Reporting“In the Amazon rainforest” (1/2). Correspondent of the “World” in South America, Bruno Meyerfeld went to a neighboring region of Peru, landlocked in the jungle, where indigenous tribes survive, sometimes without contact with the outside world, threatened by the advance of farmers and poachers.
We saw them. Or rather heard. Perceived. Felt. Somewhere, over there, at the end of that damp earth path, deep in the forest. There are signs that never fail: broken wood, rudimentary tools, ashes, the remains of a fire that has just been extinguished. And, in the distance, very far away, like a whisper of the wind sliding between the trees, the hunters heard cries, recognized voices. They understood that they were not alone, that there were other human beings in the belly of the jungle.
“What are they looking for, so high up in the river? “, asked the caciques and the warriors of the Kanamari people. ” They “ had never come so close, only a few hours walk from Sao Luis, their village populated by 200 to 300 natives, lost on the borders of the Brazilian Amazon. Is it the hunger? Curiosity ? Chance? Or, perhaps, the will of the spirits of the kohana shamans who descended from the roof of the sky? No one really knows. One thing is certain: ” they “ are there, carpet nearby.
” They. “ Among the Kanamari of Vale do Javari, a gigantic reserve the size of Austria, they are called, with respect and fascination, the ” parents “, the “Flecheiros” (“Archers”) or “those who come from behind”. The Brazilian authorities refer to them with a much less poetic name; they talk about “Isolated indigenous peoples” and “Not contacted”. The last human beings on the planet without no contact with the outside world.
The Vale do Javari would thus have sixteen groups – 300 to 500 people in total, the largest concentration on the planet – who, unlike the Kanamari, have no link with Brazilian society. This justifies the existence of this reserve entirely covered with tropical forest, 3,500 kilometers from Sao Paulo and Rio. A continent in itself, perhaps what comes closest to the “end of the world”, accessible only by boat or plane.
Such places are deserved. To reach Sao Luis, it takes ten hours by fast boat in the dry season from the town of Tabatinga, nearly 300 kilometers on the Amazon then the rio Javari. The navigation is done at walk and by sight: this river is known for its sandbanks and sharp stones. The most distant human settlements, at the birth of the Curuça, Itui or Itacoai tributaries, meet in several days, even a few weeks of canoeing. For areas housing, we think, the “parents” not contacted, it would be necessary to add days and days of walking …
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