Stories of the Forest

Puerto San Fermin, the Heart of Darkness

The story is written by Pablo Cingolani, the leader and the person in charge of the Bolivian expeditions. The article is composed and enriched by Emmanouel Laleos, FRGS

San Fermin, the Heart of Darkness - October 2000 - Photo by Pablo Cingolani

A port

San Fermín was not in existence until 1969. That year, three pioneering families carrying plenty of hopes and much of poverty, left by foot from Santa Cruz del Valle Ameno with the children at their back and their little properties - a pot, a machete, and an old lucky shotgun, and headed for a direction towards the unbeaten and unexplored forest. They had no idea of what they were going to meet or find there:  in any case, they were looking for something baptized by them as “The Promised Land” and the territory of their search was called Tambopata.

After a hard period of staying back to the uncertainty and the tiredness, they found a river of deep channel and brave waters and settled down there. That today is called Community Port San Fermín, arose by the encouragement of the brothers Coaquira, Remigio and Copertino, and also of Segundino Chambi who at the age of 62 years today, he still remembers clearly that time. This story was told to me by the eldest son of Finado Remigio, who’s name Marino was known as a challenge (or a mirror) in the middle of those forests without limits. The river is there and reaches the ocean. The port has a history and whoever approaches the border, can hear the roar of the Tambopata River which resembles that of the sea.

A Map

“Unexplored regions populated by savages”; that’s what is written in the first map to be made during the Republic, the one of Jose Maria Linares of 1859. Among the population of Ixiamas to the north, one can see the destroyed mission of Santiago de Pacaguara and further to the northwest in the middle of an implacable emptiness, the course of the Rio Madre de Dios. This cartographic inaccuracy – beyond the commendable work made by the authors Mujia and Ondarza, would give to the future numerous problems. The map seems to assure that beyond the mountain range of the Andes, there is absolutely nothing. It is therefore a map that indicates the geographic neglectfulness of those who lead the destiny of the country, a map that shows the Bolivian Amazonia and within it the north part of La Paz, which continues to be an ignored region placing the question 'how long shall we still keep this territory hidden?'

A Jail

Marino accepted a cigarette and continued saying to me the following phrases “We seemed exiled in our own mother country”. Until long ago, the truth was literal. Alto Madidi was for years a concentration camp of political prisoners making a story of geography in the jail. It was here where Zavaleta was confined to hunt monkeys to survive and someday we will certainly write this extraordinary documentary story. There is a part of the history narrated by Luis Enrique Mazzone Roca in a book published in Santa Cruz in 1996; the history of captain Montalvo and the prisoners and among them Mazzone who used a DC6 plane and managed to escape to Puno in Peru. That was a victory, which can be little remembered during the resistance, against the Banzerista’s dictatorship. The time today is changed and Alto Madidi is a camping area for the guards of the Madidi National Park. What has not been changed yet is the isolation. These people made by mistake a navigable routing of 15 days to arrive there; the history and the forest have now devoured the track, which was opened by the military.

An expedition

Along the Cocos River, Expedition Apolobamba-Madidi 2000

Tras Los Pasos de Percy Harrison Fawcett. Photo by Pedro Aramayo

In order to arrive at San Fermin from Apolo, Marino told me that it was necessary to walk for 4, 5 or 7 days and if the Cocos River is overgrown, one could be delayed for weeks. It was on the 23^rd of June 1897 when Colonel Pando left Apolo to verify this routing. He reached Tuichi River on the 28^th of June and after 15 days of long marching on the 14^th of July he arrived at a point where the two rivers joined. The first one was a small river whose course descended by our expedition (Rio Cocos) and the second one that was bigger descending a gulch (quebrada) was called "Mosojhuayco". The two rivers had formed a current that was called by the future President Lanza to honor the protomartyr of Bolivian Independence. Forty-four men have reached Lanza of whom 7 regressed immediately upon their arrival there. Pando made some balsas and with great efforts continued the swoop navigation as it is written in a report of the Geographical Society in La Paz. On the 27 of July they reached Rio Asata with lack of provisions carrying only salt, sugar, the mountain spirit, and the divine providence. San Fermin is located a few kms south of the mouth of this river in the Tambopata. An expedition in 1897 proved that the river was indeed in the Tambopata within the Peruvian Andes of Carabaya and ends at the Madre de Dios near Puerto Maldonado, the capital of the Peruvian territory of Madre de Dios. This is the reason that in many old maps the river is also referred as Pando, Madidi or Abuyama, also known as Heath.

A Commitment

It was a very cold morning of the last year that we crossed Tambopata and finally crossing the borders we entered Peru. The river is the limit between two republics and two national Parks but on both sides the forest and the poverty are the same. Ahead are the footpath to Curva Alegre and a winding way to Juliaca. Behind, Marino Coaquira and the 35 Bolivian families reached the site looking for a place to stay in this world.

We saluted the borders before reinitiating the march. Now, on the 11th of September 2003 we return again to our expedition's routing and the new challenge that we face now is called “Expedition Madidi 3 / Santos Pariamo”.

There we go,

Pablo Cingolani, Head of the Bolivian Expeditions