Travelled to the ShangriLa lodge in the jungle Ate soup at a roadside diner on the way, one of the girls had a surprise when she found a pigs tooth in it Fantastic views over the Rio Napa from the lodge Didn´t see too much wildlife apart from bugs! a few millipedes,snake, spiders etc plus the usual sandflies and mozzies. Did see a lot of indiginous animals at a wildlife sanctuary though. Stayed in wooden cabins, the lodge is in a beautifull setting Climbed a few waterfalls and did some jungle walks. Also managfed to fit in a few poker games, [View Full Entry]

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31.10.2009 15:30 ¡Vive la vida! Gefuehlte 60°C im Schatten, Schwuele - nun faengt sie an, die Schwitzerei. Nach dem relativ kuehlen Cuenca auf 2550m ueber NN und dem fruehlingshaften Baños auf 1500m bin ich nun nach vierstuendiger Busfahrt im Tiefland auf der oestlichen Seite der Anden gelandet: dem Oriente Ecuadors, einem Teil des Amazonas-Regenwaldgebietes. Platt wie eine Flunder liege ich in einer Haengematte auf der Veranda meines Hostels, das ein paar Hundert Meter ausserhalb von Tena auf einer kleinen Anhoehe liegt, und blicke ueber die kleine Stadt vor dem Reg [View Full Entry]

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To me, one of the most interesting things about the indigenous Quechua is their use of jungle vegetation for medicinal purposes. When I was with the Sani community, our indigenous guide, Miguel, would constantly stop to point out various plants and their medicinal purposes. I am seriously dumbounded about how they figured this all out!! So, upon arriving in Tena, I set out to a small Quechua village outside of town called Mariposa to seek out Don Casimiro and Elias Mamallacta. The Mamallactas live in their "compound" on the top of the hill in Mariposa. When I say compound, I mean [View Full Entry]

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Eh, my stomach is no bueno. But I guess this is not the way to start a blog. So let´s see...I haven´t written in ages. Soo sooo sorry, mom and dad. Where was I, the last time I wrote something I think I was in Bolivia writing about Brazil. Now im in Ecuador writting about Ecuador. The first two weeks I spent looking at the marvels of the galapagos islands and let me tell you they are freaking amazing. With Endemic birds fluttering around, landing on you if you have food and giant tortoises lounging lazily taking in the hot [View Full Entry]

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Wow... The Amazon was great - we went on some long hikes through the jungle in very humid conditions - hard work, but interesting and the views were well worth it. To get there we took a 3 hour bus journey to a town called Tena, from where we jumped onto a pick-up truck (literally - 5 of us rode in the back!) for 30 mins to where our canoe was. The canoe ride was very relaxing - all in one big long canoe 2-people wide for about 30 mins. We had to walk for about an hour from where the [View Full Entry]

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After finishing at the Santa Marta rescue Centre we continued our travels by heading to Tena, the white water rafting capital of Ecuador. We were hoping to do a multi-day rafting trip, which would mean camping alongside the river as we made our way along...No the bees and mossies of Noel Kempff had not put us off life on the wildside. After checking out multiple agencies we found one that was willing to do a multiday tour...we could choose between 2 and 4 days. Cost unfortunately limited us to 2 days. Surprisingly we were the only ones interested in such a [View Full Entry]

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Amazon River - Rio Napo Our first two day stint on the Amazon was along the Rio Napo about 6-7 hours East of Quito, near the town of Tena. We stayed in a Jungle Lodge (Cotococha Lodge) along the banks of the river and used that as the base to explore the jungle & visit some of the local Quichua families. Our first afternoon was a visit to one of the local families to try ‘chica’, which is a Manioc made from Yucca and left to ferment underground with the help of grated sweet potato for anywhere up to 12 [View Full Entry]

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Week 4 The week started with Duncan and Connie teaming up for their first teaching expererience....very daunting for them but highly rewarding. After the working week fininshed we were rewarded with a trip to Hector's island. Hector is an ex guide from the Yachana reserve who bought the island. It acts as a non-reintroductory sanctuary for monkeys where they can live wild without threat from hunters. He has 9 out of the 17 species that exist in Ecuador. We assisted with some trail maintenance and were rewarded with lunch and a tour of the island spotting the wildlife (including wooly an [View Full Entry]

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Week 5 We have come so far...our final week was here. In a week where work was besieged by rain here are a medley of photos showing the highlights of our last few days on and around camp. We thoroughly enojoyed working with the GVI staff, our fellow volunteers and the Ecuadorian people. It was the perfect way to discover the rain forest and contribute something worthwhile whilst learning a great deal. We would recommend it without hesitation to anyone. [View Full Entry]

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Week 3 - As part of camp duties Duncan, Dan and Alan had voluntered to be the maintenance team and during this week they decided to put in some new steps across a particularly boggy part of the camp. Their work was cut out for them and as she watched the boys toiling, Sima came up with the idea that everyone in camp could saw a step in exchange for getting their name carved into it. The idea was an instant hit and in no time 30 new steps were ready! Flavio and Mauro's carving skills came in handy and everyone [View Full Entry]

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