Urubamba river valley

This morning I arrived in Sepahua (Provincia de Atalaya, Departamento de Ucayali) from the Matsigenka community of Nueva Luz, farther up the Urubamba River.  This concludes my trip through the Urubamba river valley, during which I visited the towns/communities of Ivochote, Nuevo Mundo, Kitepámpani and Nueva Luz.  The goal of this ten-day portion of my trip was to carry out exploratory work regarding the possibility of studying the Kakinte language, a Kampan language spoken in the headwaters of the Mipaya river in the communities of Kitepámpani and Taini -- these communities are wholly Kakinte-speaking.  In most cases, individuals do not learn another language until they enter secundaria (high school), i.e., when they attend school in one of the communities on the Urubamba proper (Kitepámpani, for example, has only a primary school).  In this case, depending on the community, instruction may be in Matsigenka (another Kampan language) or Spanish.  This means that many young individuals my age have just recently learned Spanish, and are dominant in Kakinte; in other cases, older adults in Kitepámpani who never attended secundaria do not speak Spanish -- a linguistic gold mine for me in comparison to the many Spanish-dominant communities to which I am accustomed in Loreto!  Other Kakinte speakers are known to live in the communities of Tsoroja (on the Tambo river) and Maseca (off a tributary of the Sensa river, itself a tributary of the lower Urubamba).  More of a threat to the vitality of Kakinte than Spanish is Matsigenka, the dominant indigenous language spoken as a first language by most all individuals in the indigenous communities (Sp. comunidades nativas, abbreviated CC.NN) on the lower Urubamba proper.  Overall my trip was highly successful -- I will summarize it below.

My trip from Quillabamba began with a somewhat harrowing bus ride to Ivochote, along narrow (often one-way) dirt roads that reach high up into the mountains surrounding the Urubamba river valley -- roads are dusty, bus-drivers go too fast and the buses break down (in my case overheat on numerous occasions, with various impromptu repairs suggested by passengers).  To boot, the timing is terrible -- we left Quillabamba at 4:30AM and arrived in Ivochote at 1:30PM, stopping for breakfast along the way in the town of Kiteni.

Market -- Kiteni, Cusco, Peru

Nevertheless, the trip is spectacular.  Southern Amazonia (i.e., before the Pongo [see below]) is wholly different than northern Amazonia in terms of terrain -- there are mountains, sheer cliffs, gorgeous canyons and fast-moving pressing rivers, which makes boat rides rocky and fun at times.  Boats are considerably larger (around 50 feet) and powered by outboard motors (or in local Sp., Johnsons [the brand]).

Urubamba River, outside of Kiteni

 

The town of Ivochote is one of the farthest destinations one can reach by road along the Urubamba -- what one might call a frontier town, in the sense that electricity still reaches here from Quillabamba, there are restaurants (few) and "hotels".  I stayed at Hostal Marvin: one room with baño compartido (shared bathroom) s/15.  Upon my arrival I spoke to the manager of the local wharf about the possibility of being a passenger on a boat leaving the next day (Sunday).  At that time there were none, though as luck had it, I had the good fortune of getting passage on a boat that was mainly carrying individuals headed to Nuevo Mundo (teachers working at a temporary technological institute there) and others working for the local government in Quillabamba.  We left at 9:30AM (apparently two and a half hours later than some passengers had been told), and didn't arrive in Nuevo Mundo until 6PM.

Ivochote, Cusco, Peru

The journey from Ivochote to Nuevo Mundo takes you from more mountainous jungle to relatively flat, low-lying jungle similar to that of Loreto -- along the way one passes the Pongo, a narrow passage the Urubamba makes through some fantastic towering canyons, with waterfalls and close-growing vegetation on all sides.  Apparently during the wet season this region is quite dangerous and nearly impassable, but seeing as I am here in the height of the dry season, the ride was just slightly bumpy.  You know you've left the Pongo when you reach La Cabeza del Monstro (Head of the Monster), a rocky outcropping high above the river.

La Cabeza del Monstro

From here, it is a windy ride through along the Urubamba, passing numerous communities, many of them dominated by Matsigenka-speaking individuals.  Along the way we passed the mouth of the Camisea river, at the headwaters of which lies Montetoni, the village where Lev & Chris did much of their dissertation fieldwork among the Nanti, another Kampan group that lived for the most part uncontacted until the late 1980's (if I am not mistaken).  Looking back, one can see the stark contrast in terrain, having passed the Pongo and entered into lower-lying Amazonia.

Urubamba River, looking upriver toward the Pongo

Upon arriving in Nuevo Mundo, I was pleasantly surprised to find that members of Miguel Sergio's family (the Kakinte speaker with whom I worked in Cuzco) had come downriver from Kitepámpani to meet me in Nuevo Mundo -- namely his mother Antonia, sister Emilia and brother-in-law Genner (who is also presidente de la comunidad).  Miguel's youngest sister Anna is currently attending her second year of high school in Nuevo Mundo, and she a friend came to fetch me from the single hospedaje in town, where I was recommended to stay by the same of the teachers I had met on the boat.  We ate in a small house adjoined to that in which Anna stays while in N.M. for school.  I was able to further explain the purpose of my visit to Genner and get to know the family before my arrival to Kitepámpani.  Antonia's other son, Jonas, would be coming downriver the following day (Monday) to take me to Kitepámpani.  However, as I expected, Jonas arrived too late on Monday for a return trip the same day, so we delayed until Tuesday morning, which gave me time to explore N.M. more and meet the jefe de la comunidad Ángel.  Nuevo Mundo has been built up surrounding the large oil company presence in the area (namely the firms PlusPetrol and Repsol), which sadly is endemic throughout the Urubamba region, with large plants dotting numerous points along the banks.

Tuesday morning Jonas & I left N.M. around 6:30AM with his two young nephews and another Kakinte man from Taini and his wife and child.  We breakfasted at a house in a local Matsigenka village along the Mipaya, before arriving in Kitepámpani around 2PM.  The journey along the Mipaya was my first experience with the narrower, shallower, faster-moving rivers of this region.  Unlike the large rivers of Loreto, going upriver on these rivers actually means going up; and when the river is low, as it is now, that means hauling the boat over rocky undulations, at which point we may climb four feet or so (luckily Miguel and the man from Taini did most of the hauling, which is some serious work) -- this is pretty much necessary at every bend (Sp. vuelta/vueltita) in the river.

Mipaya River

My arrival in Kitepámpani was largely unceremonious, as many people were off going about their own work, and because the village itself only has about 60 residents (around 10 houses).  The influence of Repsol can be felt heavily in the village -- as compensation for essentially destroying nearby jungle, the company has built very nice, multicolored, fully enclosed, cement houses for all but two Kitepámpani families, as well as a new school and posta de salud (health post), where I was put up (the posta actually does nothing for health, as there is no sanitario [healthcare worker] or any medicine -- it is used primarily as a common meeting place for asambleas [town meetings] since there is no salón comunal).  I was provided food by Jonas and his wife Connie (yes, everyone has English names), as well as his mother Antonia at her house and his sister and brother-in-law at theirs.  Food was some combination of fish, manioc, plantains, rice and eggs, with an augmentation of one piece of fresh fruit, a lone caimito given to me by a young Kakinte boy (albeit probably my favorite fruit in Amazonia).  However, one gets to enjoy fresh masato (manioc beer) and chapo (another delicious plantain-based beverage) to drink -- two delicacies that should be adopted heartily in the United States.  Nevertheless, I am hankering for some more diverse food, as the mestizo menus here in Sepahua have little better to offer.

Kitepámpani, Cusco, Peru

Genner did not return to Kitepámpani with his mother-in-law Antonia until my first full day there (Wednesday).  Thursday, we held an asamblea in the posta de salud to discuss my presence in the village and the purpose of my trip there.  It turns out that some in the village were under the impression that I was there as a narco (short for narcotraficante 'drug trafficker') or delincuente (a term I have taken to mean some [perhaps petty] criminal trying to avoid capture).  This meeting was particularly heated, as the president's sister and mother were (initially) strongly against my presence in the community, arguing that only I would reap any benefits yielded from a project on the Kakinte language, and that I would likely bring other white people to the community, threatening its relatively intact isolation.  However, others, including the Sergio family and others, were staunchly in favor of my prospective work, and we were able to successfully convince the rest of the community that documentation of Kakinte was both needed and desired, particularly because, despite the presence of an SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics, a Christian-missionizing linguistics outfit) linguist, in the distant, partially Kakinte community of Tsoroja, very little documentation work has been produced on the language.  An odd facet of these asambleas is that they are not particularly disharmonious or divisive events, as even those that had been relatively vocal against my presence in the community were noticeably welcoming to me following.  It was agreed that I would help them set up the new community computer, which I readily agreed to, as well as help them type up a list of condiciones (demands) that they plan to present to the heads of PetroBras, another oil firm trying to gain permission for extraction in the Reserva Comunal Machiguenga, another environmental travesty.

ZJO & Kakinte speakers Jonas Sergio, Antonia Salazar, Joel Vargas

The rest of my time in Kitepámpani was spent getting to know community members and doing some small work on Kakinte itself (more lexical elicitation and work on the kinship system).  Kitepámpani is an immensely peaceful community, but I fear that that era is quickly drawing to a close, as it is only a matter of time before personal generators boom at night, along with the inevitable "co-advent" of TVs, Direct TV, boomboxes and the singular CD of cheesy (read 'shitty') Peruvian music and covers universal to Amazonia (pardon the cynicism).  I was able to bathe in the river that runs parallel to the community and watch the sun set and the evening fog roll in beyond the base of the airstrip/soccer field that runs down its center.  It rained three of the nights that I was there -- the river was higher upon our departure (Saturday) and we reached Nuevo Mundo in four hours, two of them unfortunately spent in pouring-down rain.

Ayeni River, early morning

Jonas took me as far down the Urubamba as Nueva Luz, stopping for lunch in Nuevo Mundo.  My visit to Nueva Luz was primarily a stop-over point between Kitepámpani and Sepahua, where I am now writing from -- during my time there I was able to meet Samuel Osega Panduro, a longtime friend of Lev & Chris, and his family.  In general, it is beneficial to have contacts in the Matsigenka communities that dot the Urubamba, as any work on Kakinte in the future will necessarily involve stop-overs in these locales.  Knowledge of the Matsigenka language (which I will likely dominar 'command' for some time) is also useful practically and socially in the region, as it is the dominant and less mestizo-oriented language of daily use.  (Lev & Chris are currently carrying out extensive fieldwork on Matsigenka, which began with work in the spring in Quillabamba, so it should not be too hard for me to pick up.) 

Nueva Luz, Cusco, Peru

I rented a room for two nights on the second floor of Samuel's house, and was fed by his wife Amelia, who also makes excellent (primarily sweet) masato.  It is customary to drink masato upon arriving for even the briefest of visits, inviting others to do so as well, and it is a staple at every meal -- needless to say, I was able to imbibe a considerable amount of it.  During my time in Nueva Luz I spoke with the local vicepresidente Micker Pinedo about the purpose of my trip, in order to gain additional favor and contacts in the region.  All were supportive, particularly upon knowing that I am a friend of Lev & Chris, who are nothing short of linguistic rock stars in the region. 

ZJO, Amelia López, relative, Samuel Osega

While I was initially very hesitant about my trip through the Urubamba river valley, mainly because of the newness of the territory and the daunting prospect of undertaking another (even more) in-depth linguistic documentation project, I continually felt very warmly welcomed in the communities I visited, and was heartened by the vitality of indigenous languages in the region and the pride that people have in speaking them (in contrast to the embarrassment frequently encountered in Loreto).  In particular, I very much enjoyed my stay in Kitepámpani -- people are friendly, jovial, curious and desirous of treating you very well.   I also felt them to be much more trustworthy, what one might call dignified in a somewhat misapplied sense here.   I look forward to the prospect of carrying out future work in the region in some form or another in the future.

Sepahua, Ucayali, Peru

From here I head tomorrow to Atalaya -- Wednesday, Satipo; Friday on to Lima!  I will likely update once more from Lima before my departure early Sunday morning from Jorge Chávez International.