The Jungle

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Well, we made it back from our Jungle Tech Trip. WOW!!! The jungle was everything I though it would be and more. We left last Thursday from Cayambe and drove to a town east of Quito called Baeza. Baeza is in the cloud forest (not jungle) and was home to the 2005 world rafting championships. There was not much to the town, however, the visit to the organic farm and agroforestry project developed by the municipal government was awesome. We learned how to make a fertilizer stew using goat shit, molases, a plant called ahi (like hot peppers - it is a natural insect repellant), alfalfa, goat milk, yeast, and water. It was definitely an interesting brew. After doing that, we learned more about developing worm beds to create fertilizer for crops, then we had a hand in deworming goats by giving them injections. It was somewhat fun chasing goats around in a coral trying to poke them with a syringe the size of your hand.

Now, I did leave out the fun details of our trip to Baeza. By car it should have been a 2.5 hour trip. Chela was our driver again and we got lost and turned around six different times - for us the trip to 4 hours. It was comical, because some in our group had to take a series of three different public buses to get there and they pulled up at the same time. I´ve spoken about Chela´s driving before so I won´t go any further today.

After Baeza we stopped at a small lodge called ¨The Magic Roundabout¨ it is run by a guy from Scotland who was a total trip. I am sure he was a stoner and did a lot of drugs, however, he was nice enough and the lodge was comfortable. He did have cold beers too and that is always nice after a long day of traveling and work.

The next morning we got up and walked down to the road to wait for a bus to take us to Tena. A few lucky souls got to ride in the PC vehicle with Chela - Sue and I opted for the bus. We had to wait an hour, but finally boarded a bus. The trip to Tena was 3 hours, and was filled with spectacular views of the cloud forest and then the rainforest. The road was dangerous at times, but these bus drivers are talented. We did learn later though, that a bus went off the road a few days before and killed a bunch of people.

In Tena, we met up with the rest of the group and caught a camioneta (pickup truck) ride to the village of our facilitator (John Parker - current PC volunteer). The village was remote to say the least and it was ¨market day¨ when everyone brings their stuff into town to trade and sell. I guess it is also an excuse for everyone to get drunk as well - which many of the men were. We loaded into a canoe and took a 5 minute ride upriver (on the Arajuno River) to Arajuno Jungle Lodge (www.arajuno.com). The lodge is run by a former PC volunteer - Tom Larson. He is in his 40´s and is a great guy. His place is wonderful and he owns about 80 hectares of rainforest. Tom also was director of the Darwin Research station in the Galapagos. He definitely is a knowledgable guy and his lodge is fantastic. We spent the rest of our trip there - 7 nights. We worked on a variety of projects so I´ll just give you all a quick run down.

1) On day 1 we traveled up river 1/2 hour to a small indigenous village where John Parker did some work on building fish ponds. The fist ponds are designed to provide food security for the people, reduce the harvesting in the rivers (which they do by dynamite fishing and we saw a few people without hands - obviously they were not the best dynamite fishers in the village) and to provide a source of income. This particular village had 6 ponds dug out - each about 5 by 10 meter and 2 meters deep. The soil here was sandy, so we had to put in plastic liners to help keep the water in. We spent the first part of the day teaching the villagers how to install the liners - it was not the most efficient process and I kept thinking of better ways to do it, but in the end we got it done so no problema. In the afternoon we hiked up the hill from the village to a place where they (John and Tom) helped to construct a water catchment system. Basically they made a small dam in a stream to pool water then sent hoses down hill to each house and each pond. This gave the people ¨running¨ water. Albeit, the water was not clean to our standards, but it is cleaner than the river water. The whole experience was amazing to me and I learned alot about the dynamics of working with an indigenous group. The word on the street is that they tend to work harder and better when they are drunk, but I didn´t witness that. What I saw were men, women, and children that would and could outwork the best of any of us. Try as I might, my stamina was no match for any of theirs. We returned to the lodge - read books, discussed the days events, drank wine and beer, and enjoyed the forest (we did this every night).

Side note, Tom has a rope swing that goes over the river - we took turns swinging out over the river and dropping from about 25 feet up. It was scarey but fun. One of the language facilitators - Diego swang out, forgot to let go at the apex of his swing, started back and then let go. He landed right next to the shore in 2 feet of water and hit rocks and trees on his way down. He didn´t surface for 10 seconds and we were freaking out. We finally got to him and did all the necessary First Aid tricks - he didn´t need CPR but he and all of us got a good scare.

2) Day 2 we worked on constructing a new trail on Tom´s property. We started in the morning and got the trail mapped out and cut away the vegetation. We had to give way to a torrential downpour though. After lunch, because it was too wet to continue working on the trail, we decided to slaughter his rabbits for our dinner. This process was interesting to say the least. Three fluffy white rabbits eventually ended up on our dinner table. We first got a lesson on how to raise rabbits and then the carnage began. Sadie, another volunteer in our group, wanted to kill the first rabbit. The technique we used was a hammer to the head. She was instructed to hit it hard on the head. Instead, she proceeded to whack it softly on the head, the rabbit freaked and each hit only made it worse, the rabbit was screaming at this point (I had never heard a rabbit scream - don´t want to hear it again either), finally Jeff (another volunteer) came to it rescue and gave it the final blow to the head. I then took the rabbit, hung it upside down, then skinned and gutted it. The other two rabbits went more calmly.

3) Day 3 we had an all day session on how to propagate Cacao, which is the plant that chocolate comes from. It was very informative and we had the opportunity to work on Tom´s cacaos that he was not managing all that well. A 100 pound bag of cacao seeds sells for about $60 here and that is big money. The propagation involved grafting techniques, so it was nice to finally learn how to do that.

4) Day 4 we worked on planning and developing a new pond system for the fish Tom was raising. We used an existing stream bed and devised a place to build a dam. I got to place engineer and was responsible to marking off the sides of the area to ensure the system was level and would work in the area. We then went to town on the rainforest and dug out a large area. Tom will hire more help in the near future to finish construction of the dam. That process will involve filling a lot of bags with clay. In the afternoon we visited Amazoonica an animal rescue facility downriver about 45 minutes from the lodge. I was underwhelmed by the whole operation. They had a lot of birds and monkeys, but no real visible plan to reintroduce the animals back into the wild. We also visited a small quechua museum that showcased the lives of indigenous people. Especially interesting was the display on animal traps. They had about 15 different types of traps and all were intricate in their own ways.

5)Day five we worked with Bamboo. We learned about the different types of bamboo native to the amazon and then learned how to propagate bamboo and we constructed a bamboo vivero for Tom. A vivero is simply a nursery. This was the hardest day of work, because we had to hall wheel-barrows of sand about 100 meters in the heat of the jungle. Bamboo is an amazing species of plant. Bamboo gigante grows from sprout to a stalk 40 feet tall and 1 foot in diameter in 3-4 years. This can then be harvested for lumber. Keep in mind bamboo is a type of grass and not a tree. The wood from bamboo is strong enough to use in construction of buildings and as many of you know, it is also used to make wood floors. This is another product of the rainforest that has a lot of potential for sustainable income generation.

In the afternoon we hiked through Tom´s property and learned about medicinal plants and other important forest species. Some of the trees were 150 feet tall with trunks 20 feet wide. God, it was impressive.

Day 6 - we headed to Jatun Sacha, a locally run preserve. They have a great ethnobotany park with medicinal plants and a self-guided tour. It is amazing the type of plants the people use to cure all sorts of ailments. The rainforest really is the pharmacological superstore of the world. In the afternoon, we toured Jatun Sachas model organic garden. I can´t say that I was impressed with their ¨model¨ garden. They have had it for 9 years and it really was not all that impressive. They guy running it was informative and had great ideas, but overall, there was nothing ¨model¨ about it. We also rain into some other foreigners there. I guess Jatun Sacha runs a volunteer program where people can sign up to come work there. You pay 15 bucks a day, get 3 meals a day and a roof over your head. It seemed like they were having a good time doing it. When we told the volunteers who we were and that we were volunteering for 2 years, their mouths dropped - they couldn´t believe it. Jatun Sacha also has a 40 meter tower that rises above the rainforest canopy. I got to climb it and the view at the top was impressive. The tower was nothing more than a big TV antenna you would find on the side of someone´s house with a small platform at the top. Not the safest structure, but cool none-the-less.

At night, Tom brought in a group of native mid-wives that went through the process of using natural herbs and techniques to help women in the birthing process. It was moderately interesting, although tainted by the fact that in their clinic a woman died while giving birth a few weeks ago. The mid-wife was arrested, but it wasn´t her fault. I didn´t catch all the details, but it appeared as though their were complications that the best of doctors would have had trouble fixing.

Day 7 - we left today to head home - leaving the lodge was tough. As a group of volunteers that will be working in the Oriente for two years, we bonded. We worked well as a group, learned alot and got alot of things accomplished. Tom was a great host and I would recommend his lodge to any and all who plan to visit Ecuador and the rainforest. I know that I have left out a lot of details in this blog, hopefully, Susan will fill the void in her blog. www.ciao79.blogspot.com. I think she is uploading more pictures to her shutterfly link as well so check them out.

We have less than two weeks until we are officially sworn in as volunteers and then we head to Puyo for two years of service. I am very much ready for training to be done. This week we have to complete three more of our competencies - once that is done, we are pretty much done with training. It will be sad to leave our family in La Esperanza - they have been fantastic to us and we love them dearly. Hopefully, we will stay in touch with them for the rest of our lives.

I realized that I promised a blog on the buses here - you will have to wait until the next blog entry - sorry.

Peace,
Jeremy

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Comments

[Greg]

Missed your call
Jeremy, I spend 36 hours laying around being sick and you call in the 1 hour I was out at urgent care! Seriously, I am very sorry I missed your call. I have been faithfully checking your blog (and Susan's) and miss you guys a lot. It is great hear you are having a good experience. Things here are holding up well. I just performed the first maintenance on the truck. There was a loose switch in the turn signal system. It was actually kind of rewarding to diagnose and fix something without having to take it to the shop. Frisbee has been on again, off again due to the weather. Fun when we have done it. My trip to the cabin with the kids was a good one. The creek is high. Did some tree planting, replacing a couple of dead evergreens of various types (including the one in the row right in front of the cabin). Caulked the gutters on the deck side. Replaced the dehumidifier. Did some other basic stuff. After Bryan and dad fixed the leak V wanted to make a hatch for easier access. I made some plans I think will work so we can cover the hatche panel with ceiling tiles to make it look OK. I am going to go back down in a couple of weeks and get some more things done. Take care.