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After my massages in Papallacta (which were very good!) we travelled by bus to Tena which is in east Ecuador and a kind of gate way to doing trips to the jungle. Our first trip was to a homestay, to stay with a local Quichua family. Accomodation was better than expected, sort of like cabins made of bamboo wood on stilts. Plus we had beds with mosquito nets and even flushing toilets! I didn´t particulary like it at night as it was obviously pitch black as there was no electricity but the stars were fantastic! There was a big dining table in the family´s house and a relaxing hammock area too. The food was great, really good meals and the family were very friendly, there were lots of them there helping out. I got to practise my Spanish and we learned about their culture. We also did some hikes wearing wellies (to protect us from snakes!).....but I didn´t do all of them as I injured myself on the first one! Pulled a muscle in my leg (groin strain?) because there was a lot of big steps needed to climb up the sides of small waterfalls and through streams. I didn´t get to finish it off as it got too painful, but what I did do was good fun, despite being a little scary too! We had to use ropes to pull ourselves up at times and there was a big comedy moment when I didn´t realise I needed to step from one stone to another to go up and I ended up thigh deep in a pool of water, got even more soaked! Someone has put some pics on facebook which I´ll hopefully tag later as I have not yet uploaded any photos. The next day some of the group went rafting (not me!) and the rest of us went for a walk and the dad (who was guide) showed us various plants and we did some gold panning in the stream. We found a spec of gold but he showed us some he´d found earlier. The homestay was all in all a very interesting experience. After lunch we went back to Tena and collected the rafters before heading to a jungle lodge. The bags were put in this huge bag and tied to the top of a truck, which was funny to see! The lodge was in a beautiful setting, high up overlooking the river and forest. There was a very relaxing hammock area on the top level where I chilled out the next morning as I couldn´t do the canyon hike due to my pulled muscle, by the sounds of it. I´m glad I didn´t anyway as there were lots of narrow spaces which you had to squeeze through! The afternoon though I went tubing on the river which I was a bit sceptical about but I really enjoyed itm it was good fun. The tubes were tied together to kind of make a raft and about 7 of went on each one. We visited a local village on the way which was interesting too. We had sone drinks in the bar, I must have been less tired than the night before because I was asleep by 9!
The next day (yesterday) we got a bus to Baños, which took about 3 hours. It´s a small very pretty town in the mountains. Yesterday afternoon a few of us had a wander and tried some sugar cane and the sweets they make here from sugar cane- pure sugar! I then went for a relaxing massage, was very good. I borrowed a hair dryer at the hotel, I was so excited to be able to dry my hair! We went out for dinner in a really nice restaurant then to a bar. It ended up a late night and was tired this morning, as I woke up about 7.30, but got up and had some breakfast then went back to bed for more sleep! Most of the group went on a mountain bike trip but I am just not fit enough for such things, which is a shame. Had lunch with a couple of the girls, the town´s busy with lots of weekend visitors. There are quite a lot of active things to do here, but I´m happy just relaxing! There are various thermal baths here but I´m not sure if I´m going to go, I have a really sore throat which seems to be going round the group :-( We have to get on the bus at 7.30 tomorrow and we have a long journey ahead, around 8 hours plus stops to get to Cuenca, where we will spend a few days.
Anyway, having a good time so far, the group are really nice and we´ve seen some lovely places. Can´t believe it´s a week since I flew though!
Adios! x
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