Sleeping with the Taratullas

Friday, March 08

 

Another overnight bus brought us to Quito, Ecuador by 6am. As per our usual early morning bus routine, we waited until the sun came up before making a move. When the sun did come around, we hopped in a cab and asked them to take us to where all the backpackers could be found. Instead of charging us $1, he charged us the usual gringo price of $4 and didn’t bother taking us to the place we found out later he should have.  Instead, he took us for a 3 minute cab ride, and we ended up at a hotel in a random part of the city, which had no backpackers at all, and found out later was pretty dangerous. Thankfully the hotel itself was safe, and before we noticed we had gone back to sleep.

 

At 1pm we woke up and decided to walk around the neighbourhood to see what we could find. That was when we realized that we might not actually be where we wanted to be. There was a nice big park a few blocks away, but the neighbourhood looked kind of run down and uninviting. We grabbed a quick lunch at a restaurant that looked well populated and quickly headed back in the direction of our hotel. Before going back in, we stepped into the internet café just down the street to try and contact Dave’s friend Ivan to see if he was available to meet us for dinner. Ivan had already contacted us and sent his phone number so that we could call him from the hotel.

 

Later that evening, right as Ivan and his wife Pavla, arrived to  pick us up, there was a group of about 10 guys outside that looked like they were in a gang walking down the street all in a line. We quickly ran into the car and Ivan sped off, telling us that we were crazy for picking this hotel and he didn’t recommend that we stayed there over night. We filled him in on how we got there in the first place and told him we were definitely planning on finding another place to stay for the rest of our time in Quito.

 

Ivan and Pavla took us to a popular place known for dinner, drinks and dancing called Mariscal Foch where we did exactly that; dinner and some drinks, minus the dancing. We got to know Pavla, and Alice got to know Ivan for the first time. Pavla is an architect from the Czech Republic and they were both just about to start a new business designing houses in Ecuador. They told us they would be driving 3 hours out of the city the following day to speak to a guy about some possible business opportunities and they would gladly drop us off at a popular touristy area to spend the day if we were interested.

 

Saturday, March 09

 

We graciously accepted the tag-along on their mini road trip and were up and running with them by 9am.  The 3 hour drive was another winding one, as Quito the city is fairly high up in the mountains and we had to make our way down. The weather was not very much in our favour, as the sky was completely clouded over and occasionally the rain would come down pretty strong. The place they wanted us to go to sounded beautiful, with a big lake and waterfalls. However, because of the rain and the lack of a conveniently timed out bus from the entrance, we decided to forgoe the drop off. We really ended up tagging along with the couple to a town a half an hour further called Los Bancos, where we sat at a restaurant and had a snack while they had their meeting. After the meeting they took us through the gated area and into the almost empty lots where the new community would be built. It was so quiet and secluded, full of greenery with a huge community pool and cabana’s ready to go.

 

We grabbed a late lunch in the small town a few minutes away before heading back to Quito, and checked into a hostel right in the centre of Mariscal Foch (the nice safe area from the night before). We spent the rest of the evening relaxing there, at the hostel, until bed.

 

Sunday, March 10

 

The once busy streets of Mariscal seemed to be a ghost town on this rainy Sunday morning, but we ventured out to explore the streets anyway. We had decided that because the Galapagos where out of the question at this point, we would try to book a jungle tour instead. We sat down at a travel agency (one of only two that were open on Sundays) and inquired about our tour options. We were lucky to find a 5 day tour leaving the very next day. Before we booked the tour however, we had to go down the street to the bus terminal to make sure we could catch a bus that would arrive in the city called Lago Agrio before morning, as we would be picked up by someone with the tour in the by 9am. We were able to get the last 2 seats on the 10:30pm bus, take out money, and run back to the tour office to confirm the trip.

 

We now had almost 10 hours to kill in ghost town before our next adventure was to begin. We spent the day mucking around the hostel, working on our blog, sending home photos and running in and out for lunch, snacks, drinks, and dinner.

 

By 10:00 we were at the terminal ready to catch our 8 hour bus.

 

Monday, March 11

 

Well you can probably guess that our bus ride was yet another winding descent down the mountain. This bus was particularly uncomfortable and we barely got any sleep. The worst part was that we made it to Lago Agrio before our estimated time, which meant we were dropped off in a tiny deserted town at 4:30 in the morning. We did however, meet a fellow traveller on our bus named Harro (from Holand) whom we shared a cab with to the hotel where we were suppose to meet our driver for 9. The hotel, along with everything else in the town was boarded down closed, but with a collection of other people waiting to pick up there tour, sitting (and some lying down sleeping) waiting right in front.

 

We groggily joined the crowd and when the hotel opened an hour later, sat down on their patio and ordered breakfast while we continued to wait. Our driver Betty showed up and drove us and two other guys Hugo and Vidar (also from holand) to the small airport down the street to pick up the last 2 people in our group, who turned out to be an older Australian couple. Once all 6 of us were loaded into the truck we took the 2 1/2 hour drive deeper and deeper into the jungle to Cuyabeno River. There, we met Elvis, our tour guide, and were transferred into a speed boat for the next 2 and half hours down the river toward our Eco lodge accommodations.

 

Elvis pointed out as many animals as he could find for us along the way including various types of monkeys and birds and even a juvenile anaconda. Our lodge was made up of a main hut for a dining room and kitchen, a lounge hut and various smaller huts for us to sleep. We settled into our cute and cozy hut before sitting down for our delicious home cooked lunch.

 

We had some free time (which we spent napping, obviously) before we set out on the boat again to the big lagoon to watch the sunset and do some more animal watching. The sunset was breathtaking and we were lucky enough to run into some pink dolphins, who were just too quick to get pictures of, before went back for a candlelight lodge dinner. 

 

Tuesday, March 12

 

After breakfast we were introduced to our new guide for the day named William. We were a little thankful as, even though Elvis was lovely, his English was pretty difficult to understand. William fit us all in rain boots and made sure we all lathered up the bug spray in preparation for our jungle walk. We took the speed boat down a the river and were dropped off by a little path made in between the trees. We walked for about an hour and a half, while William stopped every few minutes to teach us about plants as we walked by and pointed out some bugs and birds.  He told us about the diversity of the jungle and how any hectare had 300 or so different types of trees. About half way through the walk we came to a Tarzan swing made by hanging branches from the tall trees. We all took turns swinging on it and taking cheesy pictures. Our rain boots came in handy as half of the walk we had to sludge through the mud and even swampy pools of water that accumulated from the heavy rains they had been getting. When we finally got to the end of our walk, our regular boat was not waiting for us. Instead, we all piled into a rickety canoe and had to paddle back to the lodge, but were thankfully rewarded with a delicious lunch.

 

In the afternoon we set back out on the river to a quite swampy spot for Piranha fishing. We were each given a simple stick with a line and a hook. Our quick lesson consisted of watching William attach some raw meat to his hook, tossing in his stick and wiggling it around a bit in a splashing motion. We all attached our own bait and threw our sticks in the same fashion. We cheered aloud, as one by one, people were getting little tugs on their lines and or pulling in and letting go of the Piranhas. Everyone was able to get at least one Piranha, everyone except for the two of us! We decided that Canadians just weren't meant to be   
                                                                                             good piranha fishers.

 

We headed back to the big lagoon for sunset swimming again, the evening ritual. After the sun went down it was a perfect night for hunting for the caiman alligators, something we had been looking forward to since we set out for the jungle. "Mascota" our boat driver, took us to the far side of the lagoon while we all clutched our flash lights in anticipation. Sure enough as we slowly approached the far side, we saw a pair of yellow eyes shining in the light. We quickly cut the engine and quietly waited until we saw the head of big caiman pop up several of feet away from us. William tossed out a few left over pieces of our Piranha bait and the caiman started slowly approaching the boat. At one point he was literally 2 feet away from exactly where the two of us were sitting and we were able to take some frighteningly close up pictures.

 

Dinner that night was delicious, but included a family of flying ant visitors. Alice had a hard time fighting them off and could barely eat. As soon as everyone else was done eating we made our way up to the bird watching tower to get away from the bugs and look at the stars.  Because we were so close to the equator we were able to see the stars on both the southern and northern hemispheres which included impeccable views of both the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper in one sky! It was our very first time seeing the Southern Cross which was a really nice treat.

 

                                                                       Wednesday, March 13

 

Today's itinerary took us to a native village a couple of hours down the river. The boat ride down was slow and relaxing as we were scouting for animals along the way. When we arrived, were guided by one of the local women down a path in the jungle where she showed us how they pick Yucas ( a South American type of very starchy potato). She tossed them around and got us all to help peel them before we walked back and watcher her cut them up and drain them from their juices using a hand woven mat. She worked the Yuka into a fine powder before she threw it into a giant pan and cooked tortillas out of it. We made tuna wraps as the end result for a little snack when she was done.

 

Before we left we went back into the jungle for a 15 minute walk to the biggest tree we'd ever seen (lengthwise and widthwise) Along the way we got to learn about all the different kind of plants they had growing right there on the island. They were stocked up on coffee and cacao plants, banana's, papaya, yucca and much more. We learned that the cacao plant has a big red fruit that encases all the seeds. When William cut it open it resembled the fruit inside a lychee and tasted juicy, sweet and delicious.

 

For the second half of our village trip we were taken to another village where the big Shaman lived. A shaman is a person in high respect that is educated in natural medicine, the person sick villagers are taken to for spiritual and homeopathic care. We sat down around him and he told us the story of his lineage and how he became to be the community Shaman. He told us the story of his graduation ritual and how his father took him into the middle of the jungle to try "ayawasca". Ayawasca is a crushed root, that is made into a hallucinogenic drink. As a shaman he would have to drink it every time he was trying to see into the eye of the spirit of disease in order to heal his patients. 

 

At the end of his presentation, he asked for a volunteer so he could show us a typical heeling ritual. No body raised their hand at first, until David was nice enough to take one for the team. The Shaman asked David to lye face down on a tiny little platform while he basically wacked him on the back over and over again with a sharp twig while he recited a traditional chant. David kept a straight face even though the process was quite painful, and when he got up, his back blew up in hives! The Shaman assured us it was completely normal and within an hour the hives would significantly decrease. We thanked the Shaman for a wonderful afternoon and headed back to the Eco lodge for an afternoon nap.

 

Before dinner we suited up in our rain boots once again and headed back into the jungle for a night walk. The jungle comes alive at night with a whole different slew of insects and animals. We saw a huge bug that looked exactly like a lobster, and a huge tarantula along with many other interesting bugs.  We were also slaughtered by the flying stinging bugs, as they were attracted to our headlamps and gringo blood. On the way back we stayed on the lookout for more Caiman, but settled for a tree boa instead.

 

Thursday, March 14

 

We were back with Elvis today, and back in our canoe with no motor. We paddled out for our second attempt at Piranha fishing along with some more animal exploring. We were disappointed yet again, as the piranha's seemed to be on vacation that day. We all got blisters from paddling on the way back and were able to work up HUGE appetites for lunch.

 

We spent most of the afternoon reading in hammocks before bringing in the evening with yet another breathtaking sunset at the lagoon. On the way back we stopped to look for the caiman again and this time, found a different one. At first his little yellow eyes made us believe he was a tiny one, maybe a baby. However when we got close (a little too close) we scared him and he made a big snapping splash that scared the living day lights out of us!

 

Friday, March 15

 

 

We woke to our last day in the jungle in the pouring rain, which is fair, being the rainforest and all. We had bird watching scheduled for 6:45am but were told not to bother if it was raining. As were straggled out for breakfast at 8, we were lucky enough to catch two toucans sharing some fruit up in the trees just as the rain was beginning to settle. After breakfast, they dressed us up in Ponchos for the 2 hour boat ride in the rain. Unfortunately our ponchos didn't protect us against the down pour as our clothes were all soaking wet by the time we made it back.

 

We said a sad goodbye to Elvis, William and some of our friends and headed back to the main town, Lago Agrio, to catch a bus to our next destination called Banos a little town with an active volcano.

 

 

 

With Love from the Amazon

D'Alice