Welcome to the Jungle

I had a tarauntula crawl up my arm...apparently it was not dangerous becuase it was young. It´s amazing how much you trust your guides with these things and their knowledge.

Anyway, I went on two jungle trips, both pretty short (5 days and 2 days). One in northern Ecuador, near the Columbian border in the Cuyabeno reserve, and one in more central Ecuador, near Puyo, accordingly.

Amazing how much it varies -- the northern bit that I was in was really open, as in not very dense forest, and was really flat. Here was basically a canoe trip -- I wish I had the time to write more about it! It´s an area that is rich in petroleum, which is easy to tell by all the development and contamination. This aspect is pretty depressing. Interestintly enough, it is also the place in the jungle by far most popular with tourists in Ecuador. I opted for a tour that was not in the more touristy part of Cuyabeno (the big lagoon), for better or for worse--you never know what you are going to get. We had lunch at a house on the river (Rio Aguanegro) before launching off in the canoes. The house was somewhat similar to those that I saw around SE Asia-- made of plywood more or less, raised off the ground enough to stand underneath (to prevent flooding mostly, and also to provide a cool place to rest), partially walls, partially open, thatched roof. Unlike many Ecuadorian houses, it was not painted any whimiscal color --I don´t know if I have noted before but a mint green seems to be the favorite. I like it --adds a softness to the countryside. From the yard, we sampled cocoa (does not taste like chocoalate until toasted, but the encasing of the seeds, which is soft is sweet and soft, kind of like butter caramels but not chewy), guava (which is long and thin , and coca.

I wish you could have seen the canoes pull up in the small lagoon where we were waiting. --simple wood canoes and paddles made of canola wood. I am not sure if it was the light, or the fact that the paddlers were standing, or really what it was, but it somehow reminded me of some Vietnamese movie from the early 70s. By the way, I think I have that right about the type of wood... I was on a 5 hour walking tour this morning, all in Spanish, learning about all the different plants and their medicanal and other uses, so my vocabulary was increasing pretty rapidly. Also leaving room for a lot of error in my memory! Ahh. I get ahead of myself. Back to Cuyabeno.

There was snaphu (spelling?!) with the canoes, so we didn´t get started until a bit later. Once going, we paddled for a bit (I was with a group of four French) until we got to the house of Washington. That is his name, by the way, not to be confused with some landmark. He has some crazy Spanish, meaning difficult for me to understand, which does not in all honesty take that much. I am not sure if this was highlighted even more by the fact that he was quite visably excited that this was only the fourth time he has seen tourists after living on the river for 9 years, or the fact that he was missing a good quarter of his teeth inhibiting his pronunciation, that Quecha was his first language (not Spanish), or just that he lives in the jungle and is a bit of a strange cat. But very anxious to please. He lives with his son in a simple, completely open thatched roof house with a loft where they sleeep. He said it took him about 2 months to build by himself, working about 10 hours a day. The roof was pretty interesting -- I think to build it he must have cut each of the logs (very long and thin, though I don´t remember the kind of wood) in half lengthwise, and then put one half on each side of the the thatch bit. The windows were my favorite part. They cultivate a fair amount of plants (peppers, coffee, we planted some tomato seeds), they also have many herbs growing around (the lemongrass was great for tea), some cotton trees, lots of green banana and palm trees, some cotton trees, guava, and I can´t remember what else.


...ahh sorry. To be continued. Internet is closing.