Already for 4 month I am living my dream - discovering world!
I have been going through the whole coast line of Peru from South till North, but still haven't experienced even a half of all Peruvian traditions, cultures and other treats this country and it's people are offering. So now I am on my way back from North to South, but in this time - through the 'greens' and snowy peaks.
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| Cajamarca - Plaza de Armas |
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| Cajamarca - busy |
The first stop - city Cajamarca has full air with vibrations which charms You from the first breath you take! It's marvelous architecture, presence of mountains and calmness in the night, when You can swim in the sky - overwhelmed with billions of stars. This made me stay there longer than a couple of days. Couch-surfing service in the local architecture office with 3 other Argentinians - quite fun :)
Besides that some incredible visits to touristic spots - Baños de Inca, Cumbe Mayo (Inca Zig-Zag Canal system) and other breathtaking places.
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| Baños de Inca - Thermal water |
But what kept my attention more than anything were those writings I continued to read all around the city:
"Water YES, Mines - NO!", "Water YES, Gold - NO!", NO to Conga Project!" |
| Water YES, GOLD - NO! |
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| 'Shaved mountains" - open space for public opinions |
Later on I found out the story of Cajamarca, which is quite complicated and sad. It's called - "Conga Mine project" or in other words "GOLD instead of WATER"!
There is one word overused more than often through the conversations between the local people. The word is - Yanacocha - a mining company, which belongs mainly to USA, partly to Peru and IFC World Bank (5%). Yanacocha in native Quechua (Inca language) means ‘Black Lagoon’ – and longer time ago, it actually was a lagoon until Yanacocha set its sights on it – and transformed it into an open pit (mine) which can be seen even from space.
The problems caused by mining is that the gold, copper or any other metal in this region is extracted by using process of dissolution with other metals, which are very dangerous for environment. Metals used for dissolution (like mercury) as a contamination stays in the ground, which gets useless, and even worse - enters the rivers, which is the main source of life for the local farmer villages.
One day during my walk in Cajamarca mountains I met this local lady with her horse, who shared the way with me and sadly told:
"People here will never be happy again. Water - it is our life."
She was on her way across the mountain for 2 h, to get some drinkable water to her house, as the river for already several years is becoming more and more dangerous.
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| "Our mountains are disappearing" |
How can You actually feel in this city which is so adorable and welcoming, but can not provide You with a tap water to wash the fruits, from the market?!
And it is just a beginning...
The Minas Conga project what is the Peru’s largest current social conflict, is projected to be three times the size of Yanacocha (already) to 3,069 hectares of land and it would drain and exploit two mountain lakes to extract the gold and copper that lies beneath. Whatever water sources that would remain would most likely be polluted with heavy metals – and project plans to produce an average of 90,000 tons of toxic waste per day, every day for 17 years.
Despite the fact that the local governmental education system is very poor, and it seems, that for government it is very useful; local villages still understand that their mountains are disappearing and rivers do not carry the elixir of life anymore. They feel the never-ending headache, sees their animals dying and their children getting born with in-capabilities. People feel and understand. People write on the walls, they write on the mountains, they fight against it through protests, but it will never be enough. The smell of money is too strong here. Even the locals who are working in mines (and that is a HUGE number of people), are too occupied to spend the sudden amount of money they earned on the material things, they were so long dreaming about, that forgot the rank of essentials. The money makes them so dizzy that local mine workers wake up only after they have been thrown out from their work, without any benefits, because their health is not good enough anymore for keeping their previously occupied workplace.
The mining company Yanacocha comes publicly up with a phrase: “We are not proud of the current state of our relationship with the people of Cajamarca" and promise to replace the water with artificial system for next 50 years, but in the same time openly use aggression against some fighters, who still claim that they will not give their land up as they are the rightful owners; they believe the mountain lakes are sacred, and are willing to protect them, and Mother Earth, at all costs.
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| Senora who helped me in the mountains, when a dog tried to attack me |
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| Local mountain girl - picture made by her brother |
Unfortunately this problem does not end in Cajamarca and it's regions only. As besides huge amount of water and land, to realize Conga project there is also requirement to enlarge energy supply by 40%, which is planned to happen by building 20 enormous hydroelectric projects along the river Maranon - one of the main river of Amazon. The whole project is being pushed through 'by blood and by fire' which now places in dangerous position also inhabitants and nature from the jungle region. Hard to believe, that is happening for real... And the most shocking are the numbers. Imagine that to get 1 ounce of gold (which is enough for making one golden ring), they need to dig up 100 000 tons of ground.
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| Gold mine in Arequipa |
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| Arequipa - mountains of contaminated ground, which changes Peruvian vista forever. |
And again it is so obvious, that people alone are so hopeless in front of the financial 'giants'. The miracle can happen only if we start to care all together and turn off (at least for a while) our desires of superiority, reached by purchased materialistic things.
Greetings,
A.
Some more information:
https://vimeo.com/50059350
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/4438-peru-andean-self-determination-struggles-against-extractive-capitalism-
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/4823-perus-conga-mine-conflict-cajamarca-wont-capitulate
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