Visit to “La Casa de la Madre y el Niño” on 16 April 2007

As a younger member of the french expedition (he was 30 years) La Condamine had a mission to fulfil in Quito. By chance, he ended up in Paramaribo where he could get a boat to Holland.
After our visit to Paramaribo in 2005 we wanted to come back to Suriname. But what brought us to Bogotá in the Andes?
We wanted to visit again “La Casa de la Madre y el Niño”, for a third time after 29 and 32 years, together with Marius and Boudewijn. For the third time we were sitting in the waiting-room, but this time together with our two sons. And it was still Ines Elvira de Fajardo that came to inform us, showing us all the adoption documents they had in the archive, the only connection to the roots of Antonio Fernando and Jeronimo Pico.....She also showed us the whole Casa, which had extended considerably.
With her 40 years of adoption-experience she examined the two young men asking them how they felt and what they were doing. They were asked to write their feelings in the special guestbook. Then she made a picture of the four of us, which ended the “ceremony”.

Bogotan experience 15-4-2007

If La Condamine received hospitality and friendship from the Maldonado-brothers in Quito, so did we experience a cordial reception by the Lopez-family in Bogotá. Jose Lopez, the uncle of Eulalia whom Hilberto had met in Naarden, guided us to Zipaquira where we visited the ´Catedral de Sal´. 
The Muisca indians there had traded salt for gold for many centuries, until they were wiped out.
In the afternoon we visited the ´Museo de Oro´, where we saw the famous objects the indians had made of gold.
In the evening we were brought to Jose´s house in the north of this 8 million people-town. The small house was filled by the six of us, by the family of the two daughters of Jose and Martha, and by their two sons, Camilo and Mauricio. To our embarassment we were seated at a table of 8 to eat the "ajiaco bogotano". The others came by to get their share.
The guitar was played, we laughed, drank wine, exchanged presents, told our life histories and thanked for this wonderful day. Seldom we had experienced such hospitality from people we we had never met before!

First impressions of Bogota

Bogotá, 13-4-2007

At first sight, the airport and the town with its skyescrapers did not seem to have changed in these past 30 years! But, of course, it hád changed: the many beggars, the little boys offering to guide you or to take care of your car and the fathers and mothers risking their lives in the traffic for selling Marlboro cigarettes, have been replaced by many seguridad-men, policemen and, at the luxurious Tequendama hotel, even by MP’s with automatic rifles. The groups of indians in roano’s selling cow skins, slowly walking through the parc, have been replaced by elegant couples sitting on the grass like in the Parc de Luxembourg in Paris. It seems as if town life has segregated in two worlds, the world of the street where fast driving taxi’s and motorcycles, schoolchildren and business people are kept in control by the seguridad and police and the world behind barred doors and windows of empty-looking houses that appear full of busy people unseen from the street. We experienced this when entering the house of the dutch “Tropenbos” foundation, which appeared to be an office, museum and school at the same time. The Plaza de Bolivar, where we waited in 1978 for half an hour to get a taxi, was now a busy place full with photographers, pigeons and yellow taxi’s.

Thanks to my colleague Antoine Cleef (University of Amsterdam, Inst. For Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics) we could stay in Hotel Suamox, close to the house of the Tropenbos Foundation. There we were cordially received by Carlos Rodriguez (who showed us around and told us about the various projects), by Rosa Miriam Diaz (who arranged our flight to Leticia), by Don Hector (el chofer, who helped us to get money from the cajera automatica) and by René Boot, the present-day director. Many thanks to you all for your help!

Arrival Bogota

On our way to Bogotá: Lidie and Marius are sleeping. In the plane are many asiatic and french people; I haven’t yet heard much spanish! Even at the hight of 10 km we fly just above the clouds, which gives quite some turbulence. Warnings for this are given in spanish. The welcome in Bogotá, however, is also given in korean! It appears that half the plane is filled with very young koreans who come here to work.

Op weg naar Bogotá; Lidie en Marius slapen. In het vliegtuig zitten veel fransen en aziaten; ik hoor nog weinig spaans spreken. Op 10 km hoogte boven de Oceano Atlantico vliegen we vlak boven een wolkendek dat vrij veel turbulentie geeft. Waarschuwingen worden wel in het spaans omgeroepen.
Met welke verwachtingen maakten we deze reis 32 jaar geleden? En welke verwachtingen hebben we nu? Dat we Boudewijn in goede conditie zullen aantreffen in het hotel straks.

Tijdens de landing op El Dorado vliegen we door een hagelbui. “Touché” roepen de franse stewardessen en klappen. Het vliegveld lijkt niet groter dan 30 jaar geleden. De weg naar het centrum is mooier geworden en drukker, beplant met palmen en eucalyptusbomen. De taxichauffeur vindt met moeite het hotel: wat is hij blij als we het vinden!

In preparation of following La Condamine's footsteps

In preparation of following La Condamine’s footsteps:

Notes taken and translated from the Introduction by Hélène Minguet to the book “Voyage sur L’Amazone” by Charles-Marie de La Condamine.
Librairie F. Maspero, 1981. Paris. ISBN 2-7071-1219-4. The book is based on the lecture given by La Condamine for the French Academy of Sciences on November 7, 1745, entitled “Abridged Narrative of Travels through the Interior of South America, from the Shores of the Pacific Ocean to the coasts of Brazil and Guyana, descending the river of the Amazonas”.

La Condamine was born in Paris on 28-1-1701. He studied physics and geography, took part in an expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa (in 1731) and was chosen as a member of the expedition of Louis Godin to Peru. For his appointment by the French Academy of Sciences he was strongly supported by his friend Voltaire.
Task of the expedition was to solve the controversy on the shape of the earth between Newton in England (who thought that the earth was flattened at the Poles) and Cassini in Paris (who thought the earth to be flkattened at the Equator).
The expedition departed on May 16, 1735 with the battleship Portefaix. On board were the following members: Louis Godin (leader) and Pierre Bougueur (both mathematiciens), Joseph de Jussieu (naturalist and physician), Couplet, Hugot, Verguin, Morainville, Godin des Ordonnais (engineers and technicians), Seniergues (surgeon) and La Condamine. They arrived in Carthagena (Colombia) where two spanish lieutenants, don Jorge Juan y Santacilia and don Antonio de Ulloa, joined the expedition. By boat and on foot they transversed the Panama isthmus and sailed to Puerto de Manta (in present-day Ecuador).
On his way to Quito, La Condamine meets the carthographer Pedro Vicente de Maldonado. They become good friends and together they explore the Rio Esmeraldas, where they discover the metal platina and the elastic substance called cahuchuc (rubber). In the mean time they perform position measurements improving the previous maps of the region. Their friendship was of principal importance in their decision to descend the Amazon.
In Quito the expedition was not allowed to continue their work for some time as the Spanjards suspected them to look for inca treasures. Thanks to the older brother of Maldonado, La Condamine was allowed to see a secret map made in 1685 by the german jesuite “Father Fritz” and kept in the archives at Quito. With this information Maldonado and La Condamine depart from a place south of Cuenca (Tarqui), not without difficulties on 11 May 1743 (see map).

Notes from the book:
During the first part of their trip they have four “accidents” on the river in which all the instruments, books and papers became wet. They have to wait until the water becomes more quiet…..
On August 1, 1743 La Condamine reached Pebas, just downstream of the confluence with the Rio Napo. From the last spanish mission there to the first portugese mission at S.Paulo it took them 3 days and nights. During this trajectory, in which they must have passed present-day Leticia, they didn’t see any sign of inhabitants along the river shores, although in “ancient” times the islands must have been populated by the Omagua indians (“the most populous region encountered so far” as Carvajal noted during the Orellana-expedition that passed there in May 1542).
The river is broader here, giving rise to heavier storms. Thanks to the experience of the indian rowers they in time found shelter in one of the many little side rivers. When nearing S. Paulo a large “brigantin” with 14 rowers and a portugese guide came to meet them. They were sent by the missionary.
From here on La Condamine would travel in portugese canoe’s, which were larger and more comfortable than the indian boats. It takes them 5 days and nights to reach Coari.