In the tube, the spongy floor(flat), harridans' lagoon

Carlos Cubillos, the manager of the hotel " The Safari ", took us to Manuel, the director of the SISBEN, and to knowing the lagoon of the harridans.  It was a worthy experience of a "echo - tour".  Since(as,like) it(he,she) was summer, we went away behind the Indigenous Zone and crossed an immense rock, which shows after the houses finish, just before coming to Vitina brook. We look(looked) for some trunk for where to happen(pass) without wetting either the shoes or the trousers and we find(found) it easily.  The tube was not coming to the meter(underground) of depth and did not have any more than two meters of width.  On having trodden on his(its,her) edges he(she) was feeling as if a mattress was trodden.  The pasture was lit of something black, as a sponge watered by the whole shore.  This zone inundable* was full of life in the floor(flat), in this little cap given(beaten) to the rock or to the sand.

We got for a way that was bifurcating every ten meters or less.  If the place was not known well one was getting lost easily.  Up to(even) to Cubillos, villager and explorer, cost work to be orientated.  There were parts(reports) that had been burned, one saw the black pasture in not very big spans, because the dampness of the land was not allowing that the fire should advance very much.  Carlos showed us the black sponges hung on the trees, since(as,like) to a meter(underground) over us.  " Yes they see them? Up to where the sponges are, up to(even) there the water comes in winter! " He seemed to be to the foreign two exaggerated, since there were places in where the sponges were to more than two meters over us. In winter I could see that the water not only was coming even there, but the sponges were not indicating the surface, but any more than two meters were remaining plunged. What in summer had been the bed of the tube c only could only in you cause more than 8 meters below the water, when less. And I do not exaggerate!

To a few minutes we come(came) to the lagoon.  A belt of pasture, as a carpet or a field of golf, was separating her(it) from the jungle.  It was like a sanctuary.  The birds scared scarcely saw us and the mattress of the floor(flat) was feeling more thickness.  Of it(him) waters drops were going out every on that one was treading.  In the surface of the water wavinesses and concentric circles were seen, an evidence of which the fish were there below, eating up some to others.  There to the side there was coffee with a dash of milk small trees, who knows if to see the landscape better or to be able to enter(approach) some craft. He(she) amazed his(her) that was burning thereabouts nearby. I remembered(reminded) my demurrage(stay) in Ambaló's security, when it(he,she) showed me the same spongy cap, but in the cold climate of the mountain.  There a photographer remembered(reminded) his(her) that was exactly this cap the one that wanted to protect the CVC, with relative success.  In the Guainía there is no protection, as well as there is not even an environmental license.  " God gives comb to the bald men " it(he,she) says a saying.

In the return we saw The Hope indigenous to the neighborhood bathing(bathing) in the little brook. Work was cost us to find the way of return and we had to use a few canoes that were parked* to be able to go on to another side.  And we saw again the rock, with an indomitable pasture living above, in small isolated, some burnt little groups.  The pasture must feed of the dampness and of the scanty minerals that it(he,she) catches when the water is moving back(retiring) at the end of the winter, because everything else is a pure rock.  This same one to the 1 or at 2 p.m. it(he,she) warms up as a frying pan.  If one(one) for in her(it) I take off it is necessary to run giving little jumps, as Sofía Vergara in Pepsi's propaganda.  There they manage to diary the indigenous women(wives) to scrab and flog the clothes. They bring her(it) in buckets and there same they remove wetting ¡ and it(he,she) weighs! Sometimes they are accompanied by the children, who remain stopped it looking to one, responsibly, at curiosity and distrust. Providing that I have seen indigenous children I have seen the same look, from a prudent distance.

The indigenous children live near the water since they are born, learn to swim the most rapid, almost at the time that to walk.  If he(she) has drowned(suffocated) debit to be in the streams, because the people of the jungle live in the water through all his(its) life, plays with her(it) and of her(it) it(he,she) feeds.  In winter, the young men and the children were raised to the glasses of the trees that the tube was covering almost up to the half.  From there they were throwing and going in, without striking itself(himself,herself) with that they were remaining hidden by the darkness of the water, of the same color of a red wine. The hustle of the children was heard playing and botching(swindling), with a swimming pool so broad as the, people(village) himself as deep as they were wishing.  The fear of the vipers, hidden where less one waits for them, was supporting them nearby to the shore.

It(he,she) Had little ports in the tube, in the exit of every neighborhood.  From there the gentlemen(masters) and the ladies natives(indigenous) were dividing in the morning, with his(its,her) packings for fish weaved in palm, with the luncheon in a pot, sometimes with the children and up to(even) with the dogs. I never took advantage of the opportunity, but if one was asking any fisherman who was leading it to cross the tubes, the most probable age that he(she) was saying to him(her) that yes.  They are proud of his(its) fishing, of being able to show how there is captured the wealth of his(its) aquatic world.  Only they will refuse if they have to lead to the whole family and above to bring the fish, or something like that.

One morning, an elder puinave me continued looking, smilingly close to his(its) canoe, his(its,her) apparels, at his(its,her) dogs, while he(she) was greeting me. It was a silent invitation to divide with it(him), to go fishing or to hunt.  Only I had to come closer and say " ¿ it(he,she) takes me? ", but I did not say anything to him(her).  The work, the "duty", was keeping tied Inírida, the offices of the government, his(its,her) keyboards of computer, as a fragile chain that can break but one does not break, for respect.