season and hence predict the time to sow: this was one of the most important functions of the priestly class in all pre-Columbian American cultures.

On the right side of the rock rectangular niches have been cut into the rock, sometimes a small one beside a taller one.  It would appear that either statues were placed there or beautiful young girls were exhibited in them.  These niches may have been made by the later occupants of the centre, the Incas, who conquered the area at a later date.  None of the engraved motifs are of Inca origin. In some of the niches round holes are to be seen.  These were made by modern-day bounty hunters who thought that maybe there was treasure hidden in the rock and they tried to dynamite it!

The last occupants of the centre, and this is why it got the name "the "fort" were the conquering Spaniards who saw the strategic importance of such a site.  At 2,000m. it affords an all-round panoramic view of the surrounding countryside and a lookout station was posted there.  Four wooden posts were embedded in the rock and a palm roof probably afforded shade and protection from the rain.

All around the rock the vegetation is scarce and more temperate: Robert even found cranberries!  However, on the right side forest rises and inside it the microclimate is quite different: it is warm and humid.  In this forest there are a number of buildings which would appear to have been dwellings associated with the centre.  The site which was only discovered in 1974 is being excavated by the University of Bonn.  The day we were there was the last day of excavation for this season because the rains will soon begin and then it will be impossible to get up to the site.  They will start again in April or so.  These dwellings are being excavated and rebuilt using the original technique: adobe bricks coated with more mud on the outside.  A large amount of ceramics has been found at the site.  It is not clear as yet whether the this was merely a ceremonial site where people came at certain times of the year or whether it was a habitation site occupied all year round.  

Close to the nearest dwellings is a rectangular court with a double wall on three sides.  Apparently this was some kind of game court (ball games?) and there was seating on the three sides with the walls.  

As we wandered around the site, a condor did indeed pass by!  


The mystery is the water supply.  So far no water supply has been found in the immediate vicinity.  Two hydrologists were prospecting.  A little policeman on duty to guard the site, who provided the scant information we managed to glean, took us to see a natural well in the stone.  They have gone down 30m. and it still continues but it is now filled with leaves and vegetation to 8 m. from the surface.  It never fills up with water which would seem to indicate that it communicates with some underground stream but as yet no information is available on this.

He also took us to see a tree, the suburú, which drips sap all day long every day.  If you stand under it it feels like it is about to rain, large drops falling on your head.  This creates a special microclimate under the tree.

So far no publications have been produced on the excavations at Samaipata so there are no explanatory pamphlets or notes at the site.  This is a pity because I think people would derive greater benefit from their visit if some information was available.  However, according to the policeman, they are now preparing some explanatory boards which will be posted around the rock, and later a publication will be produced with the information they have got so far.

THE DOWNFALL OF OP

THE DOWNFALL OF O.P.

At the beginning of November the annual Feria took place in Cochabamba and the project took a stand. The Cochabamba tea representative, who owes the tea company a lot of money, wanted to have half the stand for himself, but Robert said he could not because the deposit he had made on behalf of the project was not really a payment made out of his own pocket as he had construed it but was merely being deducted from his large debt.  So, the stand was to be shared by all the plants and he could participate purely as a guest of the project.  Before this was all thrashed out this man had arranged for his daughter and a friend of hers to be on the stand selling tea.  However, when his original plans were forcibly changed, he decided only to have his daughter on the stand and, although he paid the other girl, she was not to be there.  Nobody in the project knew anything about this arrangement at all.

On the last day of the Feria the girl and her mother arrived on the scene and, when the mother saw the cholitas (indigenous girls wearing their polleras or voluminous skirts), she was furious, rounded on G. and said "So you turned down my daughter in favour of these cholitas!"

"No, not me," he said. "It was him" pointing at René, the manager of the dairy.  Then the woman launched herself at René, but he pointed out that the project worked with these people and that is why they were there and that Mr. G’s arrangements had nothing to do with him.  Whereupon, she turned around again,
"You poof, so you are blaming someone else for your own scheming.  Take that!" and she slapped him squarely on the face.  (The insult she used is very strong here in Bolivia where nobody ever uses swear words or insults unless tempers are running high, and even then it is not very common).

G's daughter, seeing the women slap her father, slapped her friend's mother.  At that precise moment O. P. Z. arrived on the scene.  He is a Peruvian tea consultant who was working for the project when Robert arrived.  He is tall, well-built and pompous in the extreme.  Walking in his usual decorous fashion, he had barely turned the corner of the stand when G ´s daughter said, "It´s his fault".  The irate mother turned on him and started to vent her anger, shouting "You son of a bitch!" and jumping up to slap him on the face.  The cholitas were all scandalised at such language and their eyes were out on stalks seeing the whole affair going on in the passage in front of the stand.  "Señora, señora" he said, but on she went slapping him, so he just slapped her back.  The daughter then ladled into him and he slapped her too.  At that point the daughter warned that she was going to get her boyfriend and then he would see .....

The boyfriend duly arrived, gave O. P. Z. a few good left hooks as a result of which he had to have six stitches above his eyebrows.  Then events took an unexpected turn.  A girl who was working on the stand next door came rushing into the passage, squared up to the boyfriend saying "So, you are her boyfriend!  Take that!  (wallop, wallop) I am supposed to be your girlfriend.  Since when have you got another girlfriend?" and a great barney ensued between "the boyfriend" and the two girlfriends who started pulling each other's hair.  

When the boyfriend saw the great gash in O. P.’s forehead and realised that he had beaten up "un señor" he was repentant and kept begging pardon - maybe as a way of extricating himself from the insults raining down on his head from the two girlfriends.  


The only disappointment about this whole affair is that the video cameraman was so shocked that he didn't film the episode so we have no documentary evidence.  One thing is sure: never again will the campesinos stand in awe of O. P.!  Now Robert just says "señoras, señoras" and everyone falls about laughing just thinking of pompous O. in such demeaning circumstances.