| I don´t know who decided that paradise must be tropical, but I can tell you that the rainforest ain´t paradise. I´m hot, sweaty, and itchy right now, and I´m quite frankly ready to leave. I don´t see what part of having no air conditioning is pleasurable to anyone. But today was incredible. We visited the community of an indigenous group that practices slash and burn farming (also known as swidden) as well as agroforestry. I hear that tomorrow we´ll see more in the way of agroforestry. Slash and burn - which I will say much more about later when I am able to share my pictures - can be done in an incredibly sustainable way. And sometimes it is. Of course, it can also be done badly, with irresponsible burning or overly short fallow periods.
I didn´t see any wildlife larger than a turtle or a bird today, and even then I didn´t see macaws or toucans or anything exciting like that. Mostly I saw bugs. And got bit by bugs. The bugs are enormous. Well, some are. They have small ones too. They have bugs of all sizes. Really, they just have bugs. We saw evidence of monkeys and other animals around (i.e. remains of food they had eaten) but between hunting and everything else, the wildlife wasn´t eager to hang out with a bunch of gringo tourists. And, honestly, it´s a sign that we went with a responsible tour company that we didn´t see any wildlife, because it means they weren´t doing anything irresponsible (like bagging anacondas and then pretending to find them during the tour, a traumatic practice that kills the anacondas).
What I´d like to talk more about when I have the time to go over my notes is first, how the group we visited today practices responsible, sustainable agriculture in the rainforest, and second, why and how the rainforest is being destroyed. I got a firsthand look at that today, sadly.
The rest of our tour may not go as planned, but we´ll find out for sure tomorrow. There´s still a road blockade somewhere between here and La Paz, which means that tomorrow will continue as planned with a visit to a local sustainable farm and then a four hour drive to chocolate country. Then the next day will go as planned as far as the visit to the chocolate cooperative goes. After that, I don´t know what happens. We´re supposed to drive towards La Paz to (I think) a place called Caranavi, and if the road block is still there, that won´t be possible. Plan B might involve returning to Rurrenabaque and flying to La Paz and then I don´t know what. There´s supposedly very few modern conveniences like internet and laundry between here and La Paz if we take our planned route, but who knows. You might get another update from me in a few days if plans change. |
