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Jungle Part 3! (I promise there's a great travel story in this one!)

Day 3 of the jungle adventure continues!

For the third day, Marco took a group of us to hike up to a waterfall close by. We hopped into the canoe and went about 5 minutes up the river to the entrance. It seemed quite busy with a few other groups and many families (probably because of carnival).

We started the hike to the first point where people  stopped to swim. Marco told us it was a hike we would need to wear our "botas" for, and soon after this photo, the reason for this became apparent. 

As clearly viewed here, the path was worse than mud season in Vermont! This came from a mix of the downpour from the night before and the amount of people walking on it. It was like playing frisbee on a rainy day when the field becomes a mud pit...

Graceful as I am, I knew I would be falling all over the place, and of course I did. I even had one of those lovely boot gets stuck in the mud, but body keeps going and foot comes out and takes the next step DEEEEP into the mud. I embraced my slipping and sliding.

 

The way back down was sort of like skiing. Marco was kind enough to help me down, but part of me thinks he was just in it for the entertainment (I don't blame him).

We encountered a tarantula on the path on the way back down. I went WAY out of the way to avoid that one. 

I was happy to be back on DRY land. This doesn't even truly illustrate the amount of mud splattered that I was, but it gives a good starting idea.








Post hike, we headed back to the boat to hop in some tubes and tube back down to the lodge. Now this was no simple tube down the Battenkill experience. No this was the most stressful tubing experience ever. (I know how could tubing be stressful right?!?) Well we weren't supposed to simply float, no we had to make sure to paddle ourselves into the middle of the river, and then there were rapids tossing the tube towards the edge (ahh must paddle back to the middle) then it was too windy so we had to get back into the boat and it was all very short lived...but fun none the less.

After some lunch and a nap we headed back down to monkey town to a butterfly hatchery.

the face off on the 1 way bridge

I liked this caterpillar because it looks like a tiny dragon

had to go all the way to Ecuador to snap a picture of a monarch butterfly

Wandering back to the boat I figured I should take some pictures of the (winding down) Carnival festivities.

if the cops are wielding foam then NO ONE is safe

upon our return a nice fire was built in the lodge, and we settled in to MAKE SOME CHOCOLATE. Now this is not the first time I've had this chocolate demonstration (in fact not even the first time in this blog), but it was definitely the most hands on time. We roasted the cacao pods over the fire first.

Then we cracked the shells and took out the nibs of cacao.

Then I even tried to grind the nibs...but it was too tough for me (ha) so some one else had to do the magic.

Marco mixed the ground nibs with some milk and sugar and we heated it back over the fire, making fondue!

OHH YES

So the best part of traveling, as any traveler will tell you, is the assortment of people you meet along the way. During our outing that day, a huge group had arrived at the lodge. We didn't strike up conversation until the chocolate making process had commenced, but it turned out they were a MOTORCYCLE GROUP touring through Ecuador. This was the last stop on their 12 day journey before heading back to Quito. The group was made up of about 12. They invited me to have dinner with them (which was extremely nice after my solitary meals up until this point), and offered me a ride back to Quito the next day! (no, not on a bike, they had two safe cars following). I was extremely lucky to have met them because as I soon realized, all of the busses back to Quito were already filled (I hadn't thought to buy my ticket in advance...)

if you fell...you had to strap the baby on your bike so you would be extra careful and not fall again...

packing up the next morning

the official truck of Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental

and finally back on the bridge to monkey town to see the monkeys one last time

It was a great ride back, of course not with out its share of typical Ecuadorian mishaps. Besides the POURING rain (I was lucky to be in a car), the rental car we were in, though practically new, had about every problem in the book, including the power steering dying on us about 30 min into the journey...but these stories would be no fun if they didn't include a bit of adventure...

Finals start tomorrow and just 9 more days until my return home. This weekend I am finally making the journey to the infamous Cuenca, which I am very excited about.

Jungle Part 2

I expected we would be traveling like this of course

After my first night of jungle sleep, I ignored the advice of our guide given the night before to wear long pants, and put on some shorts and my rain jacket for today's adventures. After a nice filling breakfast our small group (myself, a US family, an Ecuadorean family, and a few Ecuadorean couples) headed down to the river to start down it by canoe. Now of course I thought we would be doing the work but "canoe" really means "covered narrow motor boat that can fit 16".

the river was full of rapids and
dangerous obstacles (probably
better I wasn't steering myself)

So we piled in two by two to jet down the Napo River. Our first stop was in the town of Misahualli. This is also known as the monkey town. Now let's not forget an important aspect of this weekend. It was carnival. That means things were a bit busier/crazier than normal. This part of the jungle has Capuchin Monkeys (I of course always want to call them cappuccino monkeys...)

all the "canoes" docked to see the monkeys

as soon as we docked there were bunches of people selling
these cans of scented mousse that get sprayed everywhere
as part of the partying. NO ONE WAS SAFE!

Of course the monkeys have become performers to some extent and love to be food such as bananas or grapes like in the picture below. Similar to though not nearly as wonderful as Monkey Forest in Ubud Bali (see the saga of those cheeky monkeys here.)

the journey along the river was
beautiful

Post "monkey town" we headed down the river a ways to go to AmaZOOnico, which is a reserve for many animals. This is not typically the type of place that I would choose to go myself, but it was part of my deal, so I figured why not since we weren't as deep in the jungle as we could be it would allow me to see more wild life. I will say that  I really do appreciate AmaZOOnico's way of doing things, which is to say they are not a zoo, but a huge wildlife reserve, and they are able to release about a quarter of their rescued animals back into the wild after a time. AmaZOOnico is a popular volunteer site for people from all over the world. Our particular guide was from Germany (his spanish was around the level of mine, but he did extremely well. I would have been WAY more nervous. Ecuadoreans are very helpful and kind to us Spanish-struggling gringos.) 

AmaZOOnico began the section of our journey which
required the hard core rain-boots provided by the lodge

always great signs

toucans need to eat too

croc peaking out

log o' turtles

two adorable kissing kitties

I will say I was disappointed that I didn't get to see a capybara, which is really just a HUGE guinea pig. The guide said that they had some on the reserve but they were in the covered jungle area when we were where they were kept (as I said it's nice that this place isn't a full on ZOO, but that means I missed out on my capybara experience).

After we had been shown many animals we continued on our own adventure led by our guide from the lodge, Marco. it was a single file hike and we CLIMBED (this hike was the real reason we needed the boots, though it was nothing compared to the next day...but we'll get there..)

Marco found us a tiny frog at the beginning

 Of course the jungle is full of HUGE trees (with root spans that are larger than my room in Quito...). As you can see in the picture below...I am just standing in the roots. 

Parts of the hike were a bit more difficult than others, such as the moment pictured below, which was more like a direct vertical climb than a leisurely nature walk.

Of course getting to the top provided an extremely worthwhile view. On the way down Marco was literally hacking through vines with his machete so that we could follow the path. The real jungle experience. 

and now we see why we need the boots...
as I said, nothing compared with what is to come

showing us how the roofs are made

After our completed hike, we got back in the boat to go across the river and stop for a nice picnic lunch. We had arroz con camarones (rice with shrimp), salad, an apple, and of course can't forget desert...OREOS. The plates provided made me feel like I was eating out of a (square) frisbee (and yes we do that).

Misahualli was in full swing Carnival party mode as we headed back up the river. We passed it and headed to our final destination for the day, which was a traditional Kichua village. Marco was from this village, which was now mostly woman, as the men had gone off to work. 

When we first got there we were shown how they get gold from the dirt (this process and a huge amount of earth resulted in one SPEC of gold, quite a long process...). We then walked up into the village and Marco taught us how to use the blow dart and we did some target practice.

one of my new skills

We then watched the process of yuca chicha being made. This is a typical drink made out of fermented yuca. Next we had a demonstration of the way the famous pottery is made (one of its uses being to drink chicha out of, as pictured below).

there are all sorts of natural dyes used as paints

We returned to the lodge after this for dinner of tilapia steamed in a banana leaf (similar to Bali's but not curried like theirs is).

Lesson learned...wear long pants in the jungle...but it's just TOO HOT, but not for the mosquitos....