City as Text™, Jungle as Text: Iquitos and the Amazon
Peter Machonis, Florida International University
The NCHC Semesters Committee meets twice a year (May/June and at the annual national convention at the end of October) and plans and implements Semesters programs for students, as well as Faculty Institutes. Following a successful Faculty Institute which took place in Iquitos, Peru and the surrounding jungle in March 2009, committee members voted at the June 2009 meeting in St. Louis, MO, to hold the summer 2010 meeting in Iquitos, Peru. One objective of holding the meeting at this location was that members of the committee might have the opportunity to participate in a mini-version of a Faculty Institute prior to the regular business meetings. The mini-institute gave committee members the opportunity to apply experiential learning techniques to novel locations and experiences, and to explore how to better implement this methodology in the activities of the committee as well as at the committee member’s home institutions.
The Iquitos meeting revisited many of the themes of the March 2009 Amazon Institute − exploring historic and current tensions related to the conservation and exploitation of natural and human resources in the Amazon. Current stakeholders are recent colonists, indigenous peoples, oil companies, tourism enterprises, local governments, and NGOs concerned with global climate change and conservation. Some of the questions that were explored were: Who, if anyone, “owns” the Amazon? Can historical perspectives guide us in protecting or exploiting the Amazon and its people in the 21st century? What are the obligations of rich and developing countries?
Committee members Bernice Braid, Liz Beck, Ada Long, Kathy Lyon, Jesse Peters, Matt Nickerson, Bill Daniel, Joy Ochs, and Peter Machonis flew to Iquitos, a vibrant city with a population of ½ million yet without road access to the outside world. With the expert help of committee member and Project Amazonas director Devon Graham, they explored the various neighborhoods of Iquitos, along with the Belen Market, which offers an astounding array of rainforest produce, including over 100 species of native fruits, hundreds of medicinal plants and concoctions, wild game, and dozens of species of fish, along with shoes, cell phones and services such as dental care. Similar to the 2009 NCHC Faculty Institute in the Amazon, the city exploration was then followed by a riverboat journey to the Peruvian Amazon jungle.
The committee held their summer meeting while they traveled by riverboat to the Madre Selva Biological Station on the Rio Orosa (a 10-hour ride) where they experienced the rainforest during day and night excursions on foot and by small boat. They also visited nearby Comandancia where they interacted with mestizo and Yagua Indians, who are struggling to maintain their language and culture in the face of accumulating pressures.
During last year’s NCHC Faculty Institute in the Amazon, we asked participants to show their best five photos and give them each a one-word title. This exercise not only got participants to organize their numerous photos, but also to reflect on what they were doing, seeing, and feeling. The following is a takeoff on that exercise, comparing photos of the city and the jungle, with some final thoughts on the City as TextTM/Jungle as Text experience.
Coincidence? Iquitos is the gateway to the Peruvian Amazon, but that aspect can often be forgotten in many neighborhoods, until closer observation. In the San Juan neighborhood, there were blue gray tanagers and butterflies.
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| Butterflies in mud near Plaza San Juan | Butterfly at Amazon field station Madre Selva |
Fitting in. Experiential learning is particularly challenging in a foreign county. If you don’t fit in and are clearly a tourist, you could easily be taken on “a tour” by a local guide, instead of exploring on your own, thus contradicting City as TextTM methodology. Participants, however, learned just as much from these less-than impromptu walkabouts at the Belen market as well as more organized visits to local communities along the Amazon.
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| Iquitos: Fitting in | Comandancia: Standing out |
Shopping. A City as TextTM guaranteed way to strike up a conversation is to buy something, be it in the Belen Market, in the streets of Iquitos, or at the local handicraft market in Comandancia. Ever wonder what Devon was buying from the women in the streets of Iquitos?
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| Buying a phone card | Buying a freshly carved gourd with bat motif |
The unexpected. Another City as TextTM tenet is to be open for the unexpected as well as the expected. An unanticipated experience upon arriving at Plaza San Juan was to see a whole line of balloon-covered motokars with children arriving to celebrate the “Día de la educación inicial.” The children of Comandancia likewise enjoyed their short boat ride with our group after our visit there.
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| Día de la educación inicial | Hitching a ride back home |
Neglected Animals? Some participants remarked that most dogs did not seem to be very well taken care of in Iquitos. One could say the same for the monkeys that have all but disappeared from areas of the jungle, due to over hunting. Again, we were always on the lookout for the unexpected in the city, in the jungle, and along the Amazon. Who would expect to see a pampered dog riding a motokar in Iquitos? Although, we saw numerous monkeys from afar in the jungle at the Madre Selva Biological Station, we never expected to get this close to monkeys at the Isla de los Monos animal rehabilitation center.
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| Dog riding motokar in Iquitos | New found friend at Monkey Island |
Old and new. This year’s NCHC Semesters Committee meeting was one of the first excursions on Project Amazonas’ new ship, the Nenita. Last year, NCHC institute participants were among the last to ride the Tucanare.
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| The Tucanare (2009) | The Nenita (2010) |
Infinite. No matter what the ship, there was always plenty of interesting discussion on board, participants exchanging new pedagogical ideas, expanding their perspectives, reflecting … echoing the infinite expanse of the Amazon.
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| Infinite discussion onboard | Expansive sunsets on the Amazon |
