Guayupes

The Guayupe inhabited the eastern Andean foothills and the plains around the Ariari River. They spoke an Arawak language and cultivated yuca, from which they made cassava bread. Their settlements could be protected by wooden palisades, thorn barriers and concealed pits; houses stood around a central open space. Rivers supplied fish and served as routes for canoes.

Spanish expeditions encountered determined resistance in the sixteenth century. Alonso de Herrera’s force suffered losses in 1534, and Georg Hohermuth von Speyer’s expedition fought its way through Guayupe country in the following years. One fortified village impressed the Europeans enough to be compared with the fortress of Salses. These encounters reveal the strength of local defences as outsiders attempted to cross the eastern plains.