The disappearance of Norwegian Lars Hafskjold and the enigma of the Toromonas
The list of those who entered the depths of the Amazon jungle in search of Paititi or other legendary lost cities, without ever having returned, is numerous.
The most famous explorer of the last century, the Englishman Percy Harrison Fawcett, disappeared on his 1925 expedition, in the heart of Mato Grosso, while he was heading towards the Sierra del Roncador.
In 1970, the American Robert Nichols and the Frenchmen Serge Debru and George Puel organized a trip in search of the lost city of Paititi.
Its headquarters was Shintuya, a small town located on the banks of the Alto Madre de Dios. With the help of some Matsiguenka guides, they went up the Palotoa River until they reached the place where the beautiful Pusharo petroglyphs are located. At that moment, although the guides did not want to continue, since they considered the territory of the Palotoa sources sacred, the three foreigners decided to continue alone, blinded by the illusion of finding Paititi. It was a very serious mistake, because when exploring virgin jungle territories, it is always advisable to go in the company of natives. The three adventurers never returned and, according to later testimonies, they died in the hands of the fearsome Kuga-Pacoris indigenous people, of the Matsiguenka ethnic group.
In 1972, the Japanese explorer Yoshiharu Sekino had contact with Matsiguenka indigenous people who admitted to having killed strangers who had entered the territory of the Palotoa sources without authorization. They even gave the Japanese some personal belongings of the three foreigners who disappeared two years earlier.
Twenty-five years later, in October 1997, biologist Lars Hafskjold (born in Norway in 1960), undertook a daring journey through the Andean mountains, starting from the city of Juliaca.
The Norwegian was interested in the Madidi National Park area, an immense protected area (18,957 square kilometers) of tropical rainforest located in the department of La Paz, in Bolivia.
The Madidi area was explored in the 20th century, specifically in 1911, by the English colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett when he undertook a risky expedition that began in La Paz.
Fawcett, who was in search of the ruins of a very ancient civilization, crossed the Andes and stopped in the small towns of Queara, Mojos, Pata and Santa Cruz del Valle Ameno, from where he entered the tropical rainforest; and after having passed Playa Paujil, he finally arrived at San Fermín. Fawcett continued along the Heath River until he found a tribe of natives called Echocas, almost at the confluence of the Heath River with the Madre de Dios, in Bolivian territory.
The Norwegian Hafskjold, who wanted to thoroughly explore the Madidi National Park, perhaps had intentions of communicating with the Toromonas ethnic group, uncontacted indigenous people.
With this objective, Hafskjold had left Juliaca and arrived at Sandia, later arriving at the town of San Juan de Oro, an area explored for the first time by Pedro de Candía in 1538.
Hafskjold continued his daring journey, crossing the towns of Putina Punco, Chocal, Punto Arc, San Ignacio and Curva Alegre, finally reaching the banks of the Tambopata, which, in that area, marks the border between Peru and Bolivia. After having crossed the river, Hafskjold stopped for a few days in the Bolivian community of Linen.
From that place, accompanied by a young man named René Ortiz, he sailed along the Tambopata River and, after having passed through the village of San Fermín, he reached the confluence with the Colorado River, a point called Encounter.
After a few days of fishing and exploring the adjacent jungle with René Ortiz, Lars Hafskjold decided to return to San Fermín and enter the Madidi jungle alone, without the help of René Ortiz. It was a very strange decision, since entering a practically unexplored and jungle area, where there are uncontacted natives like the Toromonas, can be extremely dangerous.
From the information obtained by the Argentine journalist Pablo Cingolani during several of his expeditions on the Colorado River, it is deduced that Lars Hafskjold arrived at the community of San José de Uchupiamonas, on the Tuichi River, where he resided for some years. back. From that village, Hafskjold went deep into the jungle and no one ever heard from him again.
There has been too much speculation about the fate of the Norwegian, but until today his death has not been confirmed.
In the area where the Norwegian biologist disappeared, it is said that the legendary Toromonas, indigenous people of the Tacana language, are still present, who waged an arduous war against the Spanish conquerors in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Toromonas were faithful allies of the Incas and, according to some traditions, they helped the Inca priests in their escape from the Spanish, which had the objective of saving ancient esoteric knowledge and enormous treasures to hide in Paititi, the legendary lost city. Is it possible that Paititi is located in the almost unexplored area of the Bolivian rainforest?
The Toromonas were unscrupulously decimated during rubber exploitation in the 19th century, and officially became extinct in the 20th century.
According to other versions, however, some survivors retired deep into the jungle, to the sources of the Colorado River and the Madidi River, where to this day they live and preserve their ancestral traditions.
What could have been the fate of Lars Hafskjold?
According to some opinions, he could have been kidnapped by the revolutionary guerrilla Tupac Amaru, but the local police exclude this possibility, since the Madidi area was pacified starting in 1992.
According to other rumors, he could have died after falling into the river, and could having been buried by the indigenous people.
In any case, the possibility remains that the Toromonas may have killed him when they saw the stranger as an invader who was entering his territory without permission, without the company of any native.
However, other versions of what happened, which tend towards legend, narrate that Hafskjold was accepted by the Toromonas as a “white priest” and that he currently lives in a secret location.
There were several subsequent expeditions in the Madidi area, such as the one led by Pablo Cingolani and Álvaro Diez Astete in 2000/2001, but the mystery of the Norwegian's disappearance was not revealed.
Is it possible that the Toromonas are, perhaps along with the Kuga Pacoris of the Madre de Dios, the ancestral guardians of several small fortresses lost in the jungle, which were used by the Incas to hide their ancient esoteric knowledge and treasures?
Only successive expeditions will be able to reveal the arcane mystery of these enigmatic disappearances (the bodies of no lost explorer were ever found in the Amazon jungle).
However, it is expected that whoever travels in order to clarify the truth is not motivated by blind greed to appropriate the treasures of Paititi, but by a feeling of absolute respect towards the native communities, the animals of the jungle and the environment. natural.
The Amazon rainforest is not a “green hell,” as some adventurers have defined it, but rather a wonderful paradise that day by day is increasingly at risk of disappearing due to man's sinister race to appropriate the hidden riches of he.
YURI LEVERATTO
