In the Wilds of South America

by Leo E. Miller

Miguelito is only three miles below Locotál, and consists of three or four huts in the centre of a grassy clearing. The Quechuas who live there are friendly, and one may be sure of a welcome for a night’s stop.

At five thousand five hundred feet the forest becomes taller and the trees attain a greater diameter. The vegetation of the subtropic zone reaches its highest development at this altitude. After crossing a ridge six thousand seven hundred feet high, the trail descends a long slope into the Yungas, properly known as the Yungas of Cochabamba. At the base of the ridge, and shortly before entering the cultivated area, we crossed the dry, narrow bed of a stream which was filled with rocks bearing the imprints of leaves, and also fossil shells.

Yungas is the name given to the fertile mountain slopes which have been cleared of forest and cultivated; it stretches along the sides of the Rio Yungas for a number of miles, and huts dot the roadside at frequent intervals. When we visited the region in June only the Indian caretakers lived in the habitations, the coca, which is the principal product, having been collected a short time before, and the propietarios having gone back to Cochabamba. The owners visit their plantations three times a year, supervise the picking and packing of the leaves and, after a month, return to Cochabamba to sell the drug and live on the proceeds until the next harvest.

After spending an hour in questioning the occupants of the various houses which we passed, we succeeded in locating the house to which we had been invited. It was a low, one-room board structure, open at both ends, and with wide entrances on each side, situated in the centre of a large banana-field. An Indian, so old that he could hardly walk, lived in the hovel and refused to admit us; however, we flourished our letter of introduction from the owner of the premises, took possession, and remained a week. When we left, the aged tenant implored us to remain, as we had daily provided him with all the game he could eat, and had provided him with some medicines that he greatly needed.

The climate at this season, June, was most trying. Although the elevation is only three thousand five hundred feet, the whole region was covered with fog each night, and the cold and damp penetrated everything; during a part of the year the weather is good, and then life in the Yungas is more bearable. We had a trying time at Señor Quiroga’s hut, and while the pleasure of investigating a new region is always intense, our joy at leaving was in this particular instance vastly greater.

There is no flat valley along the river, which is of considerable size, and all cultivation is done on the steep mountainsides. Coca is planted in terraces and occupies the greatest acreage; then there are red bananas, plantains, guavas, and sugar-cane.

The fauna of the country seems to represent a transition zone. There are birds typical of the higher country, and others which are common lower down; also, a number found at approximately this altitude only. Near the house, and on the edge of the banana-plantation, was a tall, isolated tree. Flocks of birds, in their flight from one side of the canyon to the other, would invariably alight in its branches for a few minutes’ rest. There were many brilliantly colored little tanagers (Tanagra) which came to the tree in considerable numbers and chirped and quarrelled as they flitted about examining the leaves for insects, or reached out to pick the small fruits with which the tree was covered; one day not less than seven species of these birds visited this resort within a short time.

An Indian hut in the Yungas of Cochabamba.

Giant orioles (Ostinops) were also very plentiful, and travelled in large, noisy flocks. One of the more interesting birds was a species of small, red-tailed parrakeet (Pyrrhura) which clung to and crawled up the sides of trees like squirrels; it was almost impossible to see them unless they moved, so well did their coloration, and more particularly their actions, conceal them.