Journals

by Liam Howley Colpas are strange places indeed. We sit by them often, sometimes vainly, but always hoping to catch the sighting of a deer, or peccary, or descending howler monkey, or a jaguar (Panthera onca)  as it occasionally passes in search of prey. Colpas are areas of earth where clay is exposed in the correct chemical form for consumption, with macaws, parrots and parakeets drawn irresistibly to vertical riverside walls or where mammals go to bowls and depressions within the forest.

by Liam Howley Stillness is disturbed as the paddle dips so the sun ripples, and the surface smooth for its want of current joyously dances for the gentlest of moments. Propelled forward or attracted by the invitation of the parting water, the canoe glides gracefully by the floating grass, and we enter the reflected forest where aguaje palms grow downwards so that leaves touch a deepened sky and mirrored trunks ascend to root. I wonder if the oxbow lake is a gate way to meshi’dojo’, the underworld of the Ese-Eja.

The friaje. Alan Lee “Friiiooo, Friiioooo, Friiioooo” came the whistle of the hidden bird in the tangled vegetation beyond the canopy tower upon which I was standing. I peered up at the wispy clouds in the sky, remembering the story Jose Duran had told me two years before about how one always new a friaje, or cold front, was coming by the voices of certain birds that called just before.

A petition week. Friday 28th September to Friday 5th October Alan Lee and Anja Kirchdorfer A petition week. Friday 28th September to Friday 5th October The first I heard of the proposed bill to reduce the size of the Bahuaja Sonene National Park (BSNP) was in an email from Peruvian biologist Juan Grados. His opening line to the mail was “please read this, it is very important”. The first part of the email consisted of the resignation letter from the former head of the Institute of Natural Resources, Luis Alfaro Lozano, outlining his protest to the proposed bill.