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Home arrow Culture arrow People arrow Escape to the wilderness
Escape to the wilderness
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Written by Agnieszka Flakus   
Sunday, 15 July 2007

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Andrzej Pietowski
Andrzej Pietowski: traveler, explorer, and recipient of the “Super Colossus” award with his team for the “Canoandes ‘79” expedition which discovered the Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world. He is also a teacher, an organizer of language schools in Peru, and a social activist working for the preservation of the natural environment in the Amazon region.

Andrzej Pietowski discusses his passion for discovery, travels and his work in Peru with Agnieszka Flakus.

Where does your drive for exploring come from?

A.P.: I was already attracted to open spaces as a child, and the question of what lies beyond the horizon stirred my curiosity. I must have been about 6 years old when I set out on my first expedition [Laughter]. We were staying with my family probably in the region of Limanowo, in Poland, in a house at the edge of small hills. I wanted to see what lay beyond them. This was how it started. Later on, in college, I became interested in kayaking and sailing. And since I have a knack for organizing things, my college years turned into an uninterrupted chain of "kayak studies" and great expeditions. The crowning point of the activities of our outdoor club "Bystrze" was the kayaking expedition in Peru, South America, and the discovery of the Colca Canyon that continues to bear fruit to this day.

What fascinated you the most in the Amazon?

A.P.: People most often associate the Amazon River with the lower, tropical portion they sometimes call "the green hell." We, however, were interested in its upper course. The discovery of the sources was not easy since the river has ten thousand tributaries.
We started tackling the question in 1981. It was not until 2000 that we organized the expedition which aimed at establishing the sources of the Amazon definitively and in a scientific manner. National Geographic came to our aid, and with the help of an expert in global positioning from Harvard University we determined that we would use GPS devices in our research.
We proved that the longest stream originating in the Mismi mountain has a strong flow all year long. By the way, that very mountain was named as the source of the Amazon River as early as the 1930's by a Peruvian, and again in the 1970's by an American. These were, however, untested hypotheses.
The process of discovery of the sources of the Amazon took 400 years. One must have respect for one's predecessors who worked in truly difficult conditions, without GPS or airplanes in order to discover the river's origins. And here, out of nowhere, another Pole, Jacek Palkiewicz, announces that he discovered the sources and stayed in their vicinity for 36 hours!
In my opinion, it's disrespectful to claim such a discovery single-handedly. One should rather humbly append one's name to the long list of explorers. And I have the pleasure of saying that we were the last.

 Kayaking is only one of your passions. Mountain climbing is another. In 1987, for instance, you climbed Mt. McKinley, the tallest peak in North America. Why mountain climbing?

A.P.: As a beautiful Polish pop song says, "In the mountains I find everything I love..." My passion for climbing started with trips into the Tatra Mountains in Poland, where we would simply secure ourselves with a piece of rope and climb up. Expeditions into higher and higher ranges followed. As I was hiking in South America, ice-covered peaks seen from the distance of hundreds of miles excited my imagination. Unfortunately, I am not a professional alpinist, which is too bad because I would have undertaken greater challenges. On the other hand, I am a mountaineer who adapts easily. That's a great skill. I also have a strong instinct for self-preservation: I know how far I can push the boundaries of risk.
You ask, why mountains? Out of simple curiosity. I will answer by borrowing a phrase from Mallory: "Because they are there and they fascinate me." To be honest, I spent most of my life in big cities, and the more I think about it the more I realize that the city life-style is very damaging to a lot of people. There are some who have not reached 20 years old, yet they are already suffering from strange diseases whose exotic names I have never even heard of before. Sometimes their health problems can be solved with a single prescription: "Go to the mountains! Your body will purify itself, expel the toxins, start burning fat, and improve." My escapes into wilderness are also a form of protest against urban decomposition. I am not doing this to prove something to myself: I think I have nothing to prove...

 Nevertheless, after McKinley you went to the tallest volcano in Ecuador, Chimborazo (20,560 ft)

A.P.: That mountain range in the Andes is called the Valley of Fire. These are very powerful mountains, over 16,500 feet tall. I went to the volcano with my fiancée, today wife, Anna.
Together we reached the edge of the glacier at 17,720 feet. After a period of acclimatization I decided to continue climbing, while my wife remained in the shelter. Unfortunately, my guide did not appear on time (I found him later completely drunk), and I had to climb alone.
I left the base just before midnight, carrying a small backpack with 2 liters of water, aluminum foil, a down jacket, and a small sleeping bag. Climbing on the equator has one distinction: it's relatively warm. Although the temperature may fall to -20 overnight, it warms up very quickly. A couple of Englishmen started the climb at the same time carrying more equipment.
I reached a wall of ice where a broken steel ladder hung from its anchors. It wobbled but was still usable. Then the fog came. The Englishmen were trying to figure out which way to go. I followed my instinct and ended up at the very edge beneath the peak. I didn't climb all the way to the top because I decided it was unnecessary. I was just very happy to have survived that night on the ice wall. I took dozens of beautiful photos and started to climb down. On my way down... I broke my leg at the ankle, which slowed me down a great deal. But because the English went down before me, they told others that some Pole is "going crazy" all alone and a rescue team was dispatched. So this is my Chimborazo expedition in a nutshell.

Having a broken and swollen leg, however, did not stop your adventures and with the injury you traveled to meet the Shuar Indians, known as the head hunters...

A.P.: I had to walk with the aching leg through the jungle... It was not easy. Everyone thinks that the jungle is flat, but it's not; the jungle is comprised of millions of hills that you climb up and down. Besides, it is pouring rain all the time, you have to watch out for quagmires, and sometimes you're sliding on the mud all the way to a stream below... You have to wear knee-high boots in case you step on a snake. In that situation, my brave wife took our backpack, and I was carrying only water.
I had met the Shuar (Jivaro) Indians already a few years earlier. And that's another story.
I am always appalled by the attitude of white people, especially Europeans and Americans, who treat everyone else, and Native Americans in particular, with condescension. Once, I wanted to teach them a lesson. I invited Indians who run their own travel agency in Peru to a dinner at the best hotel. Imagine how unhappy the white waiters were who had to serve us. But this gesture and tomfoolery gained me the friendship of the Indians.
The next stage on our trek was through the shadows of the "forest." I had thought that the jungle was monotonous, since this was how I remembered it from my kayaking expeditions, and I just went there for my wife who loves the beach, warm climate, flowers... The jungle "from within" just enchanted me. Moreover, the Indians knew herbs, and were bringing me some bark to apply compresses to my leg to help it heal.
I also feel tied to the Andes by social responsibility. We should be proud that it was Poles who discovered the Colca Canyon, the deepest on our planet. We were the first expedition to traverse the entire canyon, at the risk of our lives, and examine it meter by meter over 32 days. Over the next 25 years, we were running an advertising campaign. In 2006 alone, 150,000 tourists visited the Colca Canyon, each paying ten thousand dollars to enter. The total revenues reached one and a half million dollars which, in that part of the world, constitutes an immense fortune!
The tragedy of the Colca Canyon is, however, the fact that after 26 years since our expedition, the government has not instituted any form of environment protection. And the tourists have a negative impact on the environment: they leave waste, garbage, used batteries. The Indians who live there do not know what to do with it; they are not familiar with the problem.

How is your team of explorers perceived by the Indians, since it was you who brought them the tourists?

A.P.: Very well, in fact. Until our arrival, Colca was a forgotten valley in the Andes and the people had a sense of inferiority, of being behind the rest of the world, which is not entirely true. I cited the figures which created a new economy there. Besides, the native inhabitants avoid the water: they can't swim and the river in the canyon remains for them an abstraction.
We have created a certain image of the place which attracts people. The native inhabitants perceive us as their heroes. When we went there to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Colca Canyon discovery, they received us with great ceremony: politicians wanted to talk to us and children asked us for autographs. On the occasion, we gave the local schools computers and DVDs as a gift. One of the local English teachers who collaborates with us, thanked us and said that he cannot recall any minister of education making as many contributions as we do all the time.

Since you have mentioned the school, could you tell us how you came to start a school for the  English language?

A.P.: The idea itself came from a documentary on Sir Edmund Hillary. I saw him working on a roof in the film, constructing another school. The film also listed the number of schools and hospitals built for the Sherpas at Hillary's initiative. He changed their lives. Suddenly, I had the idea that I should be doing the same. The thought matured in my mind for a few years...
As I mentioned, Peru and Ecuador are among countries where Indians are marginalized. And when a few years ago, in official publications on Colca, the Peruvian government omitted the fact that it was Poles who discovered it, I found myself in the same place as the Indians. During my teacher's vacations in 2004, I went with an eight-member team to Peru and started an English-language school. We won the mayor over to our project and organized a school in the old municipal library. It lasted for three weeks.
This year, it will take place for the fourth time and will last six weeks. It is my dream to open a permanent school on the fifth anniversary. That's why I traveled to Peru in April to meet with the new authorities.
I think that we don't just teach English: through our continued presence among the Indians, and through our actions, we are helping to create a new environment based on "cultural immersion." I also take my students to the Colca Canyon: even though they were born there, they never explored its depths.
Inside the canyon, we run different programs. We fish for talents among the students and select a number of people with whom we maintain contact.

I know that you try to promote Polish culture in Peru at the same time...

A.P.: I am very proud to be a Pole. Over past years I obtained that the municipal council of Colca named the longest street in Chivay ‘Avenida Polonia.' The street, by the way, is 2.1 miles long, exactly the depth of the canyon. We brought the street plaque from Chicago. I had the honor of uncovering it at the ceremony. It's a trace of Polish presence, perfectly visible to tourists who come here. The second trace is a plaque commemorating our expedition 26 years ago. And the third, the idea of naming one of the local schools either Polonia or Cracovia. It may become a permanent place of Colca Canyon research. We could also open a small museum of exploration.  

You are also planning environment protection actions.

A.P.: This is what matters the most. The earth cannot sustain the invasion of tourists. I am working on a project to establish the first nature reserve in one community. People who live there would have to sign a moratorium that nothing could change for a period of 10 years.
We want to allow fauna and flora to regenerate, and conduct reforestation of Colca with native Andean species.
It is also important that the native inhabitants are not alienated from the project. We must educate them so that they understand why these measures are being taken. They should lose the suspicions that something is being taken away from them. It is a very diplomatic and delicate task. There are conflicting interests, poverty, idiotic ideas of businessmen who at the cost of destroying nature want to build roads, gas stations, entertainment centers for tourists; they think only of profits. It's as if I wanted to protect Colca inhabitants from themselves. But I remain an optimist, after all I have managed to achieve a great deal already.

What is the most important thing you have gained from all these travels and from the opportunity of getting to know different cultures?

A.P.: I learned to respect other people. When we fly to Peru, each of us carries a single piece of luggage for ourselves. We also have the obligation to take another filled with clothing, shoes, gifts, books, crayons... If 16 people travel there together, we manage to bring a lot of things. We donate them to schools and to the hospital.
As a final remark, I will just add that most people are passive when it comes to helping others, because they feel psychologically paralyzed. They think they cannot fight the world's problems. But on the basis of my own activities, I can tell you that if we get seriously involved in a problem, we can achieve transformations that may not be perceived on a global scale, but that change lives of particular people.


Thank you for the conversation.
 
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