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SHE TOOK A MOLLUSK |
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She took a mollusk, sort of shell, that was grabbed to the coral reef, The indigenous physiognomy of her face blended with the surrounding environment covered by grays and browns from the coral. Fast and with confidence she approached it to her mouth and blew firmly.
In the small depression that forms at the entrance of the shell once the mollusk is inside, a yellowish liquid appeared, then she took a small bulk of cotton previously weaved and poured the liquid in it, there wasn’t any difference at the beginning, but a few minutes later a slow transformation process of color started to happen, from an almost imperceptible light green, to the must beautiful and intense purple I have ever seen made out from a natural process.
-“This is the way we dye the cotton in purple color with this mollusk” As she said so, she smiled, and returned the mollusk to it’s place.
The place: Piñuelas, a beach in the south pacific region of Costa Rica, 64 Km southeast of Quepos, south of Dominical, there are two different way to get here, one is taking the road that crosses Jacó, Parrita, Quepos and Dominical, the other is taking the south Pan-American highway and once in San Isidro del General you turn to the coast on route to Dominical.
Piñuelas is the southeast limit of the “Ballena Marine National Park”, a sea portion between Punta Uvita and Punta Piñuela, in Quepos, Province of Puntarenas.
Around us, the ocean waves were beating our legs with regular intensity, with the force of a tide becoming high, there wasn’t much time left for such experience, soon the water was going to be covering the reef where we were, she repeated the process some more times very accurately, I tried to do the same, but, after a few times I couldn’t make the mollusk exude the mentioned liquid, I have few times before been so much frustrated for been unable to do something as in these case, after a short time the waves made us get out of the reef quickly, even though I was soaked from the belly to the feet, I felt satisfied with the experience.
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With an easy access , Piñuelas beach has the basic services tourists, the vegetation is exuberant an it’s people are very kind. This place hosts a tropical wet forest life zone, a rich marine flora and it’s annual average rainfall is of 2700 mm, the dry season goes from January to April, is the most southernmost reproduction site for the humpback whale.
We took our equipment and started our way back.
-“My people almost loose the knowledge of this and other things, legacy form our ancestors that we now fight to rescue and preserve for the present and future generations”. At the time she talked, an armadillo appeared in the trail, not noticing our presence, it was because of the noise from our steps that we were suddenly noticed by it, but it didn’t care at all showing a strong indifference to our presence, and kept foraging stocking it’s nose under the dead foliage, such behavior is common on them.
Her comment made me return to the past 500 years, when her ancestors made the same job in complete harmony with nature, I tried with some success to recreate the times when the Boruca tribe worked in peace and tranquility, it’s interesting to observe that the extraction of the colorant makes no harm to the populations of mollusks alouding the constant use of the resource through out the year, we are able to observe that the natives had and still have techniques that nowadays are so called sustainable.
But the idyllic image in my mind was quickly replaced by other, the image of this and other tribes around, been slaved by the Spanish conquers through forcing them to work on the elaboration of the purple cotton.
Costa Rica never had enough silver and gold mines, it was few what this poor land could tribute to the crown, among the few thing our land could produce was the purple cotton, dyed with the “murice” molusck, this cotton was then send to the Spanish crown as a tax, then crown then gave it to the church, because purple was and is nowadays a very much used color in the catholic church. |
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The vegetation near the trail and around I presume, is tipicly selvatic, carachteristical of tropical wet forest, with southamerican influence, the forest floor was covered by leaves since our visit occurred during the dry season. Is wise not to walk into this and any other trail that is covered by leaves without the guidance of a local person, this is because of the risk of an snake attack, even though a very unfrequent event I have seen after several years of experience as a guide, there is a chance, remote, but a chance. If you have no guide, then you may go ahead with the help of a long stick and touch the ground one or two steps in advance, like a blind person, in this way you may verify the existence or not of a snake before you step in one. This simple rule will warranty a safe and enjoyable hike in this or any neotropical forest.
As we arrived from our short trip, we were able to eat a delicious meal prepared by the people of the Boruca community, they made this demonstration for the film team for whom I was hired as a free lance guide, interpreter, fixer and whatever was needed at the moment for the production of a tv documentary about Costa Rica ¨Trailblazers Costa Rica¨ 1998. Transatlantic films.
During lunch I was able to talk with Margarita Lazaro, leader of the comunity who started the cultural rescue process that at the present features as an alternative for a better income for a poor community as this one. She explained me how the first steps were given in the production of fabrics enteraly hand made, with cotton collected from the woods, weaved and dyed with the molusck, native plants and soils.
I think this is a project we most all know and support, we must understand that conservation of the rainforest must be followed by the conservation of the ancestral knowledge of human groups that have interacted for millennia with nature.
The sunset was happening in the marine horizon, all what I could see from the Borucas was the image of their vehicle far away blending with the green that frames this beach, arround me, the sequence of sounds that announce the arrival of a new nocturnal chapter in the forest was starting, the owl call and the sound of the bats wings guided my thoughts, with them and with the past of Borucas and all the costarricans, I thought some day I was going to write an article, I was cool thinking on such things when the voice of Peter, the british gentleman, grabed my attention -“Are you ready man?” -¨ Yes I am¨, I said I got into the car, closed the door, and we started our journey in route to our next destination. |
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