Climbing The Equator

by Neville Shulman

  Many of the important statesmen, travellers and mountaineers coming to Ecuador stayed at La Cienega, including both Alexander Von Humboldt and Edward Whymper. The three French and two Spanish academicians primarily responsible for determining the place of Mitad del Mundo (Centre of the World) also worked on their calculations in the main house. Two of the Frenchmen, Charles-Marie de La Condamine and Pierre Bouguer, journeyed from La Cienega to climb Pichincha during the time they were there preparing their calculations and measurements.

  I mentioned previously two of the major influences on my thoughts and understanding of the mysteries of this extraordinary world and referred to Charles Dickens. Now I want to refer to Charles Darwin. Just as Simon Bolivar totally changed the history of Ecuador through his military planning and actions, so Darwin through his initial field research in the Galapagos Archipelago of Ecuador, coupled with his findings elsewhere, changed the natural history outlook of the world. Darwin arrived in the Galapagos in September 1835 and was utterly astonished by what he found there. He first stepped ashore on Chatham Island (now known as San Cristobal) and was initially shocked by the sight of the black volcanic lava fields, which seemed to have destroyed everything. He soon realised however how much more there was to understand and research, and the sight of the extraordinary creatures he found in the islands thrilled him beyond measure.

  They moved onto Charles Island (Santa Cruz) and the giant tortoises on so many of the islands gave him great cause for concern. How did they get there if they can’t swim? Why are there different kinds on several islands? He began to ponder these mysteries, and some kind of realisation started to form in his mind, as he questioned more and more, these ‘islands formed of precisely the same rocks, similar in climate, rising to similar heights, yet so differently tenanted’. He then spent his whole time feverishly exploring many of the islands, collecting his specimens, making his notes and couldn’t wait to get back to England to continue his research. Paradoxically, it was only when he was an older man in his forties, after realising that Alfred Russell Wallace had arrived at similar conclusions, that he finally set down his full findings and theories on natural selection in his ground breaking book, The Origin of Species. Wallace was living in the Malay Archipelago and had generously sent Darwin his own manuscript entitled, On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type. Darwin finally woke from his ‘reverie’ as if from a trance, realising there was no time to lose and was immediately spurred on to publish. The rest is history – natural history.

  The theory of evolution by natural selection of course has wider and more immense implications than initially conceived, explicitly implying that life is about ‘the survival of the fittest’. This broadly means that Nature will decide which specimens of any kind will survive and that the weaker ones will perish, with those characteristics needed to survive being passed on or adapted to future generations. In this way new species are or were being constantly created, with related species having sometimes very important differences because of environmental effects or necessities.

  These revolutionary findings were first published in November 1859 and immediately they caused enormous controversy in those more puritanical and religious times. This controversy continued intensely for at least a hundred years or more, and in many ways still continues to this day. In fact in the ‘Bible Belt’ States of the USA, such as Kansas and Arkansas, many people still believe that the world was actually created 6,000 years ago. It’s a somewhat strange irony that Darwin’s propositions should cause such considerable disharmony with many religious leaders, as in fact his original intention had been to take up holy orders when he finished at university where he was actually studying divinity. Darwin’s theories were an enormous influence then, and have still continued to be a huge influence on, amongst many others, scholars, scientists, philosophers and religious leaders.

  Darwin also recorded his extensive sea travels in his earlier book, The Voyage of the Beagle, still a great read to this day. In it, he refers to the Galapagos and states that, ‘It seems to be a little world within itself; the greater number of its inhabitants, both vegetable and animal, being found nowhere else.’ It was the differing characteristics of the many species of finches in particular that started Charles Darwin on his own voyage of discovery of the theory of evolution, although he was actually prompted to publish his findings by the learned taxonomist John Gould. Together they examined the thirteen species of stuffed finches they had brought back, and particularly observed the different sizes between their beaks which helped to define their varying characteristics. As a few examples of the amazing range of finches discovered, there is the large ground finch which uses its huge beak to crush seeds and nuts, the tiny warbler finch which will only eat insects, and then the strangest finch of all, the one that feeds by drawing blood from nesting sea birds.

  After returning to England Darwin never again travelled abroad; as if what he had seen and learned was more than sufficient for his lifetime. One of the odd habits picked up from his years at sea, in common with many sailors, was that Charles Darwin enjoyed taking snuff. On board the Beagle sailing ship he had indulged himself to such a degree that, on his return to England, he found it impossible to give it up. He decided his only way to cut down, for he would never give it up totally, was to keep the snuff locked in the basement of his house and put the key in the attic. Although it made it difficult to access and certainly slowed down his taking it, perhaps the exercise of constantly climbing up and down the stairs contributed to keeping him fitter than otherwise he might have been. (Enough on snuff, any more might get up your nose.)

  Darwin was a man of vision and brilliance, but was also an extremely modest and gentle man who hated to hurt anyone. He possibly delayed publishing his work for so many years in part at least to avoid offending his more religious father and wife who were extremely disturbed by his radical views. Of course his many opponents, seizing on the concept that Darwin seemed to be saying we were all descended from apes, used every opportunity to decry his work and ferocious debates and violent arguments occurred throughout the world. The genie, however, was out of the bottle and could never be locked in again. Darwin died in 1882 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, next to the great thinker, Sir Isaac Newton. I think this choice of resting place and the position given to him was an appropriate way to honour this most remarkable man.

  CHAPTER 9

  THE HUAORANIS ON THE RUN

  Some came to Ecuador to conquer and take the riches of Ecuador for themselves or for foreign kingdoms, whilst others tried to provide freedom for the Ecuadorian people. However, those who have suffered or been neglected the most in all circumstances are the indigenous tribes of the rainforest previously known as ‘Indians.’ The tribe that exemplifies the suffering the most are the Huaoranis.

  The jungle and the rainforest has always been the home and sanctuary of this most famous and feared indigenous tribe for as long as their memories and their stories recall. Now it is their hiding place, as many of the tribe try to survive against all the odds. They were probably the last of the remote tribes to be contacted by travellers from the outside world. If only they had been left alone to continue life in their ancient ways. They have considerable knowledge about the jungle, its creatures, the insects and the plants, but much of this is being lost as they fight to survive.

  The Huaoranis, as they are now called, were once better known as the Aucas, so named by another tribe, the Quichuas; a name meaning primarily the Savages but also meaning the Rebels and the Enemies. The Aucas were feared and respected by all other tribes as supreme fighters and hunters, who knew no fear and would attack without warning whenever they needed to, exacting a terrible price on those who opposed them. I prefer to think of them more as the Outsiders, as they have never wanted to conform to the rules of modern society, but have only wanted to be left alone and allowed to continue their jungle and rainforest lives without interference. This has not happened, and althoug
h some have unwillingly agreed to try and accept the rules and strictures of those with greater powers, many have fought back or vanished into the rainforest where they live undercover.

  This is the story of this tribe who deserve more and from whom too much has been taken. The spelling of their tribal name varies, like many Indian names, and some will write it as Huaranis or as Huoaranis, or even Waoranis – the way it’s pronounced. In this account of their lives I refer to the name of this fearsome tribe as the Huaoranis, meaning the Peoples, the name and translation they use and prefer.

  For centuries the Huaoranis lived east of the seventy-seventh meridian, mainly within an area bounded by the Napo, Curaray, Arajuno and Nashino Rivers. As their territory was penetrated by ‘strangers’, however, and their land confiscated by prospectors and loggers, they have been forced to wander and have scattered into many different places. This has caused them to feel enormous resentment, even hatred at the way their ancestral ways and customs have been violated. The discovery of oil here, the ‘black gold’, has caused the rights of the indigenous peoples often to be ignored or at the very least discounted.

  The Huaoranis are now being fragmented into different ‘clans’ as some of them have been ‘persuaded’ to change their religion and way of life, and to accept the influences of governmental organisations, missionaries and others who do not understand them, their history and their beliefs. Those who still and will always resist strongly and have hidden themselves away in even more remote and secret places are now known also as the Tagaeri and the Taromenani. They have become even more ferocious in defence of their traditions and customs and wish no contact with cuwudi, the strangers. Now they must live in fear of discovery and further harassment, and many seek total isolation in order to protect their privacy and their very existence. As a people they always were constantly on the move, exhausting one patch of land and then moving on to another whilst the first area was allowed to revitalise itself. Now their lives have changed dramatically; they rarely settle anywhere and can vanish overnight if they sense they have been found again.

  In the past the Huaoranis thought of themselves as the lords of the jungle and revered the animals, especially the jaguar, the anaconda (the boa constrictor snake) and the caiman (the alligator). They incorporated these powerful and ferocious creatures into their own storytelling and in ancient times would carve their likenesses on their pottery and other objects. In archaeological diggings some ancient pottery and fragments have been discovered, although only very little due to the fact that once the regular monsoons arrived, the small sites would quickly be reclaimed into the mud and lost again.

  In their stories they tell how Minimpera, the great mother jaguar, would guard their territory on the banks of the main river (the River Napo). She told them not to cross it as ‘many, many people live over there and would try to harm them.’ She also told them that much further on ‘the sky and the earth meet in harmony’. The jaguar is their most respected animal and adversary and they have many stories of the contests with it. They admire the jaguar’s grace and try to emulate it. In the past they have worshipped the sun (arising from Inca origin) and also the magic of water, believing the river to be all-powerful, with the ability to reward or punish either directly – by flooding or not – or through its strongest creatures such as the caiman.

  Although small in stature the Huaorani men are ferocious to look at, especially when covered in war paint. They paint signs and stripes on their faces and bodies, often to symbolise the creatures they hold in equal respect, using mainly a red dye made from the berries of the Achiote tree. The men, women and children are naked except for a thin waist cord of vine or cotton called ‘kumi’, the males using theirs for holding their penises, whilst the females treat their cords as their only ‘clothing’. They both cut the front of their hair short to hang over their foreheads, with the men’s hair shaved at the neck and the women wearing their hair long at the back. The men and the women enlarge their ear lobes to quite incredible lengths by inserting balsa wood corks from a very early age and then gradually using bigger ones as they get older.

  The men will carry a blowpipe or blowgun of 3 metres (10 feet) or more in length and it can fire a dart a distance of around 30 metres (100 feet) with incredible accuracy, hitting a moving target such as a small squirrel or even a tiny hummingbird. The blowpipe is made from the chonta palm, in two sections with the middle held together with hardened black beeswax. They also carry a quiver of barbed darts made from the veins of the large palm leaf, with the dart tips covered in curare, a poison taken from the Abuta vine, containing strychnine. The poison has a paralysing effect and will be effective within a very short time, usually less than a minute. The poison is only dangerous if taken through a vein into the blood, so it is quite safe to eat the meat of the animal killed in this way. In fact somewhat surprisingly you can actually drink the poison without ill effect. It has also proved to be useful as a muscle relaxant and can be used in operating on certain patients. The darts are notched using the sharp teeth of the piranha fish. The blowpipe has a very narrow shaft and it is the control by the hunter that really counts, judging the trajectory, the distance, the angle, in all creating the perfect balance between blower, the blowpipe and the intended victim. It is really a form of ‘Zen in The Art of Shooting a Blowpipe’ and is a skill learned in constant practice over many years.

  The Huaoranis have learned to live as the animals of the jungle, and to think as they do. They have specialised techniques and skills, but it is in the mind where the action is created. The Huaoranis are part of the forest and this is why they should never be driven away or their ways sacrificed. They usually use a spear to kill a jaguar, a tapir, a boar, a caiman or another river creature and the shaft and barbed arrow section are made from a single piece of chonta palm; the spear adorned with Cotinga feathers. The Huaoranis fish mainly using another poison, made from the barbasco vine, which enters through the gills and paralyses the respiratory system of the fish so they drown and are easily caught in nets woven from chambira fibre. They look for good fishing areas where the currents are slow and throw the poison in upriver. There are shoals of piranhas in many rivers, but contrary to most perceptions of them they are not usually dangerous to approach and the tribespeople are not afraid of swimming in the same waters. If a piranha is not hemmed in or it has access to food it will not attack or bite humans. If it chose to, however, the piranha could tear human flesh to pieces with its incredibly sharp teeth. A greater danger yet is the stingray whose spine is so poisonous it can kill, or cause numbness that will last for years if not for ever. Surprisingly a Huaorani rarely uses dug-out canoes or rafts to navigate the rivers and prefers to swim or wade through, so needs to be aware of what’s lurking down there. He is agile and extremely strong and will easily and quickly scale a large palm or a kapok tree carrying his blowpipe and quiver of arrows in order to search and hunt for prey.

  The Huaoranis live in small communities, sometimes comprising only two families, in one or two room huts or houses that they build themselves, sometimes in a larger area on a plateau to give greater protection. They usually build their houses on stilts as a precaution against river flooding and attacks by wild animals (in particular snakes), as well as to prevent insects entering too easily and of course to protect against enemy attacks. Friends are invited to join them to assist in the building of their houses, and stay with them for the weeks that it may take, with food and drink provided for everyone throughout. The main supports and floors are made from the chonta palm tree, the sides from bamboo and for the roof they use vines, vine leaves and ferns which are interlaced to withstand the heavy and persistent rains. After the building has been completed there is a non-stop party for several days more. The Huaoranis believe in sharing, particularly at house building time, and this includes sharing wives. (They didn’t realise they had so many friends!) One of the many tasks of the women meanwhile is to make the yarn for the hammocks, using sisal cactus fibre and chambir
a, cooked and dried in the sun, with usually the men completing the final stages. Occasionally they will dye a hammock red to make it more special and beautiful.

  The Huaoranis often take two wives and have several children by each. It means that the relationships can get quite involved and confusing but no one seems to mind. The men and the women usually sleep in hammocks, but occasionally in a bed made from sisal, using skins and tree bark for warmth. The children sleep on the bare floors, as near to the fire as they can get. Everyone gets a turn in the hammock, though, and to see a sleeping Huaorani child of two or three swinging peacefully in a red hammock is a delightful sight.

  The Huaoranis prefer to smoke their food and the method that they use for fire lighting is the ancient one of rubbing a pointed stick vigorously in a hole in a soft piece of wood until a spark is created. They then catch alight with the sparks some moss or other foliage and create fire. The cooking area is within the hut and near to it they will store their blowpipes and other weapons ready for fast use. A smouldering fire is kept going all the time for warmth and ease of cooking and also because of the difficulty in re-lighting it.

  They hang stalks of yellow and green bananas and baskets of naranjillas in the house. There are two entrances, one opening out to the clearing whilst the other is more hidden, as it’s an escape in case of emergency. Outside they maintain a compound or garden, in which they will grow various vegetables, the main ones being cassava, plantain and tapioca (manioc). The manioc vegetables’ roots contain cyanide, which protects them from being eaten by insects. They also usually grow banana and other fruit trees at the edge of the compound. The two main palm fruits gathered by the women are from the chonta and maurita palms, and the reddish fruit of the latter is called nontoca. The women use large nets slung across their backs to carry these fruits and other foods. The soil is poor and therefore after two or three years they would abandon these homes, to move elsewhere and start the process over again.