The Ecuadorian Amazon and more.....

Arriving in Quito, we hailed an airport taxi to drive us to our hostel for $25; our hostel was 1.5 hours away, but with traffic took 2 hours.  Our hostel was lovely with a wonderfully cozy room with a private bathroom.  The hostel was converted from a 1900's home with beautiful wood floors and multiple antiques throughout.  It was across from the Spanish Embassy and off the main thoroughfare, Amazonas Avenida, making it easy to travel to and from.  Our first day there, we took an open bus city tour for $25.  (Ecuador's currency is the dollar so no need to convert here)  We missed the last bus and needed to take the city bus for 25 cents.  We returned to our hostel, which also had a travel agency associated with it and arranged for a tour of the Amazon for 3 nights and 4 days.  On Sundays the main thoroughfare Amazonas Avenida actually closes down to motor vehicle traffic until 3 p.m. so we rented bikes at our hostel and joined hundreds if not thousands of like minded citizens and tourists in biking, and in many cases, rollerblading or just walking.  We rode to several different large parks, one of them was the old airport that had been recently converted into a recreational park.  Hundreds of families were enjoying recreational activities with their children in these parks.  One park had the largest skate park ramp I have seen.

Our bus for the Amazon left at 11 pm. for a seedy, oil developed city of Lago Agrio, where the entrance to the Amazon and the Cuyabeno Reserve was.  The bus left from an tiny and overcrowded bus terminal near our hostel.  For some reason we were told to arrive 1.5 hrs. before departure.  Our bus seats were all the way in the back of the bus near the bathroom.  As we were to find out the bathroom was locked the entire time and was only for the use of the bus staff (and the driver's girlfriend).  This was for an 8 hour trip.  The bus made only one rest stop at a truck stop.  We arrived in the lackluster town of Lago Agrio at 6 a.m.  All the roads in this town were developed by courtesy? of the oil industry that developed the entire town as well.  We walked about 1.5 miles to a restaurant where we told we would meet our tour operator or guide.  When we arrived it appeared that everyone had the same idea as the restaurant was packed with Amazon bound tourists, many of them had been on our bus as well.  We had to share a table as there were none available (interesting since all the other restaurants on the street had no customers).  The mother and daughter were from Australia and were  bound for another lodge in the same reserve.  While we were waiting a husband and wife who were on our bus were robbed of their backpack, right in the midst of the crowded restaurant.  We finally met our tour guide and after two hours we were escorted to a van for the two hour ride to where our boats would take us to the Samona Lodge.  We passed large pipelines and oil vent fires and noticed evidence of definite clear-cutting.  We arrived at our motorized canoes along with a group of about 8 of us all destined for the Samona lodge, which was two hours away at a breakneck speed.

The lodge had about 20 plus huts with thatched roofs.  Our hut was connected on the other side of the bathroom with another hut with a nice couple from France.  Most of the other tourists were from Europe. We spent time with young people from Denmark, Germany and Switzerland; a nice couple from Holland and a couple from Canada.  Prior to leaving there was an influx of tourists from Australia.  The huts encircled a large dining area, kitchen and lounge area with hammocks.  All the huts were on stilts, for good reason.  We were told that we were now in rainy season and the river was rising in the short time we were there.  One night we spotted a large cayman right outside the kitchen area.   Bugs are everywhere in the Amazon.   The second we arrived I went to sit on our bed, with its mosquito netting hoisted above it, and sat on a large black ant that bit me.  No ordinary ant was it as the sting of the bite lasted until the following day and we were told that those ants can cause fevers.  Luckily that didn't happen.  Some nights we had flying roaches and flies the size of my fist.  Spiders came in all sizes.  Our neighbors in the adjoining hut pointed to our common thatched roof at the largest spider I have ever seen.  It's legs were like a daddy long legs on steroids with a body close to the size of a tarantula.  Luckily the next day he had departed.  We were introduced to a large tarantula that was on one of the beams in the lounge area.    He hung out there until the last day.

Everyday our tour guide, Rom, took us out in a motorized canoe that traveled rivers, tributaries and lagoons that emptied into the Amazon River basin.  The river we were on was Rio Aguarico.  The array of flora/fauna is astounding.  We saw multiple bird species, some familiar and some not from Toucans to "stinky turkey's (not sure what the scientific genus was on that one).      We saw a Harpey Eagle, which actually will eat monkeys.   We saw Iguanas, Caimans, Snakes of all types including the famed Anaconda, river dolphins and a pink river dolphin.  We were told that there were manatees as well but we didn't see them.    We saw assorted monkeys so playful and agile.  After dinner we went into the Amazon to search for nocturnal wildlife.   We watched beautiful sunsets in the lagoon.   We went swimming off the boat into the Lagoon; well I didn't, but Gilly did.    We were told there are 5 tribes living in the reserve that have their own distinct dialect.  On our last day there, we went into one of their villages and assisted in making Yucca bread, starting with uprooting it, pealing off it's outer skin and cutting it up into chunks; it is then grated into small morsels, which is then strained to remove all the liquid and finally heated on a large pan.  Nothing is added to make the bread.  We ate tuna salad rolled in our freshly made Yucca bread.

While in the village it started to pour rain and lightning.  Everyday there was rain, but then it would clear and we would scour the river banks for reptiles sunning themselves.  We went to another part of the village to engage in a ceremony with a local Shaman.   First we all got to practice using a blow dart, with harmless darts of course.   Our guide talked about the use of the psychoactive substance common to Shamanic ceremonies, called Ayahuasca and his own experience using it when he was an apprentice.  He thought that too many people were abusing; misusing the substance and the sacred practice of using it was being corrupted;  and  and opined that because of bad publicity, many Shamans were ceasing to practice.    We weren't offered any Ayahuasca, thankfully.    But we did get a semi permanent tattoo using the liquid from a seed.

Our guide introduced us to the bountiful resource of the Amazonian jungle from dies made from seeds, above,  to a wide variety of medicines.  We experimented with sap that treats stomach ailments, which I called the Milk of Magnesia tree as it looked and tasted just like it.  We chewed the bark of a the Anesthesia tree but were cautioned not to swallow the juice or we would become too sedated to walk out of the jungle.  We saw ants that are used to stitch wounds.    The wealth of the Amazon is sadly seen as the oil reserves that lie beneath it and for this reason it is seriously in jeopardy.    I had read that the President Correo had put to bid leasing of the Yasuni National Park, I believe south of the reserve we were in.  Only the Oil industry came forward with enough?  I was told that it was because the world bank refuses to loan $ to the country because of Correo's political ideology; he's a socialist.  Therefore he put the bid out there.  The citizens of the country are expecting that it is not a done deal and that it will be put on the ballot for a vote.  One can only hope as the biodiversity and altogether richness of the Amazon is too valuable to be traded for oil.  Already the damage by the oil industry has taken a huge toll.  There was a recent suit by 30,000 Amazonian inhabitants against Chevron for pollution and previous devastation by Texaco has not been forgotten by the people of the Amazon.

Our last day, we were awoken for a 5 am bird watching canoe trip.  We saw a lot of bats at that hour.  I have heard that there are more bats in this part of the Amazon than anywhere in the world, which is nice because they eat the bugs I don't like.  We were sad to leave such an amazingly tranquil yet exciting place.      We attempted to take a plane back to avoid the previous undesirable bus ride, but it was full so we were forced to take a bus.  We opted for another company thinking our chances of having a better experience would be greater.  Alas we were wrong.  This bus had no bathroom at all nor any air conditioning and what was worse, it was a local.  It stopped about every 1 mile or so to either let people off or let people on.  It was standing room only until dark.  Then we started to make time.  There was a loud Chuck Norris movie playing  with Spanish Dialogue to make sleep impossible.  Our first bathroom stop was amusing as all the men got off to urinate right out of the bus.  The french woman we had shared a hut with and I got off and inquired as to where the woman's option was; he pointed to a building with a row of doors.  We traipsed over there and found most of the rooms to be open pits in the floor.   Well beggars can't be choosy, right?

Ending our adventure in Ecuador.