One of the nagging questions that surrounds the
development of the Jaredite kingdom after landing and disembarking from their
barges, is why they did not move southward. Since they landed north north of
the Narrow Neck of Land, they had not only the entire area referred to as the
Land Northward before them for settlement, but also the entire area of what is
known as the Land Southward that they could have entered. However, except to hunt
for wild game (Ether 10:19,21) that was driven south of the narrow neck by the
poisonous serpents during the time of a severe drought (Ether 9:31), the
Jaredites never entered the Land Southward.
The
Narrow Neck of Land prior to the 3 Nephi destruction and the raising of the
Andes; The Jambelí Channel in the Gulf of Guayaquil is the “Sea that divides
the land” (Ether 10:20); the Santa Elena Peninsula is the site of the Jaredite
Landing, and the area of Chanduy is the first and oldest settlement on the
Peninsula, which was anciently covered with forests (now it is has become desertified
from cutting down all the trees); Machala might well have been the “great
city by the sea” the Jaredites built at
the southern opening of the narrow neck
At first glance, it might seem strange that the Jaredites,
after “the whole face of the land northward was covered with inhabitants” (Ether
10:21), in their exploring and movement about the land, chose not to go into
the Land Southward to settle. However, though a map seldom shows the terrain
and topography of an area, it is that very knowledge that tells us why the
Jaredites did not venture much beyond the narrow neck other than to hunt for
game. First of all, the area immediately at the southern end of the narrow neck
around Machala, is fertile lowland along the Jambelí Canal of the Gulf of
Guayaquil.
Sandwiched between the Pacific coast, or Costa
region, and the Andes, all traffic, trade, and human movement funnels through this
area and the city of Machala, which is a present-day commercial center. Basically
at sea level with a flat landscape, the area possesses a semi-arid or steppe
climate (between desert and humid climes), it receives less rain than the
amount of water lost through evapotranspiration, but more than the surrounding
desert lands. This area lies between the wet forests of the north and the dry forests
of the south, not far from mangrove swamps along the Gulf.
The city of Machala at the southern
end of the Narrow Neck of Land where the coastal region opens and spreads out
and the hills and mountains flow to the east. The main channel is one of four
such channels through the Jambelí Archipelgo off the Jambelí Channel within the
Gulf of Guayaquil that opens to the Pacific Ocean
Here
the estuary is deep and its shore cliffed, about three miles from the hidden cove
at the end of an arm connected to the sea forming a limestone ravine. The area
is dense with mangroves in the fluvial-marine Jambelí Archipelago, made up of a
series of 6 major island and 12 smaller ones, all separated by channels and narrow
estuaries with some additional small islets, and salt flats. There are five
minor canals that cross perpendicularly the archipelago that run to a depth of
just over 21 feet, and connect the main channel and the Gulf. The banks of
silty sand are frequent in the islands, especially in the mouths of estuaries, where
four rivers, the Zarumilla, Aenillas, Santa Rose and Jubolnes have given rise
over time to these islands.
The area just south of the narrow
neck from Machala in the west to Putushio, Ona, and Saraguro in the east,
including the Jubones Desert and the Yunguilla Valley south of Cuenca
From Ona south to Saraguro is a deep canyon, and to
the west, beyond Gera, in the midst of the mountains at about 6,000-feet
elevation, where strong winds blow making progress difficult, begins the
Jubones desert. This is a hot, almost rain free, near-barren land containing deep
canyons, rushing rivers, steep cliffs, and dry hillsides with a sparse
distribution of cactus and Acacia trees, and ground dwelling bromeliads (monocot
flowering plants) and poisonous snakes. To the east of Ona is the settlements
of Yucuambi and Tutupali along the high upland cold and bleak, wind-swept Páramos,
or wastelands of the high equatorial mountains. Between Saraguro and La Union the
Paquishapa River flows through a deep canyon, with high, thundering Falls,
rapids, boulders, and some still water between the steep cliffs.
Top
Left: Acacia shrubs; Top Right: Ground-dwelling bromeliads—monocot flowering
plants, which covered the ground in the Jubones Desert; Bottom Left: Acacia tree;
Bottom Right: Jatrophas
trees
Today,
Cuenca, at 8,400-feet (upper right in above image), is twelve miles northwest
of Girón, at 6,800-feet, where the sub-tropical Yunguilla Valley begins, and extends
southwestward into the 6,000-foot Jubones Desert, the latter extending clear to
the coast. Between Cueneca and Girón and to the east near Cumbe, in the
towering peaks of the mountains lies Alverjasioma, which provides an awesome overlook
of the Yunguilla Valley and of the Lion
River Canyon in the middle of the Jubones desert.
In
the south, the ridges around Saraguro are more or less parallel to each other and seem to
be distributed in groups. They vary between abut 10 and 18 feet in width. Some
are as long as 500 feet. Most are aligned with the slope of the hill upon which
they were built, but some are on land with no slope or do not follow existing
slopes very closely.
Maximum slope on which they exist is 18 to 20 degrees; most are on slopes of
ten degrees or less. Depths of the canals between the ridges is between six and
twenty inches.
From
Girón, the road continues descending till you enter the
Jubones desert, full of acacia shrubs and yucca. This valley extends all
the way to the Pacific; the upper part of it, surrounding the bustling town of
Santa Isabel, is called Yunguilla, and farther down is the Jubones Desert, interandean
deserts in Ecuador are particularly interesting ecosystems, usually created in
river valleys in lower altitudes as a consequence of rain shade of surrounding
mountains. More precisely, they should not be categorized as a desert but as an
interandean dry forest because they still contain some species of small trees
as Acacias or Jatrophas. However, the main flora of those interesting
ecosystems are terrestrial bromeliads capturing the humidity from the air.
The barren wasteland of the Jubones
Desert
Moving into the Jubones, the road turns off at Nanú,
towards the Jubones River valley and Sumaypamba, where the landscape changes
rapidly into a rocky, arid semi-desert. There is an occasional oasis where a
small stream runs between a few palm trees, with the surrounding area composed
of barren mountains in different shades of browns and yellows. Some areas are
covered by dry, yellow grass, interspersed with low, thick-stemmed shrubs,
sprouting almost no leaves, but very bright red flowers. A species of cacti grows
here near the Jubones, and the climate is quite harsh, with strong winds
blowing over the hilltops where cold air currents blowing down from the higher
mountains and some warmer winds blowing in off the coast.
South
and east of the Jubones, to the areas of Ona and Saraguro and the wilderness
surrounding this area
Deep washouts surround the area, some the size of
a gorge, their steep sides made of loose material, where the soil is mainly
loose dirt or sand, and the limestone outcrops brittle and easily broken when
moving across them. This Desierto de
Jubones is quite an extraordinary place, all the more intriguing because so
little is known about it; however, it is not the type of place even the most
desperate would choose to settle in, with very little water, extreme heat and
little but barren ground incapable of producing any growth, let alone crops.
The
trip from Loja down to the desert lowlands of the Jubones on the way to Machala
and the coast
The 60-mile road that drops 6,500-feet, from
Saraguro down to the Jubones desert begins at a high moorland plateau and
descends to the Jubones interandean desert that drops down close to the
lowlands level. The road zig-zags through the various mountain peaks and
valleys and across barren land, where a small, occasional fertile area is
packed away between mountains where crops have been planted and Saragura
Indians eek out a living.
Top:
The green highlands city of Loja, at the foot of El Ahuaca mountain peak;
Bottom: the drop off along the road down to the Jubones Desert. Note the
drastic change in both terrain and vegetation
Loja is due south of Cuenca and southeast of
Machala, high in the mountains of the Cordillera Del Condor, and part of the Cordillera
Occidental, or Western Cordillera, with several current settlements along the
road (585) to Machala, dropping over 3500-feet from Loja to Portovelo in onl 73
miles, and dropping to just 50 feet elevation in the next forty miles at El
Cambio, which is four miles from Machala and the coast. Along this 585 road,
there are few settlements in the Andes over this completely barren stretch of
land, and even today the area is unoccupied.
Top: The southern highlands around Saraguro,
drops 6,500’ down to the (Bottom) Jubones the barren desert where little grows
and no crops can survive
It is not difficult to see why the Jaredites would
not have chosen to move toward the south once encountering this wind-swept,
barren land. That it must have provided good hunting because of all the animals
that gathered south of the narrow neck after being driven their by the
poisonous serpents, it was not a good area for settlement, in Book of Mormon
times or even today.
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