H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

Things that most people doesn’t know about

Some years ago I made a trip to the Amazon jungle in company of my wife Lucy and a group of observers from several countries. It was really a trip we had planned for some time. We had heard and read about the decline of health and increase of child mortality rate among the native inhabitants of the amazon jungle as well as the neglected way of living conditions of some of the marginal shanty towns surrounding the city of Iquitos, located in the North East of the South American country of Peru. The city of Iquitos is reached mainly by plane from the capital City of Lima. There’re no roads built to get there. The  Amazon river is large and deep enough to be navigated by large cargo ships. This river is formed by the junction of three large rivers: Maranon, Ucayali and the Huallaga rivers, plus many other afluents of minor importance. The Amazon river flows downstream across the Peruvian jungle and across the country of Brazil where meets the Atlantic Ocean on the East.

Iquitos is a large modern city, busy with industry and export of raw material such as wood, exotic fish, rubber, medicinal plants, etc.

Precarious conditions

First example of the contrasty difference between the classes we found there was the poor shabby town of Belen. Situated at the edge of the river. Great part of it is floating on the muddy waters, the rest are built on stilts because the river tides or the torrential rain. People live there in precarious conditions. No plumbing, sewers or electric power.

The people that work in this town are the majority working in rice fields or are fishing the river. Both fish and rice are the staples food of their daily consumption.

The precarious conditions and lack of cleanliness are main contributors to illness and contagion among this population.

This concludes the first part of my narrative.

Marginal village of Belen at edge of river

Floating village and rice pads on background

Small huts at edge of river

 All photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian101