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Published: August 13th 2009
Once again my bus ride was shit house, im heading for a town called Lago Agrio its a place smack bang in the middle of nowhere dirt roads and oil refinery workers not much to see here, but its my starting point for my trip to the amazon. iI arrive with not a wink of sleep because I had been sittin next to this old guy who I frimly belive at any second was about to drop dead then and there was his smell which was only over powered by his spluttering cough and the fact that he fell on me about 20 times! Anyway im over it. I met my driver at a hotel in the middle of town they picked us up in a jeep, me and a Norwegian couple, we drove for 2 hours to the banks of the river which was flowing very fast. from there we where picked up by a motorised canoe and taken 4 hours down stream to our camp in the middle of the cuyabeno national park.
The boat ride was great we saw many birds locals fishing and washing their clothes by the river. The couple I arrived with where lovely we had a good chat to pass the time followed by one beer which absolutely knocked me out. we arrived to camp just before dark where we met our guide he was a solid guy very freindly and could not only speak english german and french but 3 different types of indigenous dialects. he himself was from a tribe south of here and new the jungle like the back of his hand. On our first night we did a jungle walk for anhour to try to spot some animals. We saw loads of terantulas they where massive! frogs and some other strange insects but no animals just yet. The next morning we had to be up for 5.30 to go bird watching in a lookout built into the canopy of a huge tree about half an hour down stream. each morning our guide would wake us up to the traditional tune of El condor pasa. which was made famous by paul simon i came to realise when he recorded it as´´ if i could´´. nice way to wake up. we saw some amazing bird species although my camera just wasnt powerfull enough to get any decent shots, which was the case with most of our animal spotting. After breakfast we went pirrana fishing I had no luck our guide caught a few , but as it do es in the rain forest it started to rain so we moved on visit the indigenous community nearby. On our way we spotted monkeys, sloths, and even pink river dolphins they where amazing didnt even know they existed. Later we did some more animal spottin just as it was getting dark. we spotted some aligators from a distance but we could not get close enough for a photo they were very hard to spot. after a big day we head back for some beers as we lay swinging in the hammock waiting for dinner ahh its a tough life.
on our last full day we did a 3 hour jungle walk where we learnt everything about survival and how the locals have traditionally used plans and animals for food medicine and clothing. it was an amazing experience the jungle is like a massive supermarket/ chemist, they had plant which was used as a contraceptive when boiled into a tea . it was very potent and if taken at the wrong time of the month you may end up with twins! i tried some ants which tasted like lemon mmm yummy. we made a basket out of a palm branch and speotted jaguar footprints all over the tracks.
On our last animal spotting trip we took the canoe but with out motor this time just paddles to see if we could spot the elusive anaconda. our guide had said he had people here for 10 days and cometimes they never saw one. but we where to be very lucky that day. we spotted one sunbaking in a tree it was huge the photos dont do it justice. I was stoked!!!
My experience in the Amazon was incredible I could have easily stayed for another week but I am a little pressed for time and had to get back to Quito to get my bags and make my way to a little town called Baños. The trip to Baños was short and sweet only 4 hours the town its self is situated in a beautiful valley surrounded by green mountains and one huge volcano which has erupted a couple of times in the past 6 years. its actually still smoking and can be viewed at night from a refuge close by. Baños is a very cute little town there are waterfalls every couple of hundred metres down the road and tour companies as far as the eye can see. My main reason for being here was that Baños was most well known for its adventure sports whic something i have not had a chance to get into yet on my travels. As soon as I arrived I booked myself in for a day trip rafting . that night I some dinner and have a few beers at a little mexican restaurant where I bumped into some Aussie girls who where pretty tanked on wine, we had a good laugh exchanging stories. After spinning a few yarns we went to a salsa club for a few more drinks and met some colombian artisan hippy types who where more pissed than we where we salsa danced till about 2 when i realised I should make like a tree or id be suffering big time on my rafting trip. which i was anyway. It was a cold cold day 18 maz and the water was freezing the rapids where level 4 which was great I would have liked to have gone further on harder rapids but I dont think the other guys in our boat would have handled it as they all fell out more than once before we even hit the hard part. all in all it was a great day I had a nice early night that night to prepar for my day of canyoning!
Our canyoning crew was wicked I met an aussie guy and 3 yankee girls he was travelling with we hit it off right away. the trip involved abseiling down 5 waterfalls, it was so much fun and a lot harder than i imagined abseiling i had done before but when water is hitting you in the chest as your rappelling down it makes it twice as hard. After our canyoning adventure the girls had booked themselves in for the bungee swing off the 100 metre high bridge! lui and and I both had no intrest especially after wtahcing the first girl jump and get flip around like a rag doll. We watched more and more people go and the more I watched the closer I was to having a go myself. eventually I gave in and ended going before anybody in our group. It was insane! so much fun we where all buzzing after it and decided we needed to celebtrate which we did in fine fashion i blew everybodies minds on the dance floor as per usual. hahaha.
The day before I left banos we all went to a day spa called el rufugio. it was beautiful place . we all got the same treatment for 5 dolars we had a steam treatment which involved sitting in a box with only your head and neck exposed. inside the box was a lever controlling the amount of steam released so you sit there and sweat it out, after 15 mins they open it up and poor cold water all over you, it felt amazing then you go back in they repeat this 3 times then you hop out and have a cold shower great way to detox after a big night. A fetr that we where given face masks which sounds very gay but hey it was part of the teatment i wanted to get my 5 bucks worth ok. once we had that we did walk through the amazing gardens they had in the valley full of mandarin trees and great views into the goarge.
I left banos feeling energised it was sad to leave my new friends but thats the life of a traveller, I got the night bus to guayaquil to start my trip to the coast finally i would see the ocean again!!!! p.s my ipod was stolen when i reched the coast so unfortunately no photos yet im getting some mates to send me theirs so please hang tight and check back here nin the next few days
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tony
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excellent blog
that was unreal brad good enough for a travel book you must be fit all that hiking im feeling strong a keep intouch with jayde she is great stay safe dad