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My time in the amazon was easily the most extraordinary time of my life. nothing that i have ever done can compare to that time in adventure, uniqueness, and pure incredibleness . . . i imagine that this is what travel was like 100 years ago. there were many times that i felt like a national geographic explorer truly discovering the ways of the ecuadorian amazon.

La Amazonía: The Village of Wachimak

Andy Wunder
2007-04-19 22:35:13

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taking care of me. of course i added to the change. but i tried to be there in a way that affected them the least. all tourism has that effect in one way or the other. i wanted to be their to see their village, their way of life, and to get a real view of the wild amazon rain forest. if my money helped them buy a few candles and some salt then good. but i wasnt trying to buy them some more dvds. if there had been a bar there and 7 tourist, i would have never had gone in the first place. i went to live the life that the people of wachimak lived. thats what i wanted and luckily for me, thats what i found.

however, their way of life is dramatically and quickly changing. he told me that only 50 years ago, his parents wore no clothes and took 100% of everything from the jungle (soap, food, medicines). soon wachimak will have a road and all the problems of modern life to contend with. if i remember correctly, marx described this process as "primitive accumulation." primitive accumulation is the process of capitalism coming into being. it is the process of using natural resources as an initial capital while alienating the indigenous population by exploiting their land and making living of the land impossible. by wiping out an environment you force a population out of their subsistence lifestyle and force them into a capitalism where they must now work to make money to buy food to live (you also conveniently acquire a proletariat work force for your factory that process the timber that you just cut). while i was there, these people lived a hassle free life. the jungle provided everything. they relaxed all the time. but roads bring people and people bring stress to an environment. animal populations will drop, the environment will become scared,and living densities will increase until the people of wachimak, once able to live of the land, will be forced to buy farmed meat and shipped veggies. they will soon be purchasing electricity and will need to find a job to ...