Kuartam

by Helen Pugh

In the province of Morona-Santiago, around the city of Macas, a legend has always been told about the dangers of behaving disrespectfully towards nature. It is a legend that comes from the Shuar people, who live in the jungle in the southeastern Ecuadorian Amazon. Generally speaking, they are brave and proud of their traditions and of the fact that they are one of a handful of indigenous groups who managed to resist both the colonising missions of the Inca and the Spanish. The upper photo of the front cover is a genuine Shuar dwelling that was on the side of the road on the way from Puyo to Macas in Ecuador. The lower one is a view of the rainforest as taken from Macas. Of all the towns and cities I visited in the Ecuadorian Amazon region, Macas was my favourite.

18 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 10, 2020

About the author

Helen Pugh is the author of Unsung Women in Somerset, a collection of short stories focussing on real-life and legendary women who lived, loved, worked and struggled in Somerset. She grew up in Somerset and returned in 2018.

Her other works include Intrepid Dudettes of the Inca Empire, an accessible non-fiction historical account of incredible Inca women who lived hundreds of years ago. For children, she has written Jungle-tastic Tales and Inca-tastic Tales, short story anthologies for children based on extensive research into the rainforest and Inca history, respectively, as well as Cuentos incatásticos for Spanish speakers. Her interest in South America and the Incas began in 2006, when she first went to Ecuador.

Helen studied Spanish and Italian at university and has a lifelong passion for history, especially that of historical women who made history, but have been sidelined.