Source: Yuma Sun
The way to the remote village where a Yuma woman lived with an indigenous tribe deep in the Amazon rainforest is long and treacherous.There are no roads leading to the home of the Achuar people, who have only been exposed to the western world for 50 years. Population is 5,000.
To get there, visitors must take a plane, bus, canoe and be willing to hike up steep river banks. It's no easy task, but Dr. JoAnne Morgan Mowczko, a 64-year-old biologist from Yuma, was determined to get there.
Mowczko is writing an ecotourism book on the Achuar people and culture, with all proceeds going to the tribe to help in their fight to keep oil companies off their land.
She recently returned from a nearly two-month stay during which she lived among them, learning and participating in their traditions and celebrations.
But even before taking off on her solo journey, she prepared by getting vaccinated against rabies, tetanus, yellow fever, typhoid fever, hepatitis A and B and taking anti-malaria medication.
She also read nine books on the Amazon, the Jivaro indigenous people and the early explorations of the Amazon, including one by President Teddy Roosevelt.
She flew from Phoenix to Miami to Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. She took a bus to the town of Shell and boarded a small plane to the village of Wachirpas and finally reached Kapawai Ecolodge by canoe.
The lodge is run by the Achuar, an effort to share their culture with the outside world. The Achuar have “embraced ecotourism as their means of income and way to preserve their homeland and way of life,” Mowczko explained.
“They have been the stewards of the rainforest for eons, and have been able to live in balance. Contact with the West has impacted that, and the way the Achuar have chosen is to use tourism with minimal impact vs. oil development.”
They welcomed Mowczko, agreeing to let her interview and photograph community members.
“I'm passionate about this project and the more I get into it the more passionate I am,” she said.
Mowczko's interest in indigenous cultures began in early childhood. She was raised on a Michigan a farm, where she learned about nature. Working in the fields and taking care of chickens and pigs sparked her interest in biology.
Her father was also knowledgeable in the sciences, including geology, astronomy, biology and paleontology. In high school she studied the indigenous people of Australia, Africa and South America.
Her family moved to Flagstaff where she continued her education at Arizona State College, now Northern Arizona University. She graduated with a master's degree in education after only four years.
She moved to Yuma for her first teaching job and stayed for 33 years teaching biology at Cibola and anthropology at Kofa high schools. She is now retired.
Along the way, she earned a doctorate degree and many teaching honors such as the Albert Einstein Fellowship and Presidential Award.
Mowczko's first contact with the Achuar people was two years ago when she and her husband, Bill, visited the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, “where every anthropologist dreams of going,” Mowczko noted.
They wanted to experience a rainforest, so they stayed at the Kapawi Ecolodge and visited an Achuar family.
Upon returning home, she wanted to learn more about the Achuar but could only find minimal information.
So she got the idea to write an ecotourism book about the Achuar culture with revenues returned to the Achuar to help them preserve the rainforest and their lifestyle. They agreed on a guidebook for tourists, volunteers and schools.
Mowczko donated her travel expenses and time, and the ecolodge provided room and board, guides and interpreters.
Upon her arrival, Mowczko visited various communities via canoe with outboard motors and by hiking. After climbing 15-foot riverbanks to the edge of a village, Mowczko and her interpreters had to first announce themselves. Someone greeted them and took them to the community center where they explained the purpose of their visit.
It took four people to interview someone, Mowczko and her English and Spanish speaking interpreter, a Spanish and Achuar speaking guide and the Achuar member.
In addition, Mowczko had to gain their trust. “They're very reserved. They don't show very much outward emotion. After I was there a while, I saw them laughing, but in public they have solemn, stoic personalities.”
They also don't like their photo taken. “You have to ask,” she said.
She experienced special cultural programs, celebrations of various occasions, met with a shaman and examined medical plants and the ecosystem.
She observed their way of life, which has remained relatively untouched, even traditionally painting their faces with plant pigment.
“The only changes have been for convenience, like buying a pot instead of making their own clay pots,” she said.
The wife usually gets up around 3 a.m. followed by the family about an hour later. “They don't use a time clock, they just go about doing what has to get done.”
They bathe twice a day in the river, their only source of water, and wear western clothes, which were introduced by missionaries.
“I think they did a disservice to them, now they have to do laundry,” she noted, laughing.
The rainforest is sacred to them. They believe that when someone dies, their spirit goes back to the forest in the form of animals and plants.
They use the jungle as their pharmacy, grocery store, hardware store, lumber yard, everything they need they get from there. They hunt with a blowgun and darts, shooting monkeys and birds in trees. “I don't know how they do it, but if they don't, they don't have dinner.” Mowczko got to eat monkey soup.
They also eat fish and fruit. Mowczko said 60 percent of their diet consists of boiled green bananas, boiled yucca and fish soup.
Everyone, even children, drink manioc beer made out of yucca root, which they make by boiling, chewing and spitting into a big pot in which the mixture ferments. The Achuar then dilute it with water and strain it. It's served in a community cup.
“It took a little bit to get used to drinking it,” Mowczko said.
The rain and humidity were challenging for her. “My hiking shoes were soaked from a 10-minute walk in the rain. I never was able to get them dry before the mildew set in,” she said. “I had three sets of clothes, so one on, one clean and one drying.”
She especially enjoyed the evenings. “Nights were wonderful, always some night birds or frogs singing. You needed a flashlight as there were no street lights. Solar power provided lights in the rooms. Sometime we went out caiman watching in a canoe. They come out at night and get as big as 15 feet.”
Hiking in the forest required high rubber boots. “One of the biggest dangers when hiking in the forest is underfoot. Vines trip, bullet ants sting, sharp spines catch your pant legs, leaf litter may be covering sink holes, the mud may be quicksand.
“And if you brush against certain plants, you are instantly covered with ants. You do not want to step on army ants as the entire column will come after you, and bullet ant's stings are very painful for 24 hours.
“The rule is...you do not touch anything along the trail, which has to be cut as you go, with your hands, and you watch where you step. The snakes are usually wrapped around tree branches and very well camouflaged. But the sights and sounds are worth it.”
Mowczko hopes her book will help the Achuar conserve the rainforest.
“By preserving the rainforest, they are also helping us all. The biodiversity there is unparalleled anywhere, the resources yet undiscovered in medicine alone are phenomenal. Then there is the fact that it supplies us all with oxygen,” she said.
“This is their home, not just a source of future medicines. We can help them and also help conserve the environment. It's all tied together.”
She would like to go back and do follow-up interviews but needs help funding travel expenses.