into the ecuadorian amazon

as it turned out
the bus ride from quito to coca
only took 9 and a half hours
(11 was the estimate i'd heard...
must have been a very fast driver in my bus there)
i passed through some amazing landscape
which i thoroughly enjoyed
it was a landscape i had never seen before
and breathing the somewhat rarified air
of an almost 4000 metre crossing
the green-ness of it all
rang out in stark constrast
to the clouds that floated in and out
of the softly rolling mountain tops
they almost looked like hills
but an edge here
a boulder or an angle there
and one instinctively knew
one was amongst - mountains!
if i were sitting at the window
i would have taken photos
but alas,
that was not to be
so i only have the memories in my mind
=)
when i arrived in coca
i hopped into a taxi
and made it to la mision
where i had a late supper
i had an almuerzo and really chowed down
even though it was steak and eggs
(i hadn't eaten anything that day
except for a bag of plaintain chips)
the room was nice and big
3 beds
and most important of all
air con
lovely!
the next morning i went off in search of internet access
got ripped off by the taxi guy
(i need to learn some more argumentative words in spanish)
wrote an email that was lost
because the freaking connection crashed
(pet peeve - major!)
and managed to get a blog off
without it crashing
i was also on a computer
for which the E key did not work very often
which was beyond annoying
one does not realize how much that letter is used
in the english language
until it is broken
sucky!
anyways,
i made it back in time
for an early lunch
then
i had a little problem paying for the bill at la mision
when they would not accept 100 dollar bills
or travellers cheques
and when i finally went to the bank
(with a lady from yachana lodge
who did not speak english)
they too, did not accept travellers cheques
tho they did change 100 dollar bills
we were told that if we wanted to change the cheques
we should go to a hotel called la mision
(god i hate management types sometimes
especially in crappy hotels like la mision)
with that settled
we went off to yachana lodge
a 3 hour motorized canoe ride up the rio napo
which was a very fast moving river
arriving at yachana
i was met by a student guide
and settled in to my rooms
later i found out
that there were two other people at the lodge
(guests, not volunteers or workers)
and that was it
so that was super cool
like having the entire place to myself pretty much
james and kim were both from california
and are med students
they are also asian american
which was kind of funny
because all the guests were asian
and speaking english
i wonder what the staff thought
=)
that night at supper
we also met our guide juan
who i would later learn
was named by missionaries
and whose true name is
tzerem kunchikuy
way cooler name that is!
we watched a video that night on chocolate making
and tasted some pure chocolate
made by yachana gourmet
from cacao beans harvested directly by tribesmen
they had 4 flavours
and of course
we had to sample all of them
=)
i then turned in
to a night filled with
jungle sounds that were both exotic and soothing
very very cool
a cold shower also helped
because it was quite hot
even at night
tho not quite as hot as i had thought it would be
it was still hot enough to have me in a constant sweat
and with the generator being shut off at 10pm
(that first night it went off at 9:41pm)
i lost the power to the ceiling fan as well
sad sad.
breakfast was at 7am
and all meals were announced by a horn call
(very cool)
after which we went on a walk to see some birds
now i must admit
if not for tzerem
i would not have seen any birds
what he could see through the naked eye
i could only see with the tripod mounted massive telescope
that he carried with him
i have always said that vision is overrated
this obviously does not apply when it comes to bird watching
*grin*
it was super fun
trekking through the jungle
with tzerem explaining things about the birds, the plant life
and the insects that were endless and everywhere
we went back to the lodge after
(juice and snacks available to us right after the trek)
and after a brief rest
we set off to visit the medicine man
there we had a cleansing performed
(kim opted out due to religious reasons)
and got to try using a blowgun
which was really quite neat
especially when tzerem showed us how and why
he used pirahna teeth to notch the dart
so that after it hit the prey
the shaft would easily break off
leaving the poisoned tip inside
of course we didn't get to use poison darts
but trying to hit the targets was fun!
next we got to do something really REALLY fun!
...spear throwing
or as i like to call it
spear chucking
tzerem hit the post with his first throw
and the spear
made completely of wood
(from the iron palm tree)
cut through it so easily
it was not even funny
if that was a wild pig
we would have had good eating that night
as it was
it was only a post
tho there were tons of chickens running around
and i joked that maybe we would have a better chance of hitting a pollo
(chicken)
now
the cool thing about spear chucking is
these were REAL spears
and they balanced beautifully
like a javelin
and applying a bit of that old technique
i had a jolly good time chucking away
even tho it had been a good 14 years since the last time
i actually chucked a javelin
it still flew pretty fast
and pretty hard
and landed point first
i must admit
i would have loved to keep chucking away
as we went further (from the post)
and threw harder
(i hit an orange tree by accident
the first time i threw from a far distance
but only because i didn't realize how droopy the high branches were)
i could feel my old love returning
becoming one with the spear
and feeling it fly through the air
very cool
and very fun!
i did try throwing the way tzerem threw
and the javelin slid rather than stuck
and almost hit a chicken
which was actually quite funny
for me and tzerem at least
and maybe the medicine man too
but prolly not for the the chicken
we returned to the lodge for lunch
had a shower and changed into non-trekking clothes
and then after a siesta
(during which the ran the generator just so i could have a fan)
we went to a hut area
which tzerem had built
and a lady was making pottery
and we learned some basic basket weaving
it was quite fun
and without tzerem there to help us tie knots and smooth things out
i am sure all of our baskets would have looked much more pathetic
but it was a neat experience to build everything from natural materials
nevertheless
=)
it was neat to see the process where they fired the clay
and how they painted and glazed it
it was pretty basic stuff
and quite fragile because they were firing over an open flame
but still quite neat to see
then we walked back to the lodge
baskets in hand
and a little dog following us for part of the way

we returned in time for a shower and supper
and the soup was amazing
man
i love soup!
and these vegetarian soups were to die for
we had them at lunch and for two of the three suppers
and i had at least 3 bowls each time
sometimes more =)
amazing!
i retired again to a night filled with jungle sounds
and unfortunately with jungle bitey thingies too
i was getting eaten alive
with or without deet
and i think mostly at night
when i was too hot to cover up
and obviously too asleep to slap or move
=P
the next morning
kim and james left
and after bidding them farewell
we set off on a 4 hour trek through the jungle
through endless questioning
i discovered along the way
that tzerem was the one who had laid out the trails
and there were quite a few of them
he caught poisonous dart frogs for us to look at and photograph
spiders and skinks and salamanders
and found birds, monkeys and insects beyond counting
very cool
and what an amazing wealth of knowledge he possessed
he is 28 years old
(which i had guessed spot on the night before)
tho most people think he is 35 or so
(ok, it was partially luck and partially intuition, that guess was =P)
and walks through the jungle as if he is part of it
whistling away with bird calls and jungle noises of his own
sometimes to which the birds and insects reply to
very very VERY cool =)
he has a beautiful resonance to his voice
and the musical quality of his jungle noises is amazing
and we had a little talk about corks
*wink*
anyways,
after the trek
we had drinks and snacks waiting for us again
lunch (with a shower before)
and a siesta
after which we went to check out some of the projects
that the foundation was sponsoring
that's where we saw the capybara's
as well as the school, medical clinic (both of them)
and various other future school stuffs
very cool and very neat
nice to know that one's money is going to a positive and constructive cause
after we returned from that
and kirby had another cold shower
and changed into his third shirt of the day
we had supper and then prepared to go out on a night walk
now that was the coolest tihng
seeing the jungle at night
with a 3/4 full moon in the sky
and thunder in the distance
it was a bit spooky
seeing as we had just normal piddly little flashlights
to combat the alien darkness of the night jungle
i was really missing my dive light at that moment
which went home with my lil bro
tzerem found so much on the grounds of the lodge itself
(like the caymans, the frogs, the boa constrictor and spiders galore)
i wondered if we were even going into the jungle
or even needed to :P
but enter the jungle we did
and i found that this relatively new fear of spiders that i had acquired
in the middle part of my life
was gone...
very cool!
there were so many cool spiders to see
venomous, and non, and extremely so
and tzerem handle them or introduced them so gently and carefully
that those two incidents in the past
that made me come to fear spiders
(you know, like the ones where you wake up with a huge spider
dangling over your face
and it falls onto you
and you can't find it
and you can feel it running somewhere in your blankets and clothes next to your skin
so you start screaming and flailing
and somehow the trauma of that event
imprints itself on your psyche...
that kind of incident)
faded so easily away!
as i said before
very cool!
i saw a spider catch a beetle
and cocoon it and then try to pierce it's shell
and tzerem found a very weird scorpion spider-like spider
the list goes on
and i have many photos... of which i hope some turn out well enough to post
part way thru the trek at night,
the rain started coming down hard
we heard it approach through the jungle
tzerem motioned for quiet
as a rattling tapping sound
echoed in the distance
it slowly got closer and closer
then it hit us
and i didn't really mind
because even at night,
i was sweating so much
that it made no real difference to me
as i was always dripping wet in the jungle
(sweat or rain, what's the diff eh?)
by the time we got out of the jungle
the moon had come out again
and the clouds had cleared
it was magical
and beautiful
and i had a guide that made me
completely unafraid of an environment
that could easily have been
terror filled and annoying
:)
the next morning i had an early breakfast
and headed off to the andes
my time in the jungle had come to an end
i must say
i have truly discovered and realized
that i am not a jungle person
i am not a hot weather humid tropical person
and bugs really like to feast on my flesh
if not for those two things alone
i think i could live in the jungle and love it
as it was
i really REALLY enjoyed my introduction into the jungle
(i especially loved the spear chucking)
but i think i will look for dryer
and perhaps somewhat cooler climes for my next journey
if have a choice that is :)