PIRANHAS DO NOT MIND BORDERS

From Jamaica, in summer 1980, my then-wife (known since age two in church nursery) and I flew to Bolivia for a 40-day trek in that country, and Peru, and Ecuador. In Peru we visited Machu Pichu.

In Ecuador we took a bus to Cuenca, the third largest city, and then to Los Banos for the hot springs. From there we learned we could take a bus (really a converted truck) descending into the Amazon basin to the last town by road, on the Rio Napo, a huge tributary of the Amazon River, and then down river by dugout canoe to another forsaken, mud-hole town.

A bit of anecdote and history that I sometimes tell my students about the symbolic importance of maps: Before reaching the last town by road we had to cross the border back into Peru. There at the totally invisible border (this was deep rain forest) the two Peruvian border guards, with shouldered rifles, strode out of the tiny hut to announce in the door of the bus that all foreigners should disembark and retrieve their luggage. We were the only two foreigners probably within 100 miles. I imagined we were going to be held hostage for ransom--and I was wishing at that moment that I had been much nicer to my high-salaried older brother! To our astonishment the border guards asked whether we "tienen algunos mapas"--had any maps?! They searched our luggage looking for maps out in nowhere Amazonia?! Why?

As a typical American ignorant of world history/world geography, I found out much later that the Inca just before Pizarro's arrival had divided the Incan empire between his two sons. The frontier between the two kingdoms went through the area where we were standing. Later, Spain divided its empire into two colonial vice-royalties based on the Incan division--with an undelineated frontier (as frontiers are). Later, the two modern countries of Peru and Ecuador were formed with the same undecided border. That frontier area had been disputed since at least 1840, if not 1829. They had most recently fought a border war in 1941-42.

So, there we were standing--way out in the rain forest of Amazonia--before two Peruvian border guards who were searching for maps made in Ecuador which, of course, showed (I later learned) that that area was part of Ecuador. Peru wanted to confiscate all maps (before the ubiquity of online maps) published in Ecuador! The following year, 1981 (I just tonight learned), the two countries fought yet another border skirmish.

On the river, the dugout canoe, which was the regular river transportation--a river taxi!--carried only two items: people and sodas. Just after the canoe pushed off we all were given coffee cans, for what reason I had no clue (perhaps for toilet?). We soon learned that everyone was expected to bail water the whole time! Our feet were soaking in water because it rained nearly constantly--we were in rain forest, after all. But, I was thinking "sinking boat in big river with hungry, toothy piranhas!" I bailed water assiduously.

We made it back to civilization with no body parts chewed on. I wish I had one of those maps.

CARTO-PROPAGANDA IN DEEP RAIN FOREST

While crossing the border from Ecuador to Peru, in 1983 (headed to the Rio Napo, in Amazonia), the Peruvian border guards, with shouldered rifles, ordered the two foreigners off the bus, into the guard hut, to search our luggage. They asked one question only: “Tienes algunos mapas?” Did we have any maps? Maps? Deep in the rainforest?

The border dispute between Ecuador and Peru originated when the last Inca divided his empire between his two sons just before the arrival of Pizzaro. The area remained a frontier (etymologically, a region that “fronts”) between the two Spanish audiencias and continued as such with the formation of the modern states of Ecuador and Peru. The two countries fought a border war around 1941, evidently won by Peru. (Ecuadorians peevishly informed us that Peruvians were “monos”--monkeys.)

The Peruvian border guards were confiscating maps published in Ecuador which show the large chunk of Amazonia we were in as part of the national territory of Ecuador. The government of Peru did not want the carto-propaganda to reach the outside world. Cartographically, the two countries are still at war. (It does not help that Chevron has been pumping oil out of the region, to the benefit of Peru--a further affront at the frontier.)

Spatial events which occurred half a millennium previously were being played out deep in the Amazonian rain forest, nearly at gunpoint, on two unsuspecting foreigners.

I wish I could now possess a map of Ecuador showing the contested chunk of rain forest, so I could illustrate that particular rain-forest geography of propaganda.

RIDING THE RIO NAPO

Many of my life experiences I can--and do--couch as adventurous and exotic, even when they were quite miserable. Like the time I traveled down the Rio Napo, in Ecuador, in a dugout canoe. It was the regular river transportation and carried people and pop/sodas. Immediately upon boarding the ten-person canoe, they passed back to everyone an empty, metal coffee container. I thought it was to use as urinal. But, no, it was for bailing out water that soon collected in the bottom of the boat, due to the nearly constant rainfall. (We were in rain forest, after all.) I kept looking for piranhas in the opaque river just inches away! How fun was that?