The Junlges of Tena - Day 6

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Day 24 : The jungles of Tena Day 6:

Today was our off/fun day. After another good breakfast, we all went down to the boats and headed to the Amazon Rescue Center. After hearing the rulles and grabbing a nice cold Coke, we were escorted around the center. We saw several different varities of birds, including macaws, parrots, and tucans. We also saw a caiman (a sort of alligator), turtles, an oscelot, two jaguars, and several types of monkeys. At the end of the tour, just when we were ready to head to the gift shop, one of the local wild troops of monkeys made their presence known. They were swinging thru the trees above us, occasionally dropping down close to check us out. Pretty cool. After visiting the gift shop, and getting another cold Coke, we reboarded our boats to head up river to one of the easternmost towns in Ecuador, Puerto Misahualli. Although the trip was pretty long for a boat ride, close to two hours, we were pretty surprised when we reached the town. It was definitely larger than we'd expected for a true jungle town. They had a decent little beach in a fork of the river, where mostly locals were enjoying the river, and a couple of streets worth of stores, restaurants, hostals, and souvenir shops.

We all ate lunch at a nice little restaurant, consisting of plantain soup and a plate of rice, lentils, french fries, and either fish, chicken, or beef. Everything was pretty good and paid for by the missonary couple. After lunch, we all wandered around the town looking for souvenirs for an hour or so. Near the end of the time, we ended up on the beach where we'd heard the local monkeys hang out, literally. Besides monkeys running around and hanging out in the trees, there was a rather large boa that a guy had for you to take pictures with. Manoli actually did it! See the photo. We finally all got to the beach and reloaded the boats for our trip back.

Soon after returning to our camp/lodge, we had our last dinner here, consisting of yucca, salad, and rice with a very good meat chili. Another evening devotion by our hosts and their staff and it was time for our last night's sleep in the jungles of Ecuador. Tomorrow morning at 6:30am, we will be on our bus for the trip back to Quito. We fly out tomorrow in two different groups. Manoli and I leave tomorrow afternoon for Bogatta, Columbia. We have a 4 or 5 hour layover there before our flight to Miami, then another layover in Miami before our flight to Pensacola.

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