Advertisement
Published: April 9th 2010
Edit Blog Post
When I graduated from Bowdoin last May, I never could have guessed the situation in which I would find myself nearly a year later: in a hotel room in a small town in Peru that serves as “the gateway to the Amazon,” stranded indoors due to a mining strike and the corresponding influx of angry protestors, living off stockpiled Ramen noodles and cans of tuna. Thus is life.
Near the end of March, the researchers at CICRA were informed of some bad news: a group of miners had filed for a strike to be held on April 4th and rumors were circulating that CICRA might be targeted and even burned down. In early March, Minister Brack Egg, head of the Ministry of the Environment, had finally put into action a plan to better regulate mining, including but not limited to restriction of legal mining operations to the southern shore and south of the Rio Madre de Dios, prohibition of mining on the river itself and a ban on the use of mercury. Understandably, this is upsetting to people whose livelihoods and ability to provide for their families depend upon mining. But how is CICRA involved in all of this?
In all actuality, CICRA has been brought into the equation due to a misunderstanding of sorts. The organization that heads CICRA, called ACCA, is currently conducting a corridor project to link land fragments and is hoping to link CICRA’s concession with that of Tambopata National Reserve. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, the miners have come to believe that ACCA intends to purchase this land and stop mining from occurring there, a misconception that renders CICRA a convenient target.
At any rate, vicious rumors had been circulating, some of which suggested that the miners were planning on paying a visit to CICRA, a visit that involved burning the buildings that house the laboratories and library. As such, we were strongly advised to evacuate the station to Puerto Maldonado for the duration of the strike based on the rationale that if something did happen at CICRA, we could find ourselves in a potentially dangerous situation. After much thought and discussion (and learning that if we decided to stay at CICRA, we would have to sign a waiver absolving them of our deaths), Emma, Erin and I decided to wait out the strike in Puerto.
This came at a bit
of an inconvenient time for me, as I’m only working on the tamarin team until April 16th, at which point my dad is coming to visit, and I leave CICRA for good on April 20th! My boat ride from CICRA to Puerto was thus a practice run of sorts for me, and I found myself quite emotional on the journey with the knowledge that I might not return to CICRA again! The boat departed shortly after dawn, so I was treated to a cool, beautiful ride through the Amazon in which I tried to soak in every detail of my surroundings and reflected fondly on my time at the station.
When we arrived in Puerto, we spent a couple of days stockpiling enough food to last us the duration of the strike. A huge influx of miners was expected in the city, and though there would supposedly be a large police presence, the potential violence (there had been talk of burning buildings, homemade bombs, shutting down roads and the airport) coupled with the strong anti-gringo sentiment necessitated that we stay hidden in the hotel. Additionally, the miners had managed to threaten people so that all the shops and stores
(and food sources) would effectively be shut down for the strike. So, for five days, we were confined to the walls of Peru Amazonico; hours were filled with trashy television, data analysis and endless amounts of boredom. Meals consisted of some combination of noodles, tuna, avocado and cucumber which doesn’t sound too bad until you try to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a week straight. Also unfortunate was the fact that we hadn’t really bought enough food to eat a comfortable slash semi-filling amount at meals, and so were basically hungry/hot/bored for the entire day. I pounced on my food at meal times and subsequently became depressed at the rapidity with which my meal vanished.
Now, the really surreal part of the whole situation was that while we were literally in the midst of this whole strike, we basically had no idea as to what was going on for the majority of the time. It was a really strange sensation, sitting inside on my computer while hearing loud, angry, cohesive voices rising up outside as the miners marched past coupled with the roar of police helicopters hovering overhead. While we occasionally turned on the news to
gather what little information our meager (or in my case, nonexistent) Spanish speaking skills allowed, our main source of information was Sarah, one of the Peruvian researchers/staff at CICRA who had also evacuated to Puerto. She would often stop by the hotel and inundate us with the latest rumors of the strike: the miners were going to block the airport, they wanted to hold an indefinite strike so that they could starve out the population of Puerto to get a response from the government, etc. We were never quite sure what was going on and so were quite surprised to hear, on April 8th, that the strike had ended! Apparently, talks in Lima had been somewhat successful and would continue on, enough to appease the miners for now. We rejoiced at the prospect of actually being able to go outside and walk around.
Of course, it was right as the strike ended and our freedom was returned that I developed stomach issues. Hard to believe, given that my diet had consisted strictly of Ramen, tuna, fruit, veggies and the occasional packet of cookies. Despite this, I woke that morning with intense stomach pain and cramping which were not alleviated by my frequent bathroom ventures. As the day progressed, I found that in addition to the vomiting and diarrhea (and even that does not adequately describe the monstrosity of what came out of my body), I also had fever and headache. I merely assumed that I had come down with food poisoning of some kind and staunchly refused to take any type of medication, much to the chagrin of roomie Emma, who had the pleasure of listening to my aggressive moaning and swearing throughout the remainder of the day. By evening, I was feeling a little bit better and decided to try a bit of dinner; I managed about two mouthfuls of Ramen before my stomach resumed freaking out and I finally gave in to antibiotics.
The next morning, I found that my stomach was still very upset and couldn’t handle food. As Emma had been having some of the same problems, we decided to venture to the local hospital with Sarah kindly serving as our translator. After waiting in no less than ten different lines, we finally managed to see a doctor, who recommended that I be tested for typhoid and parasites. Off it was to get blood drawn! I was also given a cup for my fecal sample, which I couldn’t produce at the time as I hadn’t eaten enough to warrant any excrement. And all this only cost me about 20 soles!
As I write this, I’m back in the hotel in Puerto, enjoying my last day of trashy television/real bed/fan, as I’m headed back to CICRA tomorrow. The trip to the hospital was only this morning and my stomach is still quite upset; I haven’t managed to consume much more than a pack of Ritz crackers today. I’m trying to tie up loose ends here in Puerto and, as I glance over at my “To Do” list, I see “fecal sample” scrawled near the bottom. Guess I’d better get going on that!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 5; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0452s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Eric
non-member comment
I enjoyed your Peru post. It reminded me of my time there. My blog is looking for travel photos and travel stories. If you have the time, email us some at dirtyhippiesblog@gmail.com or check us out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your travels, Eric