An eco-guide in Amazonia and a tourist guide in Europe are dramatically different professions. The primary aim of the European guide is to share the well-known information with his clients.In Amazonia, the job of the guide is a serious job, that can also be at times dangerous, and requires a lot of special knowledge and skills.
The eco-guide has to know all the names, characters and habits of all mammals, snakes and birds. He has to be aware of the culture, traditions and the way of life of different indigenous people (which is necessary so as not only to tell a nice story to his clients, but more importantly, to survive - in some places in Amazonia cannibalism is still exists).
He has to be ready to any unpremeditated and extreme situation, to be strong physically (as Esaud - my guide in the Lake Sandoval, who, after two hours of walking in the mud with his and my rucksacks, was rowing in canoe for four hours under a boiling sun). The eco-guide has to know how to use a weapon, how to talk to very different people and - probably the main thing - he has to be a hopeless romantic. Otherwise, this job is plainly unbearable.
- ‘For me every tour is an adventure’ – Esaud says.
- ‘Every time there are new places and new people; they ask such a different questions... Most of them I can answer, of course. But I met people who used to live in the rainforest for twenty years or even more... These people have a lot to learn from them’.
It seems I was asking very simple questions - why some of the ants walk against the main stream, which criteria otters use to chose the lake, what is the name of the bird who screamed a minute ago, and so on. All of these questions received the irrefragable answers.
- ‘Every time there are new places and new people; they ask such a different questions... Most of them I can answer, of course. But I met people who used to live in the rainforest for twenty years or even more... These people have a lot to learn from them’.
It seems I was asking very simple questions - why some of the ants walk against the main stream, which criteria otters use to chose the lake, what is the name of the bird who screamed a minute ago, and so on. All of these questions received the irrefragable answers.
To become an eco-guide, one has to study at least for three years, learning biology, the languages of indigenous tribes, management, English and other subjects. After graduating, the students are obliged to get some work experience - in the eco-lodges or some other places.
The guarding of the areas marked as "protected area" also falls on the shoulders of the eco-guides. Walking in the rainforest you recently can see the plates with the sign "protected area". But who protects it in fact?
- ‘We should...’ - replied Glubert, the pensive coordinator of mammal projects in Fauna Forever.
- ‘It is our task’ - replied Esaud, eco-guide in Sandoval lake.
- ‘And how you do that? You don't have even a gun...’
- ‘Well, if we see someone coming to the protected area, we advise them not to come. If we hear the shots or feel the smell of alcohol, we report to the local authorities of ecological police’.
- ‘And they take any measurements?’
- ‘We hope they do’.
On the way to the National Park Chuncho - the unique place, where the hundreds of macaw come to eat clay - I saw only one registration point with only one ranger (and with only one machete - to continue the sad tale of Glubert).
The guarding of the areas marked as "protected area" also falls on the shoulders of the eco-guides. Walking in the rainforest you recently can see the plates with the sign "protected area". But who protects it in fact?
- ‘We should...’ - replied Glubert, the pensive coordinator of mammal projects in Fauna Forever.
- ‘It is our task’ - replied Esaud, eco-guide in Sandoval lake.
- ‘And how you do that? You don't have even a gun...’
- ‘Well, if we see someone coming to the protected area, we advise them not to come. If we hear the shots or feel the smell of alcohol, we report to the local authorities of ecological police’.
- ‘And they take any measurements?’
- ‘We hope they do’.
On the way to the National Park Chuncho - the unique place, where the hundreds of macaw come to eat clay - I saw only one registration point with only one ranger (and with only one machete - to continue the sad tale of Glubert).
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So, almost all research and conservation activity are hanging on volunteers - and on the ecotourism, what is actively developing thanks to the private investors, who buy a plot of forest and have to care about it. Everyone knows that the Amazonian Rainforest is the lungs of our Planet - but in a lot of cases, this knowledge is just theoretical. But for the sagacious investors, it is one of the best values for money: the stream of tourists coming to see the Amazonian jungle increase dramatically. I remained under the impression that having just minimal help from the government, the country might quickly become no worse than Costa Rica, which primary source of income is ecological tourism.
In contrast to the highly experienced Esaud, Jesus is only 23. He was born somewhere in Iquitos area, completed his studies in ecological tourism in Puerto Maldonado and, by way of internship, spent a year in an indigenous pride, researching their way of life and their traditions. It was not the easiest experience, but he is going to go there again - to teach the locals how to develop the eco-tourism in their areas.
Courteous, attentive Jesus never parts with his binoculars Vertex 10x42 - his only expensive possession. But even without the binoculars, he can notice a tiny bird in the forest, and tell its name at once. Sometimes he is stopping to move, trying to identify the voices of the jungle and saying who is singing and how they look like. Interestingly, on the territory of the Peruvian rainforest, there are about 1,800 different species of birds!
Observing his attitude to the pets and plants, you can easily understand that this young man with a sharp machete is a man of the magnanimous soul.
- ‘Why do you always walk with a machete, Jesus?’ - I asked him. In the same moment, just about a meter ahead of us, something huge was flapping its wings, and flying up to the nearest branch.
- ‘There is your answer!’ - he smiled in response to my fear.
Courteous, attentive Jesus never parts with his binoculars Vertex 10x42 - his only expensive possession. But even without the binoculars, he can notice a tiny bird in the forest, and tell its name at once. Sometimes he is stopping to move, trying to identify the voices of the jungle and saying who is singing and how they look like. Interestingly, on the territory of the Peruvian rainforest, there are about 1,800 different species of birds!
Observing his attitude to the pets and plants, you can easily understand that this young man with a sharp machete is a man of the magnanimous soul.
- ‘Why do you always walk with a machete, Jesus?’ - I asked him. In the same moment, just about a meter ahead of us, something huge was flapping its wings, and flying up to the nearest branch.
- ‘There is your answer!’ - he smiled in response to my fear.
A mandatory skill for an eco-guide to have is driving. Not driving in a comfortable highway - but, for example, like the driving, we had with Jesus when he helped me to move to Wasai using a motorbike. Actually, it was one of the most unforgettable impressions: just imagine that your little vehicle tries to go along a clay path, sometimes crossing the bogs, trying not to touch the branches above and not to turn over the roots at the bottom. And don't forget that this poor motorbike has two people and two rucksacks upon itself.
- ‘Goodbye, forest man’ – I told Jesus. – ‘You are a real man. But be careful with the women - they are so different...’
He smiled and disappeared in the deep of his native rainforest.
13.03.2015