Paraguay, Brazil Saving Ancient Trails From Search For "Land Without Evil"

by Alejandro Sciscioli

(IPS) ASUNCION -- In 1524 Spanish conquistador Alejo Garcia walked the paths of Tape Aviru. Today this ancient network of trails is being rescued from oblivion by scientists and officials from Paraguay and Brazil as they attempt to protect the Native Guarani culture.

That means tourists will soon be able to follow the network of paths in those two South American countries that Guarani Indians followed centuries ago.

The web of pathways was woven in the Guarani people's constant search for the "Land Without Evil," and connected what is currently the southern Brazil state of Santa Catarina with the Peruvian Andes, passing through Paraguay and Bolivia.

A semi-nomadic people, "the Guarani Indians organized migrations that combined economics with religion," historian Ruben Dario Lugo explained to Tierramerica.

On the one hand, they were looking for a mythical land where they believed evil did not exist, "a sort of heaven, in the Christian sense, where people live in eternal joy," added Lugo, an expert from the National University of Asuncion (UNA).

But the tribes also left behind the lands that no longer provided them with sustenance, and searched for precious metals, like those they knew the Incas had. "It was not to accumulate the metals as riches," but because for them the shining brilliance of gold, for example, "was the symbol of something holy," said the historian.

When Alejo Garcia was shipwrecked in 1516 off the coast of what is now Brazil's Santa Catarina state, he had no choice but to stay and live in the region. Eight years later, after learning the Guarani language, he led an expedition of 2,000 Indians towards Peru.

Guided by the South American natives, the expedition traversed the territory of what is now Paraguay and Bolivia, and even obtained the treasures the explorers and Indians had dreamed of. But on the return trip Garcia was killed by the Guarani in San Pedro de Ycuamandiyu, capital of the northern Paraguayan department of San Pedro.

Paraguay's national tourism department, SENATUR, has embarked on a project to transform the Tape Aviru paths into an adventure for tourists that "will help recover this part of Guarani culture from oblivion and revitalise the story of the Land Without Evil," Rosana Gonzalez, another UNA historian, told Tierramerica.

Gonzalez is part of an expert team advising SENATUR and of the Paraguayan delegation that visited Brazil in mid-2004 to delve into similar efforts being made by Brazilian specialists under the Peabiru Project.

The Brazilians "are 10 years ahead of us, and have made a great deal of progress," she said.

Santa Catarina and the neighboring state of Parana seek to attract tourists with activities that include re-creating what researchers believe were the routes of the Tape Aviru.

The pre-Hispanic route was indicated by very specific geographic references, among them rivers, waterfalls and mountains, for example the Salto del Monday, in the city of Presidente Franco, or the Cerro Lambare hill, in Asuncion.

"Following the stretches of existing highways, they also propose eco-tourism, contact with indigenous communities, museum tours and an in-depth look at the historic Guarani worldview," said Gonzalez, underscoring an idea for a travelling planetarium in which the constellations identified by this native culture would be presented.

Now, Asuncion and the Brazilian state governments are studying ways to integrate their projects.

On the Paraguayan side, they would like to see tourists visiting the country's eastern departments that Alejo Garcia passed through, and, after a stop in Asuncion, continue the trek through the arid Chaco region in the west.

"We are looking at ways in which Bolivia could also form part of the route," Gonzalez said.

The promoters of the Tape Aviru project have requested funding from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), says Juan Manuel Prieto, SENATUR advisor.

The initiative was presented in June in the southeastern Ciudad del Este, on the border across from Brazil's Foz de Iguacu. In late October the Paraguayan Geographic Society organized an "eco-adventure" from the Tres Kandu mountain, the tallest in the country, to Ita Letra, which holds pre-Colombian runic inscriptions.

Authorities from both sides of the border have consulted with Guarani representatives on the project. In Brazil, says Gonzalez, they won support "as long as the indigenous culture and traditions are respected."

Meanwhile in Paraguay the project includes the participation of Margarita Mbywangy, chief of the Ache (from the Tupi branch of the Guarani) in the northeastern area of Kuetuby.

Mbywangy "has provided us with valuable information and gave a noteworthy presentation at the conference we held in Ciudad del Este," said Prieto.

But "Tape Aviru will entail a long-term process, because even though we have already identified several stations along the Guarani's pre-Columbian route, research is needed to trace out the definitive paths," added the SENATUR advisor.

On the Paraguayan side, there is a lack of road and hotel infrastructure for the tourist aspect of the project, and there are areas where social conflicts continue to simmer -- related to the demands of landless rural workers -- in the department of San Pedro, where conquistador Alejo Garcia was killed five centuries ago.