From the Jungles of Tena to Home: Well, our day to start home had finally arrived. We ate our last breakfast in the jungle and got on the bus by 6:30am. The bus had arrived last night, with the driver sleeping onboard. After a very long, rough ride out of the jungle, we stopped in Tena to drop off our interpreters before heading to Quito. The ride from Tena to Quito wasn't nearly as interesting as it was on the way in, since we'd seen it all before, but it was a lot quicker. Besides making fewer and shorter stops to use the restroom, this driver went a lot faster too. We arrived in Quito just after noon and decided to hit the big mall for a couple of hours. Personally, I think this was a ... read more

Day 23 : The jungles of Tena Day 5: Another similar start to our day, except this morning I was up even a little later. After a breakfast of eggs, little sausages, and pancakes with syrup, we loaded up the boats and headed upstream for our day with the community. Because of the low water situation, we had to get out of our boats twice and walk across land or beach so the boats could be dragged upstream. Today, our walk thru the jungle wasn't that far or rough. Probably because we were going to the community center that gets a lot of traffic. The community center is basically a large open field, small playground, and a white cement structure that can be used for meetings or whatever. Some kids were already there, so we started ... read more

Day 21 : The jungles of Tena Day 3: Today started pretty much the same as yesterday, except Manoli get up before me, so I was the second one up and about. After a cup of coffee and checkiing out the sunrise and local flora, the rest of the group roused themselves out of bed and we all ate another hearty breakfast. Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs, french toast with syrup, and a plantain mixture, all of which was quite tasty and filling. Again, we went down and boarded our boats, carrying the water purification kits, medical supplies, and our lunches for the day. Today, instead of going downriver, we went upriver to the other side of Anaconda Island. Unfortunately, there were a couple places going upriver that the water was too shallow for our ... read more

Day 19: Quito to the jungles of Tena: We all left on the bus at 8am. Although it was a 28 passenger bus with only 22 passengers, because we had so much luggage, we filled the rear storage compartment, the back one and half rows of seats, and still had to put some on the roof. The trip was supposed to take 4 to 5 hours, but with all the bathroom stops, congestion, and road work, we didn't even get into Tena until after 3pm. The missionary leaders needed to do some last minute shopping, so we all got off in Tena to use the bathroom again and do a little browsing/shopping. The leader said it would take another hour from Tena to our "lodge", but again it took a bit longer. I couldn't believe how ... read more

Day 16: Cuenca to Otavalo via Quito: Today we travelled most of the day (14 hours!), so we didn't take any photos. I'll add photos of our hostal in Otavalo and the little place we ate dinner there just so there'll be some photos. The lady in the hostal in Cuenca called a taxi to take us to the bus terminal at 6:15am. After a short ride, we arrived at the terminal to discover that the express, "direct" bus to Quito would be going afterall. We bought two tickets at $10 each on the Super Taxis Cuence bus and waited to board. It looked like a nice new bus, so we had high hopes. We soon discovered that apparently the word direct doesn't mean the same thing in Ecuador as it does in the states, as ... read more