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Published: September 17th 2007
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Today we signed up in Banos for an organised 1 day tour of the Amazonian jungle basin, as this was clearly the only practical way to effectively view this area. We were very much aware that we were only on the fringe of this enormous jungle area, and that unless we were prepared to take a minimum 8 hour local bus ride further inland (which we weren’t!), we were going to be limited on the wildlife we could expect to see. It was a long day (12 hours), but we were fortunate with the weather, given rain was really set in each of the day before and the day following our trip.
We were accompanied for the day by Sixto, our English-speaking Ecuadorian guide, and Julie, a delightful lass from Dublin, who is clearly very independent as she has been touring South America on her lonesome for the last 5 months. She advises her next stop is Western Australia, where she plans to work in the mines to earn some serious cash - methinks she won’t be short of male company out there! Later in the day, we were joined by a very self-confident student from Romania, Alin, who
just seemed to somehow drift into the latter half of our tour.
First stop, after about 1.5 hrs drive over pretty rough roads was a small village belonging to the Quichua Indian community. As expected, their living standards were pretty primitive, and we had the opportunity to check out their living standards first hand. This was no dress-up in fancy costume for National Geographic - it was every day living! We watched them making up some of their handicrafts, and also took some lessons at blowing poisoned darts through a long blowpipe. Lucky there were no monkeys or birds in the vicinity, or they were as good as on the BBQ that night!
Next item was a three hour ‘stroll’ through the rain forest, with the reward of a waterfall (and lunch) at the end of the trek. Our guide gave us advice on survival in the rain forest if you get lost, but judging by some of the morsels of plants and insects he had on offer, seemed a pretty good reason to stay on the well beaten track. Lunch was fresh fish, boiled in something resembling a banana leaf. It wasn’t exactly 5 star cuisine, but
rated around even with some of the offerings we have received from time to time in inland China over the years.
Our mode of exit from the jungle was via a dugout canoe over the fast flowing Rio Napa. While the white water was not quite of the magnitude of rafting, nor was the stability of the canoe up there with that of a rubber dinghy. While we spent more time bailing than rowing, we did manage to make it through the 40 minute journey without totally tipping - no doubt primarily due the skill of our 14 year old local kid doing the lion’s work at the back. I regret no photos of this white-water classic, as I couldn’t afford the risk of the camera taking a swim if we tipped over.
While there were other diversions, these three items were the main agenda of the day. In summary, it was a lot of fun, with good company, but probably not too much new ground that hasn’t been covered on visits to other countries at some stage. But the good news is we slept really well that night after the customary ale or two with a late
dinner.
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