Amazonian Adventures

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As I whizzed through an efficient border crossing and was greeted by smiley people at every stop on the bus to Quito, selling everything from hamburgers to cancer-curing pills, I had a feeling I was going to like Ecuador. Unfortuntaley, this first impression was quickly ruined on my first attempt at exploring Quito´s old town the following day. Out of nowhere, a bucket of poo (yes, actual poo, as in human faceas - maybe mixed with vomit and water for a runny effect) was thrown over me and my friend. Utterly shocked and completely baffled, we stood looking bewildered, quickly pulling out tissues from my bag to try and clean up the siutuation. In an instant, a kind Ecaudorian man with some tissue came to our rescue and as he pointed at a place we could get cleaned up, an accomplice grabbed my friend's bag. Luckily, my friend spotted it pretty quickly and screamed and ran after him. By some miricale the guy panicked and dropped the bag - and we headed back to the hostal for a long and very thorough shower. Followed by a trip to the laundret looking apologetic as we handed over our bags of stinky clothes.

Spending the rest of my time in Quito looking over my shoulder I decided to escape the city and arrange a trip to the Cuyabeno Reserve - a slice fo the Ecaudorian Amazon. Naturally I picked a lodge, described as 'deep in the jungle', which was difficult to doubt after a 2 hour bus then 2 hour boat ride from any sort of civilisation.

After settling into the lodge we went on our first trip to watch the sunset, swim in the lagoon and spot night time animals. We jumped in the fresh water, momentairily relieved from the jungle´s humidity and oblivious that in a few short minutes we´d be (successfully) spotting huge caymans just a few metres away.

If swimming near giant caymans wasn´t enough to give us nightmares, the evening walk around the lodge probably was. After spotting a few frogs and interesting insects our guide shined his torch on the MASSIVE tarantulas that lived in the rooves of our bedrooms. All assurances that these were not harmful to humans did not stop me from tucking my mosquito net in extra tight that night.

The next day invovled a 5:30 wake-up call for our early morning bird-watching and monkey spotting tour. However, after a couple of minutes paddling (the rower in me showed great restraint as I refrained from screaming ´together´at my very inefficient captain and crew) our guide spotted the infamous pink dolphin. These dolphins aren´t as playful or bold as their relatives at sea and so we spent thye next hour looking in the wrong direction as it popped up for air at the other side of the boat. With the wet season not quite in full-swing we were lucky to ejoy a sighting of these incredible animals (whose brains are 40% larger than humans), even if he did insist on making our sightings of him as difficult as possible.

As well as spotting monkey, snakes, frogs, caymans, parrots, toucans and many more animals our tour involved a trip to a nearny community. I wasn´t sure how I felt about this and was a little worried it may end up as one of those ´perform for the white people´ events. But teh truth couldn´t have been any further from my fears as the majority of the villagers barely noticed out arrival. The only exception was the village´s tame monkey - Nacho - who ran over to play as soon as our boat pulled up. After Nacho had finished searching for fleas in our hair and swinging from our arms we went off with one of the ladies from the village to dig up yuca. We then made a kind of flat bread by grating and drying out the yuca then frying it in a pan. Traditionally eaten with tuna, we made do with strawberry jam.

However it was next stop that was pehaps the most interesting part of all as we went off to visit a local shaman. The shaman explained his responsibilities, how his father and grandfather were shaymans and how he heals people (admitting that often he sends people to hospital in Quito as he can´t cure everything). Next he offered to clean some of us of our bad spirits and, not wanting to miss out (and curious as to how many bad spirits I´d been carrying around), I lept at the chance. Next thing I know I´m being hit repeatdly by a branch with thorns whilst coming out in massive hives. Apparently I must of hid my discomfort well as two more girls signed up for a beating. I´m not entirely sure how cleansed I felt, perhaps I ruined the effect by wolfing down a couple of anti hystamines on my return.

Piranaha fishing was our last task fo the eveing (AGAIN; in the same lagoon we´d all enjopyed a swim). With only two bits of bait left and having only caught a sardine I was getting nervous I wasn´t going to be a succed. But the pressure seemed to help and I flung my line up in the air the very second I felt a slight tug (if you´re too slow they nibble the food and swim off) - HURRAH - Pirahana sucessfull caught. The tricky bit was then getting the fish off the hook and avoiding it´s nasty teeth (my guide initialy called me a baby for not wanting to do this bit, but soon insisted on helping everyone when the other boat paddled past, one guy proudly holding his bandaged hand after being bitten trying to unhook the fish!).

Although I enjoyed my stint in the jungle it was nice to arrive back in Quito and not have to sweep the room for giant cockroaches/bats/tarantulas before getting into bed. I even dared venture back into the old town (carrying nothing and wearing a raincoat - zipped up - just in case).

Mishaps: Even in a country where I´m average to above-average in height, finding small enough shoes can still be a problem. This was the case in the jungle when the only wellies available for our jungle/swap trek were 2 sizes too big. Firstly I managed to get swap water over the top of my wellies, which was unpleaseant enough, but only a few minutes later after taking a few wrong steps my boot was wedged into sinking mud and as I tried to free it I managed to remove my shoe from the boot, leaving me balanced on one foot whilst the rest of the group watched on laughing and warning me about the leeches

Size zero: Of couse, this section has evolved into a food summary, rather than an actual account of my (lack of) weight loss or diahorrea. So, one tasty Ecaudorian food sensation I came across involves putting salty popcorn into soup. I know, sounds weird - but actually rather delicious.

Men: Having heard that amazonian tribeswomen would traditionally cut off one breast in order to be able to use a bow and arrow, I decided that marrying into such a culture perhaps wasn´t for me.

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