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Published: November 22nd 2008
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Hello, I made it out of the jungle safe and sound completely absent of Anaconda, Piraña or Caiman attacks. The jungle tour was a really good time, weather treated us well and I got to hang out with a gaggle of Germans. Before I left I was supposed to be picked up at 830 at my hotel. I had been using the clock on the bottom of a local channel to tell time, I woke up at 7am, about 815 I started looking out the window for the van, no van by 845, no van by 9am, then it hit me that I was supposed to be outside maybe, so I sat outside, paced, went back to my room saw the TV said 920 and panic hit, "did I miss the bus?" or "did my reservation fall through" I went to the next door store and tried to ask the guy who ran both the hotel and the store what to do, he just smiled at my failed attempts at Spanish, which were a bit worse in my stressed state, finally I asked what time it was which in his Spanish I made out the word 8...meaning my TV channel was
an hour ahead, moral of the story, remember a watch when you travel! It´s been six days since that happened and no, I haven´t bought a watch.
Luis, our tour guide was a fun and really passionate guide providing volumes of information about jungle plants, animals and most of all birds, he was really, REALLY into birds which was great because he could, most times, tell you the type of bird just by the sound of its call. The German´s were a really funny bunch, one couple insisted on recording everything...I mean EVERYTHING, just think somewhere in a few weeks they´ll be multiple German people sufferering through the minute by minute pain of watching hours of my tour through the jungle...that´s just funny. Luckily most of the group took tons of pictures which thanks to the wonder of email means the fact that most of mine are bad isn´t much of a loss.
Some of the best parts were catching my first piraña, seeing monkeys, freshwater dolphins, loads of birds including toucans, lounging in hammack for hours, cruising through the river at night, amazing food(green plantain soup is amazing...seriously good) and just being in a truly unique
place that had a magical feel. My favorite was the visit to the indigineous village to watch them make bread out of a root in less then an hour and playing soccer with the village children with what was once a soccer ball, and though not much left allowd a truly fun game. Those kids were something else, at 4 - 6 years old they really played well plus never got tired or effect by the heat and 99% humidity...the tour group was not so invincible. Luis often spoke the Spanish parts fast which meant I don´t know the exact name of the river or village, yet.
Last night was fun, as I got in line with most of the German´s and I got a bit of fear becuase I hadn´t been able to verify my flight to Quito, getting up to the front the man said, in Spanish, "No Reservation" but somehow, with my Spanish speaking friend he continued to look and told me I had a reservation but no ticket??? Then as I grabbed my passport back, he took my backpack and handed me a ticket, yep, I had no clue what happened but I had a
ticket. 20 minutes later...they cancelled the flight because of the weather, D'oh!
The Magic River Tour facility really came through and Katja, the owner, paid for taxis back to Lago, found us all rooms at the same hotel and got us back to the airport this morning. Last night was really fun having dinner on the sidewalk in Lago, laughing and drinking beers. Now I had private tranportation set up in Quito so my morning was pretty complicated but without fail I made it to Baños which has a reputation for being one of the nicest resort towns in all of Ecuador. It lives up to it, easy to navigate and get around, a much, much different, very safe feeling compared to Quito and Lago, and so many Gringos! I´ve heard so much English this afternoon I´d almost forgotten where I was. Whitewater rafting tomorrow or just a long mountain bike ride followed by a long soak in their many hotsprings, either way this should be a nice place to hang out for a couple of days. I am off to find what Luis says are the best Faitas in Ecuador.
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Neat pictures, Jamey. Sounds like you had a really, really neat time. What a wonderful adventure you're having! Love you lots!