Anna Michael - The problems in the jungle of Remolino Grande

Remolino Grande

The Secoya Community of Remolino Grande is situated on the river Aguarico in the northeast of Ecuador relatively close to the Columbian border. The river is home to several different communities; Secoya, Kichwa, Shuar, Cofan and the Colonists. To reach the area it is necessary to travel to Shushufindi, which is an unsightly town full of refineries, compounds and gas storage tanks, with the occasional 24-hour nightclub frequented by the numerous petroleum workers that are employed in the surrounding areas. In Shushufindi there is one ‘bus’ per day to Puerto Gregorio, which consists of a open-sided mini-bus where people, animals and sacks of rice ride on the top and in uncomfortable wooden pews along bumpy dirt tracks. The bus ride to Puerto Gregorio is through vast expanses of Palm plantations, punctuated by the odd small village with wooden shacks and occasional ‘schools’. There is no primary rainforest left in this area whatsoever. The only reason there is access to the area via road is due to the petroleum companies that still operate here. At Puerto Gregorio it is possible to get pay to ride in a motorised canoe down the river to the various communities. The same person operates the bus as the canoe and they are always on the lookout to make more money and will charge you extortionate rates in order to get into the canoe knowing full well that there is no other option as there is nothing but a small wooden shack at Puerto Gregorio.

Tierras Oreintales

Having navigated your way through the various minefields associated with being a ‘gringo’ in the rainforest, you will finally make your way along the river to Remolino Grande, about an hour or so from Puerto Gregorio. The river itself is quite dirty and is heavily polluted from the petroleum companies and from the various communities throwing rubbish into it. Downstream from Puerto Gregorio, approximately one hour-half an hour before Remolino Grande is the Colonist Community Tierras Orientales, easily recognisable by the distinct lack of any kind of vegetation in the vicinity of the community. This community is a great source of gasoline (for the canoes), rice and various other food including sweets and biscuits. There is a large school here where many of the children from the other communities attend at the weekend. The Colonists look very different to the other communities and are a real mix of people. The Colonists are migrants from the coast where they used to live in the rainforest there before it was destroyed. They strip the land and plant Palms and Cacao amongst other plants, they are responsible for destroying large areas of rainforest in this manner as once the trees and plants have been removed, the soil is virtually devoid of any kind of nutrients and cannot recover. Immigration is just one of the many problems here.

Remolino Grande

Remolino Grande is a Secoya settlement high up on the banks of the river, consisting of a few hundred people, that live around an area of cleared land that serves as a football pitch. The wooden houses and small school all surround the football pitch and in the afternoons it is quite common to see men and women of all ages playing football together. There are only between 5 and 10 families that live here, each family is very large and marriage between cousins is very common. The family where volunteers are placed live slightly further downstream from the main Secoya settlement. The family consists of Gustavo (the father), Victoria (the wife), Freddi (eldest son, 24yrs), Jenni (19yrs), Eddis (12yrs) and Yurema (9yrs). They live in a large two storey wooden house, which is set back from the river. The house consists of a single room on the ground floor where the family eat, prepare food and generally spend their time. They cook on two gas stoves and eat mainly rice, yucca, eggs and bananas, which are all flavoured with a lot of salt. Occasionally they eat chicken and fish but not on a daily basis. Upstairs there are three rooms; the largest room is where all of the family with the exception of Freddi sleep. Freddi has his own room complete with a proper bed and a small stereo. There is also a box room where volunteers sleep in sleeping bags on the floor.

Behind the house is the garden, where they grown limes, chillies, pineapples, yucca, bananas and various other plants. There are two wooden shacks, the smallest houses a generator, which is used very occasionally when they have sufficient gasoline, to watch the small black and white T.V complete with a DVD player in the house as well as to charge the several mobile phones they have. These mobiles are rarely used to phone each other on as they don’t usually have credit, instead the children play games or the same few ring tones. The other wooden shelter is used to prepare yucca bread and possibly to cook larger animals such as pigs. Behind these structures is the ‘piscina’ a fish pond where the family is growing fish. Due to the contamination in the river there are no longer any fish living in it. Behind the fish pond is the ‘toilet’ a hole in the ground surrounded by wooden walls and covered by plastic. This area is infested with ants that have vicious bites that itch for ages, a problem that doesn’t seem to affect the family.

Daily Life

The day begins when the family get up at about 4:30-5am. At some point during the morning Victoria starts to prepare the breakfast. Breakfast generally consists of either rice with fried bananas, strange pancakes or chopped, flattened fried salty bananas. Either way it’s very salty and very greasy! The children (Eddis and Yurema) generally go to school (if it’s not raining and if it’s on) at about 7:30am. The school is at the main Secoya settlement and the community has a couple of motorised canoes which will pick the children sporadically. The school has two teachers, who may not always be present depending on if they have other things to do. One teacher will teach the small children 5-6yrs and the other will teach the other children who range in age from 7yrs up to 19yrs. Not all of the children go to school and only some of them have uniforms. The children learn Spanish and maths amongst other things in the school. There is no real structure or discipline and the children will get up and wander around or even leave altogether whenever they please. There is generally a break at about 10:30-11am where government issued biscuits are given out. School usually ends at 1pm with a meal of rice, lentils and tuna, which is eaten in another building. The women in the community take it in turns to cook this lunch. After this the children are free to play. Volunteers are expected to teach English at the school, which isn’t very effective as the children forget very quickly as the teaching is not consistent and depends on whether there are any volunteers. The youngest children have only just begun to learn Spanish and cannot read or write it, which is a major obstacle when trying to teach English.

The women of the community tend to do the majority of the work. They spend all day cooking and washing clothes in the river as well as working in the gardens with the men. When there is a large amount of work to be done, it is generally undertaken by the whole community. Whoever requires the work to be done will be responsible for feeding everyone during the day. One of the main types of work is planting and maintaining the yucca trees. This involves clearing all other plants from around the base and near the vicinity of the tree. Huge areas of primary rainforest are cleared in this way. Later on the yucca roots are pulled out of the ground and the yuccas peeled and cleaned ready for consumption. The yuccas are shared out amongst all of the workers. Another large task undertaken by the community is the building and maintenance of the piscinas. These are constructed in small streams upstream from the main river and then a dam is built to keep the water in, along with overflow pipes. This water is not contaminated by the water in the main river. The dam in constructed by filling bags with mud and building a large wall with them. This takes quite a long time as the men enjoy throwing the mud at each other and tend to watch each other working rather than working together solidly. Whilst the men work, the women will prepare huge pots of rice and chicken or tuna. Even heavily pregnant women will work, carrying heavy pots down steep slopes whilst balancing young babies.

Every month the women prepare yucca bread for their families. This is undertaken over the space of three days and is very intensive. Firstly the yuccas are washed, then grated over a large wooden trough. After this the grated yucca is put into cloth bags and the water is squeezed out. After this a woven contraption is used to squeeze yet more moisture out. The dry yucca is then sieved through a small mesh. This is then placed on a hot plate over a very hot fire and large round flat chipati-like bread is created, which will last the family about a month.

Religion & Customs

The majority of the people in Remolino Grande are Christian and attend a small church regularly. There is a Shaman that lives upstream from the community but with the recent changes in the village the people in the village no longer believe in the Shaman and some even go so far as to believe that he is evil and is working against God. The majority of the men and women wear western clothes, like to watch television and listen to music and no longer believe in the customs and history of the Secoya. It is a great shame because the older generations have a wealth of knowledge about the plants and the land and this is not being transferred down to the younger children anymore. It is a village in transition, desperately trying to acquire some of the luxuries and modern appliances of the Western world. They don’t have much money and their only means of acquiring money is by selling cacao beans, café and bananas in Shushufindi, but even this requires money for gasoline and for the bus journey. It is a very difficult situation as they have no way of escaping their apparent poverty. They wish to continue to live on the land but at the same time they are destroying it.

The future

The future is uncertain for the community of Remolino Grande. They are in the process of building a tourist attraction across the river upstream from the community, which currently consists of a large typical Secoya house, with information in both Spanish and English. They are currently clearing the land around the house in order to create a botanical garden. There are also cleared paths through the rainforest for nature trails. Tourists do visit the area but they stay with other communities in tourist cabañas with modern luxuries such as toilets and showers. For this area to attract tourists the people need to work hard and protect their environment. The evidence of petroleum companies is all around from the oil drums that litter the villages, to the polluted dirty brown river with no fish. The people throw their rubbish everywhere, on the ground and in the river, and the younger generations no longer care about the ancient customs of their people. It is amazing to see how each community interact and work together, and the opportunity to see how the different people live is incredible, however it is also very evident that although the people have lived in the rainforest for many years it is far from the harmonious way of life envisaged by many Western tourists. The rainforest is a precious resource and neither the Ecuadorian government nor the foreign multinational companies should be allowed to exploit it. The communities that live along the River Aguarico need help learning how to adapt to their new way of life, which is constantly changing with each interaction with Western society.

To see photographs from Remolino Grande: