Following the trail of the jaguar in the jungles of Colombia

A top of the Colombian trophic chain is the jaguar.

For the first time in a long time, a camera has detected one in the department of Huila and, progressing south, the number of jaguars settled in Putumayo reveals that these are good times for the beast.

It is hard to see it, but following its trail helps to understand the majesty of the Colombian massif, one of the areas with the greatest biodiversity in the world, where the toucan coexists with the spectacled bear and with giant insects that share ancient and colossal vegetation.

A place where statues full of teeth are built and coca leaves are chewed to ease the ascent, for example, to the Fin del Mundo waterfall.

So this is a trip from the Colombian city of Neiva, where the jaguar is no longer, towards the interior of that Putumayo where its roar can still be heard.

In Neiva, the capital of the department of Huila, you can have a first class coffee contemplating how the Magdalena River irrigates the city.

Its waters are laden with catfish, carp, mojarras, tilapia or trout like the ones that jaguars sometimes eat, and fishermen worship the mythical Mohán (a corpulent jungle character from Colombian folklore) erecting monuments to him on the shore to favor their catches.

In return, they will try to catch only what is necessary and keep the river clean.

It is a pact for the balance that Colombians take care of in many other rivers, forests and lakes.

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Going up the Magdalena River, coffee plantations and vast plains follow one another to the rhythm of sentimental songs with refrains that say "your defect is to be perfect" and give way to the new fast growing crops of paprika and cabbage, in addition to avocado, whose profitability excites.

There are avocado graffiti drawn inside hearts, because here the heart, in the form of an illustration or craft, transcends the emoticon.

It is a more real, elaborate heart, it is not enough to squeeze the thumb.

In the viewpoint of La Cacica, for example, a large heart warns about the virtues of this enclave with views of the Quimbo dam, although the reference balcony is La Mano del Gigante, a platform in the shape of an open hand from where you can contemplate kilometers of immensity, including the population of Gigante.

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The Hand is the work of Raúl Montealegre.

In 2019, when Colombia was beginning to imagine itself as a tourist, Montealegre fell in love with a huge artificial hand that he had seen in Indonesia and decided to import the idea, turning it into a viewpoint.

He built a large open hand by braiding eucalyptus branches.

Then, a restaurant and several cabins shaped like bird nests, "as if the site had been made by them."

The mitten and the tribute to the cardinal silver beak, the hummingbird or the polychrome tanager capecibaya seduced some curious people who spread their experience and now La Mano is accompanied by a Little Hand, so that even more people are astonished by the amazing constellation of greens and the distant Quimbo reservoir.

“People did not come to the mountains because of the vetoes of the war.

We have shown that you can now enjoy yourself here”, says Montealegre.

"And the jaguar?"

asked.

“We don't have any of that.

Although birds, the ones you want.

The jaguar, that

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In addition to being an animal, the jaguar is considered a spirit.

He is a genuine cultural

whose rise begins to feel intense in towns like La Jagua, famous for having housed witches.

That is why the sculptor Emiro Garzón installed his workshop here.

He was looking for inspiration in the women who were accused of witchcraft, and based on his rebellion and his supposed ability to forecast futures by reading coffee grounds or cigarette smoke, the artist has created a work that alternates feminine sensuality with the mystery of local divinities closely linked to nature, from Madremonte (a female character from Colombian mythology) to Pata Sola, a monstrous woman with only one leg ending in a hoof.

Garzón has not worked much on the carnivore, but, aware of the new trends, he already designs sculptures of jaguars and company.

To document himself, he could travel an hour and a half to San Agustín, the cradle of the extinct indigenous civilization that built a necropolis of planetary reference touched by mystery.

No one yet knows how to explain who those geniuses of light were who oriented the tombs of their shamans towards the solstice, nor how they moved the enormous rocks that they chiseled with andesite stilettos until they achieved mixed faces, between humans and animals.

It has been discerned, yes, that they had five sacred animals: each dead person is represented by a statue that indicates its reference animal, and although many of the carvings are similar, their teeth can be distinguished.

If between the fangs there are four incisors, the dead

cute;

if there are eight, alligator.

Jaguars have six.

Among the 513 statues in the Archaeological Park of San Agustín, the guide Aníbal Ordóñez has counted 26 jaguars.

Magdalena Strait, where the river narrows to 2.20 meters.

Daniel Romero (VWPics / Alamy)

On the slope that leads to the Magdalena Strait, where the river narrows to 2.20 meters, there are vendors offering nose rings and jaguar masks, as well as achiote, the fruit that produces a tincture with which to paint feline mustaches, although It is also used in prayers or to bring good fortune to babies.

And it is that nature provides, even for musicians, who make instruments based on vine seeds, mud, bones and trunks that they pierce to interpret songs in which the wind, rain or thunder can be heard, in addition to a endless animals.

According to the biologist Karen Ordóñez, the trumpet and the ocarina are the ones that best reproduce the sound of the jaguar.

The waterfall at the end of the world

On the way to Mocoa, capital of the Colombian department of Putumayo, you have to go up a winding and steep road.

Several fish farms at the foot of the river offer a menu with trout and papaya, mango or pineapple juice topped off with the de rigueur tinto (black coffee) before entering the páramo, the fascinating desolation that alternates isolated palm trees with clusters of frailejones, the prelude to Mocoa .

The river that shares its name with the city gallops —more than flows— at the foot of houses with a fury that raises mud and turns the water brown, to the point that a tributary is called Mulato.

And, as if the cats shared the dark influence, at the Amazon Experimental Center, where the animals are recovered and cared for, you can visit Negrita, the

female jaguar, exceptionally black, who for more than two years has established with her caretaker, Camila Guarín, a relationship that gives rise to authentic conversations.

When, after taking

(ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic drug obtained from a jungle liana), Camila caught a glimpse of her spiritual animal — "I am a jaguar" — she gave herself not only to watch over

but also for the other 88 living beings that inhabit the center, and with whom he literally chats daily.

Indigenous people from the Kamentsa community in Sinbundoy, in the Colombian region of Putumayo.

Juancho Torres (Anadolu Agency / Getty Images)

The shots of

are common in the country Colombia.

Normally, they are supervised by a

, an expert shaman who guides physically and emotionally during the shot in which, frequently, the consumer transforms into his animal alter ego.

"You can see what he sees", repeat those who have tried it.

Taita

Pablo Evanjuanoy took

for the first time at the age of six and has been communicating this knowledge for thirty years

Evanjuanoy does not specify which animal he is, he says that he limits himself to channeling them all, but he says that he has met and guided several jaguar humans.

His ceremonial attire includes, in addition to numerous small necklaces and a colorful headband, a large

(peccary, a kind of wild boar) topped by two jaguar fangs.

He lives on an indigenous reservation an hour and a quarter from Mocoa.

To access the maloca —the ceremonial pavilion— of his Inga people, you have to ask for permission and go through an indigenous checkpoint.

In any case, it is possible that any

invites to a ritual in a nearby maloca.

Or that a young leader from, for example, the Los Pastos community, like Jerson Zambrano, offers a harmonization —purifying rite— before ascending the mountain that leads from the outskirts of Mocoa to the Fin del Mundo waterfall.

Fin del Mundo waterfall in the Macoa jungle, southern Colombia.

Vasilisa Komarova / Alamy

Zambrano fills a bowl with mambe, chews some of that stimulating powder made from coca leaves, and starts walking.

Along the way, you can stop to drink freshly squeezed sugarcane juice at a shelter on the trail, or pick up a few grams of the medicinal resin produced by the caraño, a tree in the area, with your finger.

With it it is easier to access Ojo de Piedra, two small waterfalls that explode against the delicious lagoon where a good dip helps to climb the last stretch between logs, mosses and lianas.

This is how you get to the End of the World, a waterfall that falls 70 meters vertically.

The water collapses, laying out a diaphanous aesthetic veil that dilutes the jungle.

When the vegetation sways on the hills ahead, it's not hard to wonder if the jaguar is there.

Gabi Martínez

is the author of

(PlanetadeLibros, 2022).

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