I meant to post this a loooong time ago, but having my computer stolen kind of put a damper on things. Now that I have a new computer, here it is:
La Selva, Day 1:
Our first day in the Jungle was spent driving from Puyo to the lodge site which served as our home base while on our excursion. In typical Ecuadorian fashion, we squeezed six people into a truck, gringos in the back, and headed into the Jungle. It was incredible, and lush to say the least. We made two pit stops on the way, the first was to see a very large kind of fish which was compared to a dolphin, but did not remind me of a dolphin at all except for its size. We did not see them in the wild, however, but instead at a viewing pool where our guides first caught smaller fish to feed to the large not-dolphin-like fish so that we could get a better view of them. To be fair they were about a meter in size, but they did not have any fins, nor were their bodies curved, nor did they have beak-like mouths. Then we stopped at our first Quichua village where we briefly met the village´s Shaman and some partially domesticated parrots before being ushered into a building which housed the villages artisan goods. We all purchased something and soon after left for the lodge.
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| Not-dolphin-like fish. Otherwise known as the Painche Amazon Fish. |
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| Semi-domesticated parrot in a Quichua community. |
Once at the lodge we were given a few minutes to get ready, and then we had our faces painted using the inside of an Achiote plant, following the Quichua tradition. I was painted to be "la mujer del sol" or woman of the sun. We were told the face paint would serve as protection for our first trip into the Jungle. We then embarked on a hike to a water fall named Hola Vida, or Hello Life. The walk was gorgeous, and very, very wet. We were outfitted with "jungle boots," or rain boots, before we left, and they proved to be very empowering. We mostly walked through mud and/or very shallow creeks, but at one point we crossed a river wearing them and not a one of us ended up with wet feet.
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| Being painted as the "Mujer del Sol" or "Woman of the Sun" for protection. |
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| Jungle boots. |
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| Hola Vida |
That afternoon our guia, Cecilia, had planned to take us back from the waterfall hike via canoe, but it had rained heavily the night before and the river was extremely high and moving very quickly. So, we rode back to our lodge and cabaña in the bed of truck, ate lunch, and proceeded to nap and relax all evening. We did not go on another hike that night, but we did discover the lodge´s bar, which played Bob Marley and 90´s throwbacks, and which we named "jungle bar" and spent the evening drinking beer and telling embarrassing stories.
La Selva, Day 2:
We were instructed to be ready by 8:30 a.m. for breakfast, and to come ready to walk a lot. As we are all accustomed to Ecuadorian timing by this point, we did not arrive until 8:45, but of course that didn´t matter at all because breakfast wasn´t actually ready until 9:30 a.m. anyway. During breakfast we met our second guia, Enrique, Cecilia´s husband. He literally had the best mullet I have ever seen. After a huge breakfast, Enrique took us in a canoe down the Puyo River to a scenic look out, and then we walked to Cecelia´s father´s community and to about four or five different Quichua communities after that. They ranged in size from about 100 people to about 30 people. We also visited one Shuar community. The Shuar community we visited was located across the river from our hiking trail, and Enrique had planned to take us across in a canoe. Due to the aforementioned heavy rains, the canoe had been washed away. As a result, Enrique took us all across the river individually, on his back. This was pretty hilarious to all of us. I was the last to cross, and also had the misfortune of not properly arranging myself piggy-back style on Enrique´s back. About two thirds of the way across, this proved to be problematic and I started to slide sideways and down towards the water. Enrique quickly reached behind him and grabbed hold of me by the butt, pushing me back into position. I do not ever think I have been so grateful to have my ass grabbed. Once safely across, we visited with the inhabitants of the Shuar community. In the traditional Shuar hunting tradition, we learned to shoot arrows with our mouths out of a blow gun, which is really more like a five-foot wooden straw. I managed to hit the tree (our target) four out of five times. We also met the community's children, two of whom were orphans. It was made quite clear to us that when children find themselves without parents in a Shuar community, the entire community becomes their parents.
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| Alex being carried across the river by our guia, Enrique |
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Demonstration of traditional Shuar hunting blowgun.
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Throughout our hike that on the second day, we saw many different types of community arrangements, and met many people. Along the way Enrique pointed out different plants and birds. He used his machete to investigate everything. Machetes are so popular in the jungle that everyone carries one. They are absolutely essential to hacking your way through an un-trecked trail in order to get from A to B, to get fruit, and potentially for protection from an animal. Literally everyone carried them, everywhere. On one of our community visits, we encountered the little boy pictured below, completely naked, incredibly young, and still wilding a machete.
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| Jungle boots and a machete... all the essentials. |
That afternoon we visited an animal corral, of sorts, which housed some of the more interesting animals of the jungle. We met a relative of the elephant whose name I cannot remember nor can I find when I do a google search. We also saw a jungle boar and turtles. Later, we went on a night hike, which we did completely in the dark, holding hands and whispering messages to each other. My eyes never fully adjusted, and this walk was more a test of trust in my friends and in my own two feet than anything else. I did see a monkey's butt before it scampered off, and crocodiles (though it was so dark we could only make out the eyes), but nothing else. Everyone fell multiple times, and though it was a learning experience, I was happy when we were safely back at the lodge. Again, we drank beer at the "jungle bar" and then went to bed fairly early.
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| Jungle Animal Corral |
La Selva, Day 3:
On our last day in La Selva we went on fairly intense hike which was up and down hill for four hours, without a trail. We visited a cave which had been carved into the face of a devil because Enrique's brother had a vision instructing him to do so when he was drinking ayawaska (a traditional medicinal drink of the Qichua people which is also a hallucinogen). We also had the opportunity to swing off of a cliff over the Puyo River on a rope swing, but unfortunately, I chickened out. I was the only person to attempt to swing, however. After our hike, we ate lunch and rode in the back of a truck bed back into Puyo. It was glorious to ride for an hour in the sun through the verdant overgrowth of the jungle. It was also a much better way to say goodbye to our excursion than simply squishing four-gringos-across in the back seat of a truck.
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| Devil-faced cave. |
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| Me chickening-out about swinging on the rope swing over the cliff edge. Please note Enrique's incredible mullet. |
