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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01.12.2009 Nun laeuft bereits meine fuenfte Praktikumswoche, und es gefaellt mir immer besser. Bestand die Arbeit waehrend der ersten Tage nur aus notwendigen, aber etwas langweiligen Hausmeisterarbeiten wie Cabañas streichen und Baumaterialien schleppen, so wird sie nun immer spannender und bekommt mehr Bezug zu meinem Studium: Waehrend der letzten Zeit haben wir den Botanischen Garten wieder in Stand gesetzt und an Wiederaufforstungsprojekten weitergearbeitet. Ersteres stelle man sich bitte nicht als Unkrautjaeten in einem aufgeraeumten mitteleuropaeischen Beet mit fetter Braune [View Full Entry]

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Hello hello hello! We are getting back on track with the updates after spending four glorious days in the jungle. We were both excited about the trip, but a little nervous. We expected it to be a hot couple of days, with lots of biting insects and the like, and overall we thought it wouldn't be the most relaxing part of the trip, but important to round out our view of Ecuador. Boy were we wrong! The weather was excellent, very hot in parts (the three hour jungle trek comes to mind) but never unbearable. and the bugs... there were more [View Full Entry]

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We left Papallacta in the direction of Tena. We had had enough of mountains and high altitude, as I (Ram) realised that my lungs cannot really aclimatize to the altitude. We thought that a change in direction and a detour of the Andes via Tena and then to continue back up to Baños would be a good idea. Liz didn’t resist even though she really wanted to take the horse ride trip around Cotapaxi. We thought that maybe from Baños we hop to Cotapaxi later. When we arrived in Tena we met Stephanie, a Swiss girl, who joined us at the [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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Da hab ich meine Krankheitsphase hinter mich gelassen und bin auf in den Jungle. Das war leider nicht meine gewuenschte 5-tage-rumpaddeln-fischen-und-richtig-abenteuerlich-zelten-und-so. es war ein wunderbares junglelodge, mit duschen, mit betten und mit koechen und vielen leuten (so 8 pro gruppe). aber es war trotzdem schoen und wir sind nass geworden und haben viele tiere gesehen. obwohls amazonasregenwald war hat es nicht viel geregnet, weil so eine art sommer ist. wir hatten eine lagune in der naehe, haben 2 mal kayak touren gemacht, nachtspaziergang und normale spaziergaenge im matsch [View Full Entry]

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Hi - this is the last of the blogs from the rainforest (slightly out of order). Flora and fauna. First the jungle was very green but there was little other colour which was unexpected. (I can hear Neil sharpening the keys of his keyboard for an acerbic comment along the lines of what an idiot I am, but I did expect a flower or two.) All the flowers etc. are up in the tree tops and so you only get to see them from the river (sometimes). Whilst treking through the jungle you can sometimes smell a sweet scent and that [View Full Entry]

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The Achuar traditionally didn't live in communities at all but in isolated family groups. This has changed in the last 20 or so years and the main factor has been the influence of the Catholic church. Traditionally they killed each other a lot, which lead to revenge killings and so it went on .... and on and on. Now they don't kill each other, they sometimes go to church (they didn't worship a God before the arrival of the Catholics) but they maintain their own customs which are all linked basically to the forest and pachamama or mother earth. We went [View Full Entry]

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Hello my loves, Well we are back from Kapawi and what an experience that was! We caught a minibus from Quito and drove south east for 5 hours to a place called Shell - named after the oil co! From there we caught a 10 seater two propeller plane (an Islander) to fly 50 minutes into the rainforest. Flying in a weeny plane is great - scary and fun! The rainforest from the plane looks like one of those nasty 1970s lumpy green carpets (apologies to anyone with a green carpet of any kind) and it just goes on and on [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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