Jungles are better than Computers

hi friends.

Please forgive me for this Mega-Post…but it is trying to capture 4 rad days of jungle. My journey has carved deeper into the heart of Ecuador. It has been exciting, awe-inspiring and heart breaking. After a few more bumpy bus rides we arrive in the jungle town of Tena. This is where many of the Amazon families and tours stock up on supplies. Our guide suggested we buy some food and gifts here to give to the families and schools as a token of our appreciation. My gift idea was a ball for the school children. Yeah for games! We also bought rice and beans and of course....lots of chocolate. After shopping, we met with the family we will be staying with.

They are Quechan Indians that have lived in the jungle for their whole lives. We all pile into the back of a pickup truck (about 12 people plus gear!) and head into the jungle. It is gushing rain at this point and the forest is glistening with delicious rain water. I love the combination of hot humid weather with big fat rain. This was when ´Rain Forest first really made sense to me. We drive
past quite a bit of poverty…large sheets of metal and water logged wood assembled as homes for large families. Many of them have pigs, chickens, cows and dogs wandering nearby. Others are walking along the dirt road using giant leaves as umbrellas…otherwise known in the jungle as the poor-mans-umbrella. I guess they are walking the many miles into Tena for supplies because they have no other way to get there.

The family we are staying with has a bit nicer accommodation. Although no electricity or hot water, the rooms are picture perfect huts made of wood and straw. Shortly after arriving, they have dinner prepared. All of the meals we eat are authentic and delicious. It ranges from Talapia wrapped in leaves to many variations of bananas to exotic fruits. After dinner everyone gathers around the dinner table and we introduce ourselves. I am glad the tour group is only 4 so as to not overwhelm the room with big white people with cameras. It is a very intimate setting. We are engulfed in darkness except for the sparse candles that illuminate our faces. Only the surprisingly loud wash of sound from the jungle reminds us that we are nowhere near airports or highways.

The family of 9 consists of Delfin (the father, shaman, master of the jungle and eco-tourism entrepreneur), Mother (also the local teacher for every grade and child that lives within 5 or 10km) and 7 kids ranging from infant to 15 years old. The kids are not shy at all. They gladly stand up and spout out their name, age, grade in school and perhaps some fun specific tidbit. One of the older boys even knows a few basic words in English that he is a bit embarrassed to practice in front of us. We also clumsily provide our personal details in Spanish. I have trouble describing Video Game Sound Designer so my guide saves me and says I make sounds for peliculas (movies). This brings a smile to the family. Delfin (via translator) asks why the background sounds in Rambo are different than what the jungle really sounds like. This question gets the kids roaring with laughter. I tried to describe how sound and picture are recorded separately and that seemed to satisfy his question. We continued asking questions (via translator) all night…some quite serious and others silly. My biggest regret is not knowing more Spanish. I wish I could speak more directly to the people of Ecuador as they seem quite interesting and different than folks back home. Language barriers suck.

Delfin spoke passionately about the destruction of the rain forest. Ecuador has a terrible relationship with the oil companies like Texaco. A few decades ago they came in with large careless machines and pipelines to extract the oil and they have left a wake of un-repairable damage behind. Just 10 years ago, many more exotic plants and animals were thriving in large numbers. Today, many of the stereotypical Amazon creatures like monkeys, pink dolphins and Tapirs are much harder to spot because they are small in numbers and hiding in the few remaining places that humans are not destroying. The problem is further exacerbated by poaching and poverty. The poor indigenous families must rely on the small benefits that the oil companies pay to Ecuador (oil is around 60% of their national income) or they cannot survive. Those that choose otherwise must burn down huge tracts of rain forest themselves to make room for plantations as the old ones are polluted and no longer fertile. Still others choose to fight back and their have been a number of oil workers killed by spears and blowguns in the recent years.

I think we have all heard stories and facts like this before and maybe we get a bit sad…but it is hard to have any meaningful response. Hearing these things face to face from an Amazon family in the middle of the Amazon (whose ancestors have absolutely perfected the art of living in equilibrium with the jungle) definitely left an impact on me. He understands the solution is not simply to kill or eject these problems but that an intelligent balance must be found. Somehow the Oil companies and pharmaceutical companies and tour agencies need to find a way to reap the benefits of this lush area without stripping out the life. I went to bed dreaming of how I can make an effective and impactful documentary/movie/music/videogame project about all of this.

The next day was incredibly fun. We started out by walking around the house and learning about the helpful plants. It was like having a backyard pharmacy. He could deal with pregnancy, amputation, simple cuts and colds, paints, building, weapons, catching food, cooking food, clothing, entertainment, drugs
and much more. I am usually pretty skeptical of things like this but it was very convincing. He used this plant good called dragons blood to heal some random cuts. They clotted up and healed quickly. I chewed on the stem of a leaf and it numbed my tongue like Novocain. This can be rubbed on the body as a pain reducer in case of the need for amputation. He had poisonous plants that they use in blow guns to hunt (I didn’t test this one). He grew drugs that Shamans use to conjure spirits for special occasions and painting unusual designs on pottery. All of this somehow bonded me to the Jungle even more. I felt like it would take care of me if it came to it.

Next we went for a ¨hike¨. While we were given some pretty serious boots, I was expecting to perhaps wade around in some water. What we actually did was climb up 3 waterfalls. We started the hike all prepared with our waterproof jackets and were quite accurate with our foot placement when crossing rivers so as to minimize our wetness. This is already failing because it starts pouring rain again. It really does feel like a water facet that can be turned on and off instantly. I started to suspect something when some of the kids came along in only shorts and a t-shirt. They knew what we were in for. We came to the first waterfall. Delfin jumped in and took a shower! I followed soon thereafter. It was exhilarating and cold! Delfin and crew would climb up unaided and secure some ropes for us less skilled folks to climb up directly in the force of the water. This is sometimes called canyoning but it was much more intense than any water trails that I have done. It felt so good to be completely drenched and hiking through the hot and sticky jungle. Each waterfall filled my tall boots with water. The boys demonstrated the best way to remove the water: squirt it out like a water gun. Weeeeee!

We returned home and decided to take one final dip in the nearby ¨pool¨. This was created by wedging wood in a deep part of a creek and creating some standing water (don’t worry, I am taking Maleria pills). Some more of the family came down to join us. I pulled out the ball I purchased earlier and I started up a good ol game of catch with one of the younger girls named Emily. She laughed hysterically at every throw. Eventually some of the older boys came in and we developed a crude game of water volleyball. And thus marks the jungle version of VBVB(Venice beach volleyball)..which I officially titled EJVB (Ecuadorian Jungle Volleyball).

We came back to the house and I decided to take a nap in one of the hammocks. No sooner do I start to doze off does Emily waddle down and start asking me questions in Spanish. Of course I hardly understand anything but she doesn’t seem to mind. She sits in the hammock next to me and we start to do all sorts of silly games. She was a giggle box! She really enjoyed all of the silly sounds I made while zooming around and swinging her on the hammock. This attracted more kids and the giggling chaos increased exponentially. Later in the day…Emily denied me another nap by trying to ask me more questions in Spanish. This time she decided to not accept my language ignorance and spent the next hour teaching me Spanish vocabulary. She would point to her teeth and say ¨dientes¨or jump up and down and say ¨salto¨. It was like having a live (and adorable) Learn to Speak Spanish CD. I am convinced that this is the best possible way to learn vocabulary. The night ended with Delfin leading a ceremony with his kids and wife. It included music with rocks, flutes, singing and drums as well as dancing and stories.

The next morning we woke up early and walked to the school. It was a shabby small building from the outside but a bustling swarm of learning kids on the inside. Most of the family was there as well as some other kids from the area. They introduced themselves and sang a few songs for us. We introduced ourselves with name and location and they all competed to see if they could point out our country on the map first. I somehow ended up leading the class in a round of Itsy Bitsy Spider…hand gestures included. They really loved it. They all made sure to be accurate with each hand gesture and tried their best to sing along. I wrote the words on the chalkboardand their homework assignment was to write it down. One of the people in our group stood up and started talking about Christianity and Jesus. He was pointing to the cross and other pictures and asking the kids various religious questions. This was a bit unexpected but the translator followed along. While it was certainly fine for him to express these feelings I couldn’t help but feel the urge to stand up and present an alternate view…to suggest the benefits of determining your own conclusions based upon your thoughts and discoveries. This would have likely been disastrous as I will be spending quite a bit more time in this group but I still feel like I chickened out. I also am not sure if it is my place to be influencing these people in that way. Difficult and intense moment though, for me at least.

Strangely, this school stop was on our way to a white-water rafting trip. We and our guides knew that we would be keeping the other rafters waiting while we were at the school…so they invented the most hilarious and effective fabrication that has ever been said about me. They told the delayed and impatient rafters that we were a bunch of Canadian humanitarians that are traveling the world educating and helping children. ?!?!?! This did work brilliantly however, as they were quite friendly with us all during the trip. During the truck ride home, one of them started asking us about our work…and the whole story unfolded. We all had a good laugh about it. The rafting was a class III+ river. The scenery was stunning (though I didn’t bring my camera for fear of water damage). The guide was very playful and invented all sorts of crazy games for us to play and fall in. Great fun.

We said goodbye to the family and relocated to an eco-lodge. It is situated on the edge of a cliff overlooking the river. Amazingly beautiful. The lodge itself is also a pretty amazing wooden structure. There was even a bar! The highlight of this night was sitting around late night with a few folks and the bartender teaching each other our countries card games. Of course, I taught Texas hold em….using chess pieces as chips. The bartender taught us (in Spanish) a game called Cuarenta (40). It is the most popular Ecuadorian card game. I have since played it with a number of other locals.

The next day we took a motorized canoe trip further up river to an animal sanctuary. I wasn´t quite sure what to expect out of this trip. I had heard some of these facilities were more like zoo´s than rehabilitation centers but this one turned out to be very focused on getting the animals repaired without subjecting them to treatment that will affect their chances of survival after release (like too much human exposure). One might ask why allow tourists at all but our entrance fee money is the only thing that keeps these animals fed. The sanctuary wasn´t all that different from the regular jungle. There was no fence and their weren´t that many cages….so it felt pretty much like we had wandered into this animal haven on accident. Many of the monkeys were allowed to swing freely around the area. Some of them jumped on us and others wrestled with each other. They were so amazing to watch. So powerful and incredible agility. One cannot help but consider evolution when watching how they interact with us and each other. I wish I could have stayed there all day. The volunteers were very nice and knowledgeable….although they had no formal education. Maybe my next vacations will be a Volunteer Vacation where you spend a few months with animals and local education.

Ok. I am tired now. Thank you for reading and all your comments. I miss you all.

Much love.brad

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