An orphaned rubber boot swirls underneath our canoe, hitting the bottom as we pass over it and echoing in my headphones. We’re slowly revolving in the strong current of a whirlpool near the Kukama Indigenous community of Santa Rita de Castilla on the Marañón River in Peru’s northern Amazon region. Everyone calls it ‘La Muyuna’ (The Whirlpool), but it’s really a series of interconnected eddies that form one large spinning mass of water hundreds of meters long.
La Muyuna is an infamous place that locals fear and worship. Countless people are lost when their boats capsize and they are sucked into the vortex. Some of the bodies wash up downstream hours or even days later. Others are never found but their families do not hold death rituals for them. Soon there may be a sign that their relative is still alive. A bereaved wife, mother or brother will receive a message from their loved one in a dream telling them not to be sad because the person has transformed into a Karuara, meaning person of the water.
