First Day in Amazon

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Today we were split into four groups. Each group was given a guide and went on a trail every morning. The hikes usually lasted 3 hours except on the first day one of the groups went on their hike and discovered their trail had been swallowed by the river and had to wade through thigh high water. Needless to say, they decided to change the trail and none of the other groups took that. None of the guides spoke English (or about as good as I spoke Spanish which is to say not at all) so each group had to have a translator. Luckily for our group we had a couple who were there are vacation and one of them was a Spanish teacher! The other groups got by. Our guide’s name was Ima. Ima is a Huaorani, which is a group of indigenous people around Tiputini. He was very knowledgeable and told us all about the plants and animals. He told us how one day he was out on a hike and came upon a tree he didn’t know and so decided to taste the sap from the root. Unfortunately after eating it he was unconscious for 3 hours, and now everyone knows that that tree is poisonous. He told us a lot about how the Huaorani use the plants and what they mean to them. On our first hike we hiked to a spot where someone was supposed to pick us up but they forget us and so we were stranded in the jungle for an hour. The rest of the day we had lecture and free time.

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Photos

Giant Tree
Ima told us the Huaorani worship this tree.

Butress roots
Our Spanish translator and a giant tree with butress roots.

Stranded
Ljubica, the vacationing couple and Ima

Stranded
Steph, Me, Azura and Andrew waiting on a log.