The Amazing Amazon
What a fantasic weekend! Let me start off by saying this trip is more insane and awesome than i ever thought possible!
Alli and i left Quito for Tena at around 4:30 am to catch the 5am bus to Tena. This was noe asy task because the night before, Paul, Alli and I went to the Turtle´s Head at the Mariscal for some ice cream and beer. We didn´t leae till like 1am. And Paul had to leave for the States the next mornign as well. Anyhow, Alli and i thought we would have the bus to ourselves with our ´direct´ bus to Tena, which was about 6 hours away. Still sleepy, i woke up off and on and realized there were different people going in and out of the bus. I sat with at least 8 different people on the bus. We arrived in Tena utterly confused cause we didn´t know if our guide would pick us up. Instead we walked to the local restaurant where we eventually met up with our guide. Bags on hand, we rode ont he back of a truck to our Ecolodge called Shangrila. WOW! what a beautiful lodge. It´s nestled on a tree house whihc is on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Amazon river! Amazzing! We ended up doing a hike with our guide throught the secondary forest. It was pretty rough terrain but the lodge supplied us with boots. We saw all sorts of wild flowers and plants. Our goal for the hike was to readh the Quichua tribe located deep into the jungle. The trail was clearly unsae but our guide Roberto had his machete and whacked away the poisonous plants. We reached the tribe and were invited to their kitchen. The lady of the house shared some Indigenous drink made from fermented Yuca roots. It was grooossss; it tasted just like rotten rice vinegar. But apparently it get you high if you drink enough. I only sipped it. From there, we hiked throught he jungle again to our lodge for a magnificent dinner. WHAT A VIEW! I´ve never had a better dinner. In total, there were 6 people on the lodge, not including the family that lives there. So we had an intimate dinner with a British and Indian couple. I was so tired from all the travelling that i passed out real early.
The next day, we did some more hikinh. This time it was int he primary forest, where it is wayyyy wilder and inhospitable than the hike before. We hiked down by hanging onto unforgiving vines and roots until we made it to the jungle floor. We followed a creek where our guide told us we´d reach a cave. The hike was AWESOME! Ít´s exactly what i´s imagine it to be- wild and lush! We saw alot of cuye and armadillo tracks everywhere. Once we reached the caves, bats began appearing! Those things literally flew toards my face and hit me. It was scary if you´re afraid of bats cause they are freaky creatures. The caves were a sight, but what we didn´t know was that we had to steer our way through them! We went canyoning through the jungles, which pretty much means that you are climbing the canyon wall with only your limbs and body! We seriously had to prolpel our selves us and be like spiderman. If you seriously are not in good shape, you would die. No doubt. What made it worse was that we were climbing against a waterfall and we were amongst venomous snakes, bats, and other critters. I loved it. After a crazy crazy hike, we went back to our lodge. We had lunch and chilled in the room with a hundred hammocks! it was a sight to see and it was all ours for the taking! After our little break, why not take another one? hahaha. Our guide let us go watertubing on the Amazon river. We were assured there would be no piranahs cause the water was too cold today. SO we just rode the currents for about 3 hours! SOOOO RELAXING! Dinner consisted of drinking more cervesas and playing cards with the indian couple. But what a day!
Final day! Today, Alli and i were scheduled to go whitewater rafting along the arm of the Amazon River on the Napo. This was soooo fun! Our guide Gino was amazing! The rapids were a class 3 rapid and we did soooo many things that would be considered unsafe and totally dangerous in the states. Our boat had 3 other americans and one french and one czech dude on it. we were so fun. our guide would ram us off the boat. We even played games on the boat, which pretty much means you´re gonna get wet and knocked off the boat! We had a wicked lunch on the riverside and unfotunately all the snad fleas and mosquitos were eating all of us alive. The guides are incredibly crazy. they would steer the rafts onto dangerous current and purposely try to get the boat stuck on a rock or flip the boat over. i lvoe them dearly. Finally, they let me do some kayaking ont he river. i´ve never kayaked before and i was incredibly scared. I was knocked off only twice though and it´s something i will definitely do again! after 5 hours of rafting, we headed back to the riverside. the guides were great enought to treat us with beers after a day of rafting. Alli and i took a shower in one of the rafting family´s hotels before heading back to Quito for more hospital work. I love the jungle!
