Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
WOWEE!!! I´ve had such an incredible week!!
I´ve spent the week in the Amazon was so incredible!!
Ok....so it all started on the saturday afternoon when we caught a taxi to the bus station Cumanda in Quito and the taxi driver warned Stef and I how dangerous this place was and to be VERY careful (YIKES!!) We manage to find the otheres at the ticket officve only to find that Carl (the only person whos able to speak spanish fluently and the only man as Jamie considers himself more feminine than all us girls) has decided to catch buses because he didnt want to pay out for a taxi (a whole 50p each!!) As the bus began to pull away from the bus station-WITHOUT Carl- I catch a glimpse of him running and hailing down the bus and miraculously he managed to catch it!!
So we began our 7 hour bus ride up to a place called Tena which was a lovely small town. The bus ride was pretty unevetful though there were times where we´d come to a sudden halt and it went through our minds that we were about to be highjacked!! On the bus up there we met 2 Californian Jehovah´s witnesses who had lived in Tena for 15 years. Despite the fact that Carl had engaged them in an argument about religion, it seemed they had still taken a liking to us and phoned some people they new there and got them to pick us up and and take us to the Hilton!! Nothing quite as flash as trhe picture that comes to mind but for $5 (2pounds 50 a night- you cnt expect much! and we did have hot water!) Tim-the guy who picked us up-his family owned a company called River People (highly recommened!) and we managed to bargain a price of $45 for a day of water rafting! It was one of the most incredible days I´ve ever had in my life!! We all got burnt an dbitten by sandlfies but that didnt matter amongst the capsizing and going over rocks, getting stuck in the rapids! We stopped to walk through caves and paint our bodies with mud! Yum! We went through caves that were pitch black and full of bats! (slightly worrying as half of us havent had our rabies jabs!) It was more beautiful than I can describe (you have to see the photos when I upload them) It was our first taste of what the Amazon was going to be like. We washed ourselves in the river before continuing down stream to level 4 rapids! We had a lush lunch prepared by the mum of the family, of tortillas, bean, spicey sauce, rice, and CHOCOLATE CAKE!! Sooooo gooood! It was the best lunch I´ve ever had here.
After an exhausting day we returned to Tena and Jess, Stef, Carl and I went on a search for a $1 meal and ended up in somewhere they called a ´subway´lol. Some guy came up to us and asked if we would pay for his meal, we said no and thought we´d sorted it. v However we then looked out the cafe to see a man threatening us with a knife!! (think I may be bad luck) The owners of ´subway´called the security guard to ask him to move...he did but just a little bit up the road to wait for us and in passing in held his knife at us thrwew the door! lucklily the owners were realy nice and called us a taxi to get 30 seconds up the road! I´ve learnt nowhere here is safe!
On our way to the restaurant we thought we´d found a company to take us to the amazon! We had infact found Samuel-as jamie describes him, ´the missing link of evolution between chimps and humans´ We managed to bargain him down from $50 to $20 a day! Which is amazing...we then found out he was incredibly stupid and ended up out of pocket! He also gave us a free trek to the waterfalls the next day which are stunning-see pictures! We took a hairy ride in the back of a truck holding on for dear life! Carl and I stood up as it became sore on the bum. Though we then almost had a heads ripped of by the electricity cables!! We trekked through the jungle to a hidden waterfall and then stripped of to get through it to the rock on the other side. The waterfall was beautiful-however climbing through it was not! The water was incredibly powerful and heavy and somewhat sore on the sunburn!! On our way back we had to walk in the heat of the day for an hour and a half and then wait for the bus back to Tena for an hour! This is when we dicovered the real simplicity of Samuel as he bagan reeling off about 100 rape jokes that were clearly made up on the spot-he had the mind of a 15 year old!! But the wait was well worth it we got to sit on the roof of the bus!!! was amazing... tho again had to watch out for the cables and tree branches!
That night at midnight with Samuel we caught a bus to coca and then slept walked through the bus station to catch the bus to Lago Agrio...quite a scary ride with fears of being highjacked but we made it fine. The morning of arrival we sat in a cafe and came to realise that Samuel (the guy that was taking us) had infact never been here before and was in search of someone who knew the jungle and could guide us. After rounding up 2 other men Lirio-the jaguar, Wilson-the oso (bear) and witnessing a fight we began our journey. We took a 3 hour drive in a mini bus to the reserve and then a 3 hour canoe ride to our cabins. We saw pink dolphins, monkeys and birds (including vultures, ibises, macaws and a lot of other birds with funny names in the trees and a snake was so surreal! We then arrived at our cabins chose our rooms. That evening we discovered that Samuel did infact have one talent-cooking!! Was incredible:) We stayed up playing drinking games with some ´jungle juice´ was horrible! but good fun.
Next morning we took the canoe to an indigineous village where we watched a lady make yuka bread. Its a vegetable which is grown underground, peeled them grated them into a pulp. Its then squeezed through a woven ´cloth´to drain the water and cooked on a hot plate over a fire. Chipates is the closest thing I can describe it too. In the afternoon we went swimming in the lagoon which is just beautiful. Carl climbed a tree and used the branch as a trampoline! Him and the jaguar had competitions of how far they could walk on the branch( see pics and videos when I upload them) That night we took a night trek throught the forest was quite scary but didnt realy see alot. We saw a huge grass hopper (yay:s) and a tarantula and some scorpion spiders.
The next day we got up early and did a 6 hour trek through the forest... was so hot and so exhausting! We spent alot of time balancing on trunks throught very deep water that contained blood sucking and flesh eating insects- DO NOT FALL IN!! Didnt see many animals but got to swing on vines ( I actually avoided this as last time I tried to swing on a rope swing I ended up on crutches!!) and we could hear insects and monkeys in the distance. We saw a very rare bullet ant which apparently has the most painful bite of all animals in the world!! I got attacked by a swarm of bees called ´corto pelo bees´(directly translated hair cutting bees) I had about a hundred in my hair and they were stinging my head it was horrible I had to get the guy to pull them all out and handfuls of my hair came out where they´d cut it:( Not very pleasant. Went to the lagoon for a swim in the afterrnoon and stef and I managed to sink our boat when trying to climb in at the same time!! we had to do a quick bail in order to prevent completely losing our boat! My sunglasses are somewhere on the bottom of the lagoon!!
That night Stef Carl and I stayed up chatting to the guides learning lots of Quichua(which is the indiginous language-its actually very simple)we saw a Caiman that night(sort of like a crocodile) and one came into our kitchen!! The guide went to get it and it jumped back into the water was a lil scary!! We heard an anaconda crashing down the trees. We then went out for a late night fish for piranas although me and stef fell asleep on the rowing boat-needless to dsay we didnt catch anything!!
Got up the next morning to go and catch piranas, we went out in rowing boats with our fishing rods (a bamboo stick and a piece of string!) and began two hour row to another lagoon. Just as we hit the first lagoon, we also hit a storm!! -the rain forest sure earns its name! One that our lil boat struggled to handle, the waves were ever increasing and we had to paddle bloody fast to reach the other side safely. We were lucky to be in the boat with the jaguar, Samuel decided to take his boat to a tree in the middle of the lagoon so he could climb it and try and get signal because he suspected that his girlfriend was cheating on him!-apparently she was! We had to climb over into the other boat whilst the Oso and the Jaguar rowed to rescue them!
After alot of singing the likes of disney´s whole entire soundtrack to bare through the cold and wet we eventually arrived to our destination. The Jaguar, Stef, Shona, Emily and I sat there for about 5 minutes before giving up and began our 2 hour trek back to the cabins. However on arrival to our lagoon it was still too dangerous to cross and we all had enormous wee bellies!! So we decided to pull up on a bank with some abandoned cabins and use the toilet...oh my goodness it was the worst thing I´ve ever had to do in my life!! The toilet looked as if someones bum had exploded in it!!! We were all gagging big time!
We then peered over the ´balcony´ to take in the views of the Amazon only to notice that our boat seemed to have wandered off...!! We were now abandoned on this island absolutely freezing cold in the middle of a storm. We hunted round the island to find materials to make a fire we failed at our attempt as everything was too damp. The Jaguar left us in search forr the boat. He couldnt swim because there are electric eels and goodness knows what else in the water. However miraculously he found it and we began the rest of our row back to the cabins through the storm. It was a relief to get back and dry ready to relax into an evening of yummy piranas. They were lush! However we did later discover that they are infact illegal to eat! But I decided that they wouldnt not jump at the chance to eat us so felt no guilt.
Everyone went to bed early in preparation for the 5 oclock bird watch the next morning and the 14 hour journey home. However, Stef Carl and I stayed up chatting with the guys and learning Quichua( the traditional tribal language of Ecuador). I really want to learn it- its quite simple in grammar formation. I really want a tattoo done in Quichua 'ínti kausay´ which directly translated as best as possible means eternal sunshine, or the sun lives forever.
In chatting with the jaguar and the oso we spoke about us wanting to go to Colombia one day but we had reservations because of the political situation and the problems with Farc...the jaguar went on casually to say the likes of..."Well, if you want to just get in touch with us and we can guide you all around... I'm a member of Farc, most people round here are, you'll have no problems"!! We decided actually it was probably better that they were in the sense that if we were to get kidnapped they´d probably be able to get us out of it..this thought only came when I had returned safely to Quito...my initial thought was...have we been kidnapped and we dont kno it yet?!
The next morning was dark and early one...weary eyed we took the canoe out to see lots of different birds bringing in food and things...unfortuantely didnt see any dolphins. We returned back for a yummy breaky of pancakes and fruit before beginning our long journey back home.
Stayed at Shonas that night and then returned home Sunday morning to have a HOT yes HOT shower!! and put some CLEAN clothes on! Which felt fantastic!!
So yeh...I think thats everything. I´m now about to go to work...*groan* bit depressing coming back...its sunny here at the moment but chilly-tho I hear you have snow!!
Will upload photos and videos ASAP.
Love you all and miss you lots x x x x
- comments