Bulletin 3
– 4 August 1997
Telecom Amazon Adventure Update
 Update
from Andrew
Hello from the land of the Incas. I arrived here at
Cuzco on 31 July after a hectic morning of flying. The
flight times meant I couldn't go to bed the night before
I left because I had to check in at the airport at 2 am.
I flew from Manaus
to the city of Santa Cruz in Bolivia, on to La Paz, and
then to Cuzco.
During the last flight I flew over Lake Titicaca - the
highest navigable lake in the world.
When I arrived in the Cuzco it was 22░C
- but I needed to wear a jersey and a thick jacket
because I felt so cold. (I'd been used to the 33-35░C
temperatures in Manaus.)
Cuzco is very different from Manaus. The
people look different, dress differently, and the
buildings and cars are different. Cuzco, in Peru, is
famous because it was once the capital of the Inca
empire. Outside the city there are many old ruins, and
nearby is the spectacular lost Inca city of Machu Picchu.
The Spanish settlers destroyed most of the Inca capital
and now Cuzco features European-style churches and
palaces, some of which are more than 400 years old. But,
if you look carefully, you can still see the even older
Inca walls serving as the foundations for these
buildings.
I like the people in Cuzco very much.
They are mostly Peruvian Indian, and they smile a lot and
are friendly and helpful. Physically, they are generally
quite short and stocky, with dark hair, brown skin, and
Asiatic features. Many wear the traditional costume of
jerseys and cloaks made of colourfully woven wool and
other fabrics. Much of the wool here comes from llama and
alpacas. Alpaca wool is much finer and lighter than
sheep's wool and is soft and very
comfortable to wear.
I needed to rest when I arrived in Cuzco.
It is located 3,326 metres above sea level, which is
similar to standing on the top of Mount Cook. At this
height the air contains less oxygen so your body needs to
work harder to get the oxygen it needs. Your body takes a
few days to adjust to the different environment. If you
try to do too much you might suffer shortness of breath,
a sore chest, and headaches - all of which happened to me
after walking just a few blocks around the city when I
first arrived.
While I'm here, I plan to visit many
museums and some archaeological sites to learn more about
the Incas and the other people who lived here. Peru has a
history with many different ancient and interesting
cultures - so there is lots here for me to learn about. I
am especially looking forward to my visit to Machu Picchu
in a few days time.
The Boi Bumbß: A Local Amazon Festival
During my stay in Manaus I became
fascinated by a local tradition known as the Boi Bumbß.
It is an old caboclo dance, which tells of a local
legend. Each June, there is a festival in Parintins
– a small town a day or two down-river from Manaus.
People travel to Parintins from all around to take part
in this festival. There is lots of dancing, music, exotic
costumes, fireworks, and even special effects like
fire-breathing dragons. People put a lot of effort into
making the festival very special and an event to
remember.
The legend behind Boi Bumbß tells of a
pregnant woman who was having cravings for food. She and
her husband both lived on a farm, where her husband was a
farmhand. One day, the woman’s cravings got
especially bad and she asked her husband to kill the
farmer’s prize bull so she could eat its meat.
Fearing something might happen to his unborn child if he
ignored his pregnant wife’s cravings, the husband
killed the bull at once.
When the farmer learned his favourite
bull had been killed, he was very unhappy. He told the
farmhand to raise the animal back from the dead. To do
this, the farmhand got a local pajΘ – an Indian
medicine man or shaman - to dance around the dead bull,
singing and casting spells. After much effort, the
medicine man was able to bring the bull back to life
– making everyone happy and causing them to dance
for joy.
No one is really sure if this story is
true – but it is the origin of the Boi Bumbß
festival. During the festival, many people dance to
re-enact the story.
The Boi Bumbß music is very good –
it is a mixture of traditional Indian tribal rhythm with
more modern Brazilian music. Brazilians love to dance, so
the music is extremely danceable. Each year, groups
invent new dances (and new variations of the Boi Bumbß
music). The groups then dance at the festival, wearing
their costumes – trying very hard to out-do each
other and be voted the best.
After this year’s festival, some of
the groups came to Manaus to demonstrate what they had
done. As a result, there are now many people here dancing
Boi Bumbß. Sometimes when I walk past a local park in
the evening, where there is a small stage and a sound
system, I can see lots of people dancing the Boi Bumbß.
Everyone enjoys it – but it is enjoyed mostly by the
local children because they get to dance, wear fancy
costumes, and have lots of fun.
While I was at Aria· Tower
wildlife park, one of the people who danced Boi Bumbß at
the festivals tried to teach the dance to me. It was very
complicated, and difficult for me to learn. But, now I
know a little and can dance with the others. I’m not
very good, but the dance is quite fun . . . even if it
does get a little too hot dancing on these steamy
tropical nights.
Anyway, I'm enjoying my adventure here
very much - I hope you and your class are finding it as
much fun as I am.
Andrew
Let's take a trip back in time . . .
Six hundred years ago, huge armies
rampaged along the Pacific coast of South America. These
armies crossed high mountains, deserts, and trekked
through wild tropical jungles – conquering
neighbouring territories and adding them to their vast
empire.
Sometimes they fought long and fierce
battles, but in most cases the armies were so big and
powerful they quickly swamped everyone and everything in
their path. Eventually, one empire covered a third of the
South American continent and ruled more than 12 million
people. It was big enough to rival Rome and the great
empires of Europe and Asia and it belonged to the South
American people known as Incas.
As armies expanded the Incas’
empire, teams of engineers followed behind –
building a network of roads to connect new territories
with the rest of the empire. These roads enabled Inca
armies to move quickly and easily. Soldiers could rapidly
be sent from one end of the empire to the other, stopping
attempted rebellions or providing reinforcements for new
conquests.
Beside each road the Incas built
storehouses for food, clothing, and weapons –
ensuring their armies were always well supplied.
Roads were also important for
communication. Messengers could be sent back and forth
from the Incas’ capital at Cuzco, carrying news and
orders so the empire’s administrators were always
well-informed about events around the empire.
The Inca Ruler
The ruler of this empire was "The
Inca". He was more than a king – he was
considered to be a living god. Legend states the first
Inca, Manco Capac, was sent by the sun to teach people
how to plant crops, raise animals, and build
civilisation. They say the sun descended into Lake
Titicaca, leaving Manco Capac and his sister on Isla de
Sol (Island of the Sun) in the middle of the lake.
Because of this divine origin, The Inca rulers were
worshipped as children of the sun.
At first, the Inca people were just one
of many different groups living in the Andes Mountains,
and they were often at war with their neighbours. Their
territory centred around the town of Cuzco, and only
extended about 100km from the city. In 1430AD, the Incas
were almost wiped out by a neighbouring people called the
Chancas.
The Chancas launched an attack which was
so powerful that The Inca - Viracocha, the eighth in the
lineage - fled Cuzco with his eldest son, sure that his
army was about to be crushed by the invaders.
Disappointed at his father’s cowardice, The
Inca’s other son, Pachacuti, rushed to join the army
and rallied them for the fight. The fight was long and
fierce, but legend says that the gods intervened by
turning rocks on the battlefield into warriors –
helping the Inca soldiers to defeat the invading Chancas.
After the battle, Pachacuti became Inca,
and rebuilt the city of Cuzco. He introduced new forms of
government, administration, and schools to help the
empire run smoothly. He also rebuilt the army and
conquered the Chancas and surrounding territories and
enlarged the empire so it was ten times bigger.
Pachacuti ruled his people firmly, but
also had concern for their welfare. The Inca people were
expected to pay tribute to The Inca by giving him crops
and woven cloth and in return The Inca would ensure
everyone had food, shelter, and lived in relative peace.
Inca engineers built irrigation channels to turn
unproductive land into gardens and farms, and built
terraces on hillsides so these areas could also be used
for growing crops. In emergencies, like earthquakes or
droughts, The Inca arranged for supplies to be sent from
other parts of the empire to make sure his people had
enough food, blankets, and shelter.
As the empire expanded, it began to take
in a wide variety of different tribes and people. The
Inca people tried to win them over by sending engineers
to improve their farms, irrigation, and other services.
In return, these people had to accept the Incas’
religion and traditions. Some tribes did this willingly,
but others resisted. Any attempted rebellions were put
down with quick and ruthless efficiency by The Inca and
his authorities.
The fall of the Inca empire
Stories of the Incas’ rich empire
soon filtered through to Spanish authorities who had
taken over Mexico and Central America. A Spanish man
called Francisco
Pizarro was sent to find out more. On a voyage along
South America’s Pacific coast, in 1526, he
discovered several Inca settlements, and learned of the
vast wealth at the Incas’ capital in Cuzco. Greedy
for gold and eager to claim the new territories, Pizarro
immediately travelled back to Panama to organise Spanish
soldiers for a battle for the Inca territory. He returned
in 1532, bringing 62 horsemen and 106 infantrymen.
Although Pizarro’s force was tiny compared with the
Incas’ army – with trickery and a lot of luck,
he quickly conquered the Incas’ vast empire.
Several things made Pizarro’s task
much easier. Like most other American natives, the Incas
had no resistance to European diseases
– and smallpox killed millions of people throughout
the empire. To make things worse, The Inca had died and
his two sons, Atahualpa and Huascar, were fighting each
other for the throne. When Pizarro’s men arrived,
the empire had already been devastated was ill-prepared
to cope with the invaders.
Instead of attacking Pizarro’s
force, the Incas offered little resistance and allowed
the Spanish to march into a meeting with Atahualpa.
Claiming to have come in friendship, Pizarro met The
Inca, captured him and massacred his followers. The Inca
people were so distressed by the capture of their leader
that most of them surrendered to the strange invaders,
and readily paid a huge ransom in gold. The Spanish then
started to ransack the empire. The Incas were too stunned
to respond and were terrified by the Spaniards’
horses. (The Incas had never seen horses before, and
thought they were devils.) Eventually the Incas managed
to pull together an army to fight the Spaniards, but it
was too late. Pizarro skillfully played the warring Inca
groups off against each other, and enlisted the support
of other Inca enemies so the Inca Empire quickly fell
apart.
The next few hundred years in Peru were
extremely difficult for the Indian people as their new
Spanish rulers erased the Incas’ religion and
identity. The Incas’ descendants still live in the
Andes today, and share some of the ancient traditions
– but 300 years of Spanish colonial rule and 150
years since Peruvian independence have changed life in
the Andes forever. Fortunately, it is still possible to
visit the ancient Inca cities and to learn about how they
lived. Amazon activity
Make up an Amazon board or card game for
you and a friend to play. This might be like the
Explorers and Adventurers board game poster, or it might
be something completely different -
for example a type of snakes and ladders board game.
Fun facts
There are 15,000 known animal
species, 1800 species of butterflies, around 2000
species of fish, four types of big cats and 200
mosquitoes in Amaz⌠nia. In addition a quarter of
the world's 8600 bird species lives in Amaz⌠nia.
The people of the Amazon town of
Parintins believe their church rests on the back
of a large snake hidden underground. Occasionally
the church shudders, which they believe is a
result of the snake moving. There is another
legend which says that the famous Opera House in
Manaus also rests on the head of a giant snake.
Read all about it!
Here are some more books about the Amazon
you may like to hunt out:
Amazing Monkeys,
National Geographic Society Action Book.
Brazil, Lonely Planet
Travel Guides, Victoria, Australia.
Amazonia, Susan
Powel, Reed Publishers, Australia.
Explorers of the Amazon,
Anthony Smith, Viking Books (Penguin), London.
The Search for El Dorado,
John Hemming, Michael Joseph, London.
The Incas: Empire of Blood and
Gold, Carmen Bernand, Thames and
Hudson, London.
Guest speaker
Joe
Kane will be the guest speaker for next week's
audioconference (13 August). In 1986, Joe was in the
first expedition to travel the entire length of the
Amazon River. There'll be some background information on
Joe in next week's Fax Bulletin.
Get the fax
We're aiming to fax the weekly
audioconference material and this bulletin to you each
Monday.
So please expect this material from 10am
onwards each Monday and make sure your fax machine has
enough paper to receive it.
Audioconference Update
Our weekly Explorers and Adventurers
audioconferences involve hundreds of schools.Because of
the popularity of the Amazon Adventure, we're going to
run two audioconferences each Wednesday which should make
it easier for all of you to join in.
The audioconferences will take place at
11 am and 12 noon on Wednesdays. Tapes of these two
conferences will also be replayed at 1.45 pm and 2.45 pm.
If your school name starts with a letter
between A and M please call into the 11 am
audioconference. If the first letter of your school name
falls between N and Z then please call into the noon
audioconference. Please check the audioconferencing
details faxed with this bulletin for more information
about your audioconference.
One thing you can do to help is to wait
until 15 minutes before your audioconference is due to
start (i.e. 10.45 or 11.45) before calling in. This will
give the Audioconferencing group time to set up your call
properly.
Answers to your questions
We're aware some school's didn't hear
Andrew's answers to questions 14 to 20 in last week's
audioconference, so we've included them in this bulletin.
Also, for future reference the Amazon
homepage features answers to the questions asked during
the weekly audioconferences. Here's how you can check out
the answers. At the Telecom Education Foundation homepage
(address: http://www.telecom.co.nz/tef)
click on the Explorers and Adventurers pointer and you'll
see the Amazon Adventure button. Click on
"Activities" on the green tool bar at the top
of the homepage, and from there go into
"Answers".
Questions 14. James Scarf,
Lagmhor School
Is it true that there may be tribes
of Indians
in the Amazon that have not yet been discovered?
There may be a few. Amaz⌠nia is a big
place and not all of it has been thoroughly explored. A
new sub-tribe of the Guajß were first contacted in 1990.
And last year, according to Time magazine, two Indian
women walked into a village speaking an Indian language
that no one else has ever heard of - so people aren't
sure what tribe they came from. But as more of Amaz⌠nia
gets explored, there are less new tribes to find.
Question 15. Ashleigh Scholar,
Room 2, Puketiro School
Do the people who live near the
wildlife kill any animals just for fur, money, souvenirs,
etc? If so, which animals?
Yes, some people do kill animals. Often
these people are very poor so kill the animals just to
earn a little extra money to feed their family. The hides
are brought by tourists (even though it is illegal to
import them into most countries) and by souvenir-makers.
Some animals such as the manatee and turtles are killed
primarily for their meat which is a delicacy. Popular
animals for skins include jaguars, ocelots, and jacare.
Question 16. Katherine Wells,
Birkenhead Primary School
Could you please describe the
behaviour of the animals in the Rainforest? How do they
react to humans? Are they noisier that the creatures in
our forests?
Most animals in the rainforests are quiet
and remain well hidden. This is their protection because
it makes if more difficult for predators (including human
hunters) to find them. Usually the only sounds are birds,
insects, and your own footsteps.
Some animals, like howler monkeys, make a very
loud noise which can be heard for miles – but there
are none around Manaus or Aria· so I haven't heard them.
I might hear some in the Peruvian rainforest in few weeks
time though.
Question 17. Thomas Cocks,
Claremont School
What is the most dangerous animal in
the Amazon rainforest?
Jaguars
are supposed to be dangerous – but they rarely
attack people. In fact, I've heard stories that they
sometimes walk in the bushes behind solitary travellers
in the rainforest. Not attacking, but merely escorting
the trespasser off their territory. There are even
stories of jaguars wandering into Indian villages and
playing with the children before disappearing back into
the forest.
So, what I think is the most dangerous
animal is the fer-de-lance snake. It is small and
difficult to see in the rainforest. Sometimes people
walking along remote trails accidentally step on them so
they bite. If not treated immediately people usually die
within hours.
Question 18. Nathan Mitchell,
Foxton Beach School
What methods are the poachers using
to catch the animals?
Manatees
are often caught by catching the more helpless baby
manatee – then using its yells to attract the
mother. The mother is then killed and the baby is
abandoned. This tragic because the babies can't survive
on their own. Because manatee reproduce only once every
four years the loss of a baby and a parent is terrible.
Jaguars
are poached at night. The poachers work in pairs. One is
in a boat close to the water playing an instrument which
sounds like another jaguar panting. When a real jaguar
comes to investigate the noise it is lit up with a
spotlight then shot.
JacarΘ
are also shot at night, using spotlights to find them by
the reflection in their eyes.
Question 19. James Tait, Lagmhor
School
Do you have to be aware of life
threatening animals like Crocodiles, Jaguars, Piranha
etc?
Yes, its good to be aware of them. But I
don't really know the risks so follow the advice of other
more experienced people about where not to go.
Question 20. Kimberly Ho, Room 3,
Puketiro School
How long would it take for a piranha
to eat a person?
Piranhas are small fish, so it would be
impossible for one to eat an entire human by itself (even
if it was very hungry). But often they attack in groups,
attracted by the blood and commotion caused by other
piranha.
A group of piranha has been known to eat
an entire capybara (the size of a Labrador dog) in 90
seconds so that only the bones were left. Therefore, it
might be possible for piranha to eat an entire human
being (leaving only the bones behind) in 3 to 5 minutes.
Explorers Mystery Quiz - Bulletin 3
Answer the Explorers Mystery Quiz
questions below correctly and be in to win a Panasonic
cassette recorder for your class. You will find the
answer to this week's first question on your Explorers
and Adventurers Mystery Trail poster. You might need to
do a bit more research to answer question two. Fax your
answers to the Telecom Adventure Line: 0-4-498 5575.
Entries close at 5pm on Friday 8 August 1997.
The classes whose students correctly
answer the most Explorers Mystery Quizzes during the
Explorers and Adventurers programme will go into the draw
for a grand prize in December. So good luck everyone.
This week's questions
Question One
What is the heaviest snake in the world?
Question Two
Who discovered the delta region of
Amazonia in 1500?
Last week's winner
The winner of last week's Explorers
Mystery Quiz was Room 14 , Redwood School, TAWA,
Wellington ...(Congratulations from the Webmaster.. sorry
this was missed out last week!!)
Last week's answers
Answer One
European explorers found more than
8,000 species of insects when they started their
scientific research in Amazonia in the 19th Century.
Answer Two
President Theodore
Roosevelt led a scientific expedition in the
Amazon Rainforest in 1914.
IMPORTANT
It is vital mute buttons are used by
speaking and listening schools during the weekly
audioconferences. This not only ensures improved call
quality, it means schools can listen to the speakers
without other distracting background sounds.
Telecom would like to apologise for the
unsupervised class taking part in last week's
audioconference. This class didn't use its mute button,
was noisy and used unsuitable language during the call.
In fairness to everyone please test and
use your mute buttons.
 
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