Well, the week leading up to Carnaval aka the weekend of our trip to the Oriente, aka the jungle, aka the Amazon Rainforest I was having some trouble with my teeth. More details in a separate post about the whole dentist experience, but I woke up on Saturday morning with a swollen mouth, and knew I should probably take some antibiotic before heading into a very secluded part of Ecuador. I called the program advisor that was coming on the trip with us, just so she would know that I had to get medicine at the pharmacy that was opening at 8 (the meeting time at the mall) so they wouldn’t leave without me. Then I got a call from the other advisor, saying it was too dangerous for me to go. Well that was fun. She talked it over with my host mom and they agreed that I could go as long as I took the meds me host sister (vet) said I should. Good thing they came to that conclusion, since I was going whether I had their blessing or not. My host mom neglected to tell me there was a 24 hour pharmacy until about an hour after we were trying to figure out what to do. I made it to the 24 hour pharmacy and got the best medicine I could, even though they didn’t have what my sister in law aka pharmacist suggested. Oh well.
I made it to the mall, and apologized profusely for making everyone wait for me, since I was at least a half hour late, and we began our adventure.
A whileeee into the trip and we saw waterfalls on the mountainsides, a waterfall that went into the road and then dropped off the side, so you had to drive through a mini river, and gorgeous views in general. We also stopped at Papallacta, and drove by Antisana some lakes/volcanos. It got exciting when we were zigging and zagging alongside a mountain, not worrying at all about safety because the bus driver Don Carlos was flying! It seriously was a feat just to stay in my seat. I didn’t mean to rhyme there. I tried wearing my seatbelt, but it fell apart. Awesome. Good thing none of us get car sick too easily because I know some people who would definitely have puked.
Sharon, our program advisor, was telling us how communities here all have one thing in common: la cancha. This means that no matter how poor, rich, big, or small the community, they all have some sort of basketball court or more likely soccer field.
Sharon, our program advisor, was telling us how communities here all have one thing in common: la cancha. This means that no matter how poor, rich, big, or small the community, they all have some sort of basketball court or more likely soccer field.
We each slept 3 people in a hut, and for some reason the hut that I was in had the only mosquito nets out of the rest of our group-so obviously Hannah and I slept under them! This was funny though because we were also the hut with the least amount of bugs. We had a HUGE bathroom, it was just really long, and the shower was either really hot or really cold, there was no lukewarm there.
We had arrived at the hostal in time for lunch, and then got changed to go on a tour of the jungle with Jose. I was lookin pretty fine with my shirt tucked in and my pants stuffed into rubber boots. I probably should have worn my water proof pants instead of my quick dry ones, but it added to the adventures…
He pointed out a lot of plants that are used as natural cures, some that I believe in because they deal with putting hot leaves on your skin, and others not so much because they involve shaking a plant around your body to remove bad spirits. I have more notes on this in my journal that I brought with me, although I have no idea how to spell these things.
guayaba, verbeno used to cure fever, hoja de anis-hot leaf on your skin also called maria ponga, waska is vine, musco used for golpe or sangre-aka when you're bleeding, surpanga is like bamboo, and the shaman uses it all over your body, platanas, pelusa or eleconias, tulang, lecho looks like a monkey tail, tocota is a big and very important tree, a tree that has lots of trunks all put together is bambil and used to build houses. servestre is what our hut was made out of. bambil has natrual espinas or nails kind of that is used as a natural cheese grater. something that sounds like sheekeetah is another name for the plant with teeth. there was a fruit that looks like a walnut that the animals eat from some of the vines.
He also showed us a termite blob. Not sure what it’s actually called, but now that he told us what it is I see them everywhere! In trees, abandoned houses, etc. This one was next to an abandoned house, just before we started our walk towards the jungle. You break into it and all these termites start crawling out-same as if you mess with an anthill.
There were also these really cool plants that look like baby ferns, but when you touch them they close up! I took a video of it, I’ll eventually upload them all so everyone can see.
We walked down to a waterfall, and I got naked in the jungle in order to change into my suit. I was the only one still wearing my boots, but even tho I looked ridiculous I stayed in the water longer since I wasn’t slipping around on the rocks as much as they were. It wasn’t a huge waterfall, but it pounded pretty hard on my back-a nice rough massage. Jose also pointed out birds to me, and I took some pictures with my waterproof camera, but I’m not sure when I’ll be getting those developed.
I found a real fossil of a leaf on my walk back to my backpack, which was awesome! I’ve never just found a fossil before, without anyone showing it to me so that was really exciting.
It started to pour as we were getting dressed, which was funny because I was so wet that it took me a while to notice. We walked for a while, and we came to a cave! Here’s where our flashlights came in handy. We saw bats, scary spiders, and walked through a lot of water. Sharon the advisor made us nervous because she said the water would go up to our waists, but maybe it went to her waist I don’t know-it certainly didn’t make it to mine. Anyway, at times it got real tricky because you had to duck down from the ceiling covered in stalactites or stalagmites, I forget and I don’t have internet right now to check Anyway, you had to duck down from those while climbing over rocks, and at times it got reallyyyy tight. Plus, I was wearing a backpack which made everything a bit more interesting. At one point there’s a path that you can take, but its another hour to get out on that side, so we went the shorter way, and did a little rock climbing to get out. I had a blast, probably because I was behind the guide Jose and then Sharon’s tiny daughter, so I was near the smartest person, in the front, and behind a little person so I could see more. The bats were a little nerve wracking but it wasn’t bad. Other girls hated the tight space, but I would totally do it again!
After, we walked through a river and up through more forest. Jose painted on some people’s faces with mud, and then some girls painted on others. Zannah almost fell into the pond that was there, holding her camera, but I caught her just in time. It was scary though. We headed back, and Hannah fell at one point because we were so wet and muddy. I took a picture of course, yelling at her to stay down until my camera was ready. She didn’t like that so much.
We swung from a rope like tarzan, and tasted some something called dragons blood that can be used as a bandaid-it was soooo dry. I also pulled clay out from the wall of the jungle. The guide did it and gave us some to feel, but if I was there I wanted to experience extracting it for myself.
There was also a plant that Jose gave to Hannah and told her to clap her hands, and when she did it bit her! I should have known something was up when he handled it very gently and through it to someone instead of handing it out. He also broke off a flower, and we posed as parrots.
We got farther up, and with all the mud from the pouring rain earlier, I stepped down and stepped into knee high mud and all I could do was laugh. Jose had to come and lift me out, and I almost lost my really tall boot! I couldn’t imagine what would have happened if I wasn’t wearing those rubber boots.
We made it to the road by nightfall, and went around in a circle each naming a different plant that we had learned about. We walked back, and went right into the pool since we were already soaked. We ate a scrumptious dinner and then I took a niiiice hot shower, but like I said it was pretty scalding. It was kind of late so we just talked in our room, under the mosquito nets and took some funny pictures, and fell asleep.
We made our way to El Centro de Rescate Amazoonico (yes the 2 oo’s belong there) where animals are brought when they can’t live in the wild or were in some sort of danger. While it was awesome to see some of these animals, I really thought we would be able to see them in their natural habitat, while walking through a part of the forest ourselves. I guess I shouldn’t have expected what you see in the movies-you don’t just walk into the forest and find yourself amidst Noah’s Ark, jungle style.
It was seriously so hot that I sweat through my clothes-the only part of my quick dry pants that weren’t soaked through after 20 minutes was the pockets. We had an awkward encounter with changing…the bathroom in the gift shop was literally that-IN the gift shop. It was 2 extra walls put up in the corner, but without a ceiling to really separate it, and someone was not feeling too well in there. We decided to leave and change near the river, and ended up finding a spot where we all just kinda got naked together and got changed. We got back in the boat for a few minutes and then finally jumped in! It was heaven! Just so you know, if you ever swim in the Napo River don’t pee in it-there’s a fish commonly known as the “penis fish” because they swim against stream similar to salmon right? Well anyway if you’re peeing in the water and one is near you-it will go up there and there’s very little you can do afterwards.
On the way back everyone held their clothes up to dry out-i'm SO glad i brought lots of quickdry stuff. it seems everyone but me also had blue, so it was like a parade on the ride back
We got back in the bus, all the while getting splashed by local kids through the windows-totally welcomed with the heat. I wrote the first few days a while ago so I cant remember if I said this, but once I was almost asleep and got splashed! I couldn’t be mad tho, it seriously felt so good. We arrived in Tena, the capital of the Napo province. I had no idea what was going on so I didn’t bring my camera or anything with me, but we went to la Isla Amazonica to see more animals-some cool stuff, but again all in cages. LOOK AT JOURNAL! We climbed a tall tower and had a nice view of the surrounding area, but the tower was shaking a little bit so we didn’t stay up there very long.
When we returned we jumped in the pool because it was unbearably hot, packed, and headed back to Quito.
Sunday
Sunday was our canoe trip…We got to the river and it was SO HOT, and we had to wait for our ride. Obviously we all bought ice cream that melted almost before we ate it, and had a discussion with Sharon’s friend about what we’ve learned so far. It was kind of interesting, but not really-which makes me really miss my anthropology classes at Saint Mike’s.
Anyway, we boarded this longgg skinny canoe that had a cover on it and headed out into the large Napo River-not what I was expecting. For some reason I thought there would be very few of us in multiple canoes, traveling through a river barely wide enough for us to fit. I was mistaken, ah well.
i was the first to spot this guy-uncaged, just hangin out!
this guy's name was Herman! (like my really awesome fish)
On the way back everyone held their clothes up to dry out-i'm SO glad i brought lots of quickdry stuff. it seems everyone but me also had blue, so it was like a parade on the ride back
We got back in the bus and had lunch…this was an adventure! Well, the hostal packed us bread, ham, cheese, peanut butter, apples, soda, chips, and cookies. So we made our sandwiches. But I was Hunnnnnnnngry! So, after having one normal sandwich, I then made a sandwich with peanut butter, ham and cheese, and then bit off chunks of apple to put in there too. It sounds gross but really it was delish! Apparently I have no problem mixing foods anymore.
We then headed to a Quichua OR IS IT QUECHUA? village, which is a community of indigenous people. I brought my camera with me in my water proof case, since who knows if we were gonna get splashed by little kids here too. Once again it kind of sucks doing things the touristy way-this “community” was so commercial-we didn’t see where they live or cook, and there were multiple other tours going on at the same time, as well as a small cage for a little animal. The museum there was really interesting-full of traps for animals, made completely from natural resources, mostly tree parts.
Our indigenous tour guide raced through each one as if it was no big deal, but some of the contraptions not only catch animals, some kill them! Fish traps are really cool, one kind is just a tree limb split into lots of rods at one end. We also saw monkeys and parrots just hanging around, and tried a special drink that tastes like barbequed liquor, which is kind of what it is. They also had potions you could take for different ailments. They’re not potions really but I can’t think of what else to call them. Basically it’s just a bunch of natural remedies, professionally bottled in used water/Gatorade bottles-love it right?
After a delish dinner at the hostal a Shaman came, which is a doctor of natural medicine, or a “medicine man”. Except it wasn’t the Shaman, it was his son. Apparently their car broke down so they all had to walk-there were also a lot of women and a few men who danced too. Well, it was really hard to take this seriously. The woman were laughing while they were dancing, and only the 2 oldest women actually knew all the steps. The Shaman’s work consists of smoking tobacco and blowing the smoke all over the person being healed, then drinking alcohol and spitting it all over the person’s body. They also smack a bunch of branches around their body. I also had trouble really getting into it since the smoke is supposed to be the evil spirits leaving the body, but we did it under the roof of the eating area, so all the smoke was just going to stay inside the hut-defeating the whole purpose of cleansing in my mind. Afterwards they spread out jewelry, and we bought stuff like the epic tourists we are.
Some of us hung out for a bit, and I braided a bunch of hair!
Some of us hung out for a bit, and I braided a bunch of hair!
Monday
We drove just past our hostal’s private property to get to a small town to a Petroglifo museum, where we had our own personal guide. He walked us around to find some of the local drawings in the rocks, and told us about a 20 minute story but it was so hot and hard to hear plus it was a myth in Spanish so lots of new vocab, that I’m pretty sure together the 9 of us understood 30%. Basically something like every night a young girl would escape outside and meet a man outside, who became her lover. Well one time she painted her hands so that maybe she could see who he was the next day, and at breakfast the next morning her brother had paint on his face. Soooo her brother was the father of her baby, and she was so sad that she turned into either the moon or a bird, I forget that part.
(outside my cabin in my Founder's sweatshirt-just for you Dustin!)
No comments:
Post a Comment