La Celba
Trip Start
Jun 04, 2009
1
4
9
Trip End
Aug 14, 2009
Coca, Ecuador
Monday, June 22, 2009
Andrea and I spent last weekend ( June 13-14) in Quito
where we mostly did some heavy internet use, sometimes successfully and other
time not. For example, last Sunday it
took me 4 hours to upload pictures and I couldn't do anything else on the computer
at the same time. Needless to say we haven’t
really used those same computers again. We
did however find a new hostel which is significantly more cool than our
previous one. So we decided we were
going to stay there when we returned form the jungle. Our weekend in Quito was also a chance for us to eat mass
quantities of fruits and veggies to make up for our starch based diet during
the previous week. We did our first run
to the Mercado and the Supermaxi. The fruit at the Mercado is piled high and is
just beautiful I am pictured next to one of at least 10 stands that look very
similar. After our shopping we made a
meal that had beautiful coloured meal.
We have continued to shop and cook for ourselves when our meals aren’t
prepaid.
By Sunday evening, June 14th, it was time for another 10 hour bus ride. WE met at the bus station and found out that
we would be joined by three other girls for the week. Vilda from Norway,
Sonal from London and Tamara from Canada. The company was a welcomed. It was nice to
meet some other people who were traveling. Apparently, this ride was like a roller
coaster. The bus swayed from side to
side, got stuck in pot holes and was extremely cold. But I say apparently because I was asleep and
didn’t experience the ride in the same way the other girls did. But we mad it
to Coca at 6:30am safe and sound. In Coca
we got some supplies, I needed a flashlight, ate breakfast, waited for Tamara
who chose to fly and her plane was delayed.
We made our way to breakfast where we were joined by some animal friends. The toucan was our first visitor then came the
monkeys (monos). It was a very nice
first couple hours near the jungle. By
12 or so we were on our way to Yarina
Lodge by boat. It was a 45 minute boat
ride, in a boat that resembled a large canoe with a motor and plastic chairs
nailed to the wood for the passengers. It
was great to get on the water where the breeze rescued us from the heat and
humidity. Our first part of the journey
took us up the Rio Napo and then we turned off onto Rio Maduro. Once we made the turn it was like a National
Geographic picture, perfect. The jungle created
an archway for the canoe to travel through and we floated along until we
reached our destination, the lodge.
Yarina Lodge was beautiful; it is cabana style with options for 1, 2 or 3 beds in a
cabana. The main dining area is equipped
with tables and lots of hammocks to relax in.
The food was pretty good and on our first night we were joined at dinner
by a tarantula. It was brown so not
poisonous we were told and people were holding it. Not I though, I thought I would by the end of
the week, but I just couldn’t get over my fear of the furry arachnid. Our planned schedule for the week, we were
told at dinner, is to study for 5 hours a day and go for an excursion or two.
Everyone knows I LOVE an adventure, well our first full day was quite the
adventure. Our excursion was to start
after breakfast at 7:30am. We were told
to wear our boots (big rubber boots we were loaned for the week), repellent,
pants and our rain jackets. Andrea and I
opted our on the jackets because it was so hot and opted in for our bathing
suits. First stop was an area where the
lodge houses animals that have been illegally captured and injured or left
unable to survive in the wild by themselves. I am not that enthusiastic about caged
animals, but at least these animals are being kept because of bad circumstances.
For example the sloth in the photos had been illegally captured and they
brought him to the lodge and let him free because he could still survive.
We continued on our walk deep into the jungle. We were surrounded by trees of various heights
and could hear all sorts of animals and insects around us. We continued on and it slowly got darker and
darker. Then we spotted the monos. They are difficult to hear because they move
so stealthily through the trees, but we have been instructed to stay quiet so
our guide could hear amimals and snakes.
Then just to make the experience all that more perfect and adventurous
it started to rain. In the very
beginning, we could hear the rain coming and then the thunder started. When the rain began we were under some trees
and barely got wet! As the rain
continued it got stronger and stronger until we were soaking wet. I was glad that we had opted for bathing
suits. The sound of the rain, thunder
and lightening was spectacular. It was so incredible to be walking in the
middle of the Amazon listening to the rain, the animals all the while hiking. I mean I love hiking in the rain but this was
taking it to a while different level. I
loved it! Our guide provided us with
natural umbrellas (palm leaves) which worked wonders and added to the whole
experience. The Amazon is an amazing
place, totally different from a tropical garden, but with amazing flora and
fauna all the same. The trees (well
some) can get so large it is incredible. Don’t miss Andrea modeling our umbrellas next
to an impressively large tree. By the end of our hike we were starting to get a
bit cold. But we had one more amazingly awesome thing to do and that was walking
over this laguna with the help of a wood bridge. The bridge consisted of a wood plank six
inches above the water. The whole excursion was spectacular.
After our
excursion we studied and ate dinner, but that was definitely not the end of our
day. We went on a night hike! Now the jungle was kinda scary during the day
with plenty of large spiders and snakes, not to mention plants that are poisonous.
But to hike at night brought the freaky
factor up 10 notches. You can never let
your guard down out there and I am scared of the dark! We all made it safely home, not even the
spider pictured (you will have to look closely) which jumps on its prey and
wraps it long legs around it to immobilize it, got us. Coming back to our rooms after the hike made
dealing with the small insects there much more manageable.
The next
day we studied in the morning. The week’s
Spanish class was not as good at last weeks. Our teacher did not seem as passionate for his
work and 5 hours in one sitting is simply too much. But at least we got through the material and
now simply need to practice practice practice. I would definitely say that our excursions and
guide Rafael made the week a good experience.
Our next
excursion involved a significantly longer hike with the added element of
significant quantities of mud. It was
fun to stem in it and hear the squish! Our
first interesting sight was a hummingbird nest.
If you look closely at the picture you will see tow baby birds. WE could see them breathing and the start of
their wings forming. Cool doesn’t really
over it. Next came our chance to act
like Tarzan (or I guess Jane would be more appropriate) please see the video. We continue on our hike until a 200 year old
tree that is approximately 40
meter tall. The
wooden stairs surrounding the tree allowed us to climb above the canopy, we
could see for mile, it felt magnificent. On the way up we warned to look out for large
black ants, Conga ants. One ended up on
RafaelŽs shirt. Which brings me to one
of the funniest moments of the week. When
we pointed our the ants to Rafael, he nonchalantly said, šoh mi amigoš. While simultaneously plucking him off his
shirt and dropping the ant off the side of the 40 meter tall structure. I watched him do this and without thinking said,
šno es un beuno amigoš(my attempt at not a good friend). The girls laughed and I got this funny look
from Rafael. Most likely because he didn’t
understand me, but moments later with necessary processing time he started to
laugh very hard. This only made us laugh
even harder. Maybe that story will only
be funny to us, but I thought I would share anyway.
Our guide
was super cute. He is a small indigenous
man who has grown up in the jungle and speaks both Spanish and Quichua, with a
few word of English every now and then. It has been great to see him laugh especially
because if we are laughing at something silly one of us had done you can see
that he is slightly concerned about laughing because he doesn’t want to be
laughing that us. But once he figured
out that we wanted him to enjoy himself with us he laughed with us and became
our friend and guide.
We ended
our hike a different way which enable us to pass by a very interesting tree. A picture says a thousand words in this case,
I think you can see why I am so amused. I can think of a couple friends who would have
exploded with comments upon passing this tree. I made sure to take a picture just for them J Another
crazy funny excursion.
On the
third day my mood was not so great. Class
was simply excruciatingly long and monotonous and I was not excited to put on
my smelly clothes and rubber boots for the next excursion. After the rain storm our clothes smelled
amazingly bad, we have no idea why, but they just smelled terrible. And to top it all off no matter how much Deet I
wore, I still got eaten alive by mosquitoes.
But the excursions continue and I am not about the miss seeing another
cool part of the jungle.
On our next
excursion we went to a near by laguna. We
saw ants moving lots leaves for their Queen. I tried to video it and hopefully you can see
the video well enough. Next stop was a
horny tree. The indigenous people pierce
their ears with the spikes and slowly add larger and larger spikes. In essence, they gauge their ears. But as Raffael showed us the have other
purposes as well. Pleas not eAndrea
trying to be scary. This excursion ended
after sun down and so our canoe ride back to Yarina was very fun in the dark.
Our last
day we went to the home of and indigenous family living up river from Yarina. We learned about all the different plants the
have included cocao, the unprocessed form of chocolate. It is a yellow pod and the cocao seed are
covered in a white sweet fuzzy flesh which is very tasty. The seeds are not tasty and definitely need
processing be for we get the tasty chocolate most of us love. Next on the sweet list was sugar cane. You can see the girls just gnawing on the
cane, hmmm pure sugar. We learned about
Chicha which is a fermented corn drink. It starts out as a nutrient rich drink that
keeps people rull and after 4-5 days becomes alcoholic and is enjoyed solely by
the adults. The platter that Rafael is
holding is specifically for Chicha and ocme from a large tree which can also be
used make clothing. The indigenous people are beautiful. I sadly was not able to capture their beauty
with my picture but every time we meet them I am struck by how much emotion
they have in their faces. I want to take
a million photos of them, but feel a bit awkward doing so. I will meet many more on my journey so will be
sure to capture one perfect shot eventually. Last on our adventure is the
chance to try our luck at using a blow dart.
WE were given three chances to hit the target. Andrea and I were the only two to actually
hit it. Go us!
We actually
canoed our way back to Yarina across the Rio Napo in the same small blue canoe
pictured above. It felt very authentic
to be out in the middle of this fast moving, piranha and anaconda containing
river and yet to be slowly making our way to our destination was great.
We took a
very similar canoe that we took from Coca, back to Coca. The wind was once again very nice. Once in Coca we waited for the bus which left
at 8:30pm. Our couple of hours allowed
us to enjoy our first bees of the trip and indulge in a pizza after a week of
rice, yuca, potatoes and meat. It was a
nice Friday and the bus back was our best bus yet, despite the 2 checkpoints where
we were required to get off the bus and show our passports and hour our bags
check for drugs from Columbia.
Back in Quito again at 6am, in our new hostel we had the best shower
yet in Ecuador. Even though I loved showing outside, not
really beats hot water and good water pressure. We have a leisurely day on Saturday with some
internet usage and shopping for good. We
do some necessary planning for our continued travels. We will part way today, Monday June 22. Andrea will go North to work on a far and
then return home July 9th. I
will continue south to work at a different farm called NeverLand (www.neverlandfarm.org). Then I will travel down through Peru stopping in
Lima and Cuzco where I will be doing a trek to Machu Picchu that will last 5
days and start August 1. The last day,
by bday, we will reach Machu Picchu.
Pretty sweet present, I think.
