Friday December 16

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The previous day I had scheduled a one day tour into the amazon for 30$. We met at this little tour guide in Banos at 830 am and headed towards the jungle. The road to Puyo (the closest city to the jungle from Banos) was beautiful. Slowly decending out of the cloud forest down towards the jungle. The road literally sits on the edge of a cliff, so when you look out the window you are looking straight down towards the river far below.



We arrived in Puyos and stopped at a gas station to get fuel and snacks for those who wanted some. Then we headed off to a monkey rehabilitation center. Their goal was to get these monkeys back into the wild. We walked around the reserve and interacted with monkeys and turtles. I actually shook hand with two of the monkeys throught the a fence between their area and the trails between. That was very cool and wow it is fascinating how smart they are. We talked with the workers and volunteers (not really volunteers since most of them pay to work there) before heading off to the next stop.



Driving another 20 minutes we stopped at one of the local quiche tribes. There we went into there ceremonial hut. We talked with the locals about there lifes and their costums. They painted out faces with traditional tribal paint and designs and we also got to practice/try their traditional blow dart gun which was very cool. From there they put us in canoes, carved out trees, and we headed down the river. The river was beautiful and very relaxing although there were a few parts wich lots of rapids. Once we docked on the side of the shore down river we headed off to the next spot for lunch.



The next place was another local spot where we had chicken, rice, and beans for lunch with fresh lemon juice. Near the small 100% natual building were these huge (3 stories high) faces carved into the walls. There was a little staircase which when you walked up put you in the mouth of the face. Those were ceromonial huts for the Ayahuasca cermonies parcticed by the shaman. Next we hiked up a large will which put us at a viewpoint to see the massive Amazon forest. There we layed in hamocks and relaxed. Then I was one of few people who went on this rope swing. Next to the swing the sign red "The community is not responsible for any deaths that result from the ropeswing". It was crazy, you were easily over 100' above the ground below at the peak of the swing. It was just a piece of rope with a piece of wood that was held on by a huge not. Broke every safety regulation you could think of.



Too end the day we drove to this waterfall. We had to hike in 30 minutes after we parked the car. They covered our faces in mud and we swam under this huge waterfall for about an hour. The water was crystal clear and was an amazing way to end the day.

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