Death Row and a Mud Hole
- 16 Jan 08, 09:12 AM
Posted from: Andoas
After days of travelling in tiny boats we make it to the grotty settlement of Andoas. We arrive late and are staying in a hostel made of plywood, as it鈥檚 the only accommodation in town. Around us are a few sparse bars and directly opposite a brothel lit up with twinkly fairy lights and blaring out 80鈥檚 music until the early hours.
It was quite surreal lying in the sweaty stinky room hearing the booming sounds of Phil Collins 鈥 鈥淚n The Air Tonight鈥. Steve and I were sharing a room and, as we both smelt a lot, we were each a little concerned for the other. This ramshackle community has grown up to service the large oil plant to which it is adjacent. Running the hostel is a friendly transvestite and also staying there an innocent Achuar man who is being held captive under threat of death.
He is loosely guarded by older Achuar warriors and if a guilty man from another tribe is not handed over to them for murdering the wrong woman in an honour killing (when a couple in love had run away) he will be shot. It鈥檚 all very bizarre and even more shocking in that if the guilty man had murdered the correct women in the first place and not her sister they would have all been happy.
We are travelling with Jorge from the Achuar village and the aim of this shoot is for him to show Bruce why their community have refused to let the oil companies onto their land.
There have been reports of an oil spill at a drilling well in the region and our first attempts to reach it do not go well - our vehicle gets stuck in the mud and we are unable to push it out. In nervous attempts to manoeuvre out, our driver, who had only just the day before been on his first ever four-wheel drive course, has slid across the road ending up at a severe angle in a ditch.
Bruce with some of the oil workers
Our aim was to film this sequence - low key without drawing too much attention to ourselves from the oil company but after doing everything to try and rescue the vehicle we all ended up sitting on the roadside for several hours waiting for a passing vehicle to help us. With no luck our driver had no option but to call the oil company for help.
After a few more hours waiting the cavalry arrived in the form of an oil company four-wheel drive vehicle and within minutes they have slid across the road themselves and into another ditch without even getting as far up the hill as we did. This was all turning into an embarrassing high profile event and there was no choice but for them to call the big boss and ask permission to bring in one of the huge earth-moving vehicles to pull us both out.
Matt waits for help
The oil workers are all super friendly guys and despite the sweltering heat all wear very 1980鈥檚 style matching outfits of thick denim shirts and trousers. Eventually the Big Boss passes down the road in a flash four-wheel drive and waves like the Queen as he passes by. Soon word comes back that permission has been granted and within minutes a deep rumble is heard as around the corner comes a massive industrial Big Foot type vehicle with wheels even bigger than our car. We are quickly pulled out and it鈥檚 hugs all round with the denim-clad oilmen.
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