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Published: August 1st 2006
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We just got back from the oriente or la selva or the jungle. What amazing trip. I am a little melancholy now that we are back in Quito. We met so many wonderful people and had so many new experiences. The first day we arrived we went out with our group and our guide for a little trip up the river. We didn´t see very many animals, but we saw many birds, and many many morpho butterflies. God those are brilliant. Our group was absolutely fantastic. It was all women except for Dad and our guide, Romulo. There was a group of four brits. traveling together, two Canadian girls my age, a women from Sweden, and then Dad and I. The brits and the girls from Canada were hillarious, and we all had a blast together. Our second day we went for a long long hike in the jungle. It was pretty intense! We had a rather small breakfast at 830, and we were hiking until around 3. Yikes! We all wore rubber boots and there was a section for about a half mile that was nearly knee deep in mud. We saw lots of monstrous but very beautiful spiders and
Me and some flowers
Our first walk in the selva. Romulo (our 18 y/o guide) painted all our faces! Romulo showed us all the medicinal plants and trees he knew of. We got to play with rubber from a rubber tree, we ate lemon ants (yes me too!), we rubbed mosquito repellent vine juice on our skin (smelled like carrot), we saw a poisonous frog, got bitten by army ants and we saw monkeys! We also had fun swinging on a vine. Though the dog that accompanied us thought that it would be fun to bite me as I was swinging around. He didn´t bother my Dad but apparently he saw me more as a sheep than a dominant human. Great. Anyway... it wasn´t a bad bite and swinging around was a blast. Ooo, and we drank water from this massive vine that had a huge amount of water in it. It was very sweet! Romulo also made a crown out of palm leaves and a bracelet out of a vine. That night we went, as our Canadian friend said ¨camine hunting¨. Romulo thought that was hillarious since we weren´t trying to kill them. The trip at night in general was kind of creepy. Especially since we had gone swimming in the river earlier. Lots and lots of camine.
Massive spider
That would be Romulos hand... glad it wasnt mine! And all of the vines hanging down from the trees had huge spiders on them so you had to be constantly vigilent about what was brushing across your face in the pitch black. Eeeek! Anyway, we saw lots of camine and Romulo caught one and brought it back to our camp so we could take pictures. We also played with a tarantula that night. What a day!
The next morning was a bit more relaxing. We went out on the boat again and this time went up river for 30 min. or so and then got out for a hike. More monkeys, more medicinal plants and trees. And we picked up some beautiful red and black seeds that I would live to figure out how to make jewelry with. Later we went fishing for pirahnas. They ate lots of our bait, but we didn´t catch any. The swedish woman caught a catfish though. It was beautiful. We ate it =) Back at the camp we had a chance to nap and hang out in the hammocks. It rained quite a bit that day and it was nice to just veg. out and get warm. Played lots of cards that
Water vine
Romulo holding up the vine for Dad. We all got a drink from it. It supposed to have a lot of vitamins... It was very sweet, yumm. night! Shit head, spoons and thirteen were are games of choice. We had a great time. We had the guides and cooks come play with us too so that was fun.
Yesterday we had an amazing day at a lagoon. A few miles downstream the water turns black and the river opens up into a lake. We saw so many monkeys (squirrel monkeys) on the way there. They were so cute to watch. And man can they jump! Holy crap. haha, except there was one little one who was too chicken to follow his friends. It was really funny. He would go to the edge of the branch and think about it for a bit, then he would give his little butt a scratch as if to say, oops, I´ve got an itch, guess I can´t jump afterall! And he would retreat back to the trunk of the tree. We watched him repeat that several times, until he finally gave up to find a different route. Silly little monkey. At the lagoon we say a tiger heron, an anaconda and we saw pink river dolphins! Yes apparently there are freshwater dolphins that hang out in black, probably very acidic
Squirrel Monkeys
These little guys would jump accross the river from branch to branch! lagoons. And they are pink! I still don´t quite believe it and I saw them. A pink river dolphin. Who would have thought. In the middle of the lagoon we stopped for a swim. Jumped off the boat into that lovely black water. Actually it was quite beautiful. And it was warm! We all swam for quite a while. It was beautiful weather too so we could air dry. sigh, what a day it was. That night we played some intense games of spoons. Whew! Those girls are ruthless! I think we all ended up with some missing skin, and some spoon imprints in our palms. We had a really fabulous time.
Today we paddled around in a proper canoe. We had been using huge motor canoes to go to the lagoon and what not. It was so nice to have it quiet. Though my arms are so dang week and paddling was really tiring. But then we got to turn around and go downstream. That was really nice =) We saw more monkeys, more morphos and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Back at the camp we went for a swim and went off the rope swing a bunch. What a
Painted faces
Louis was a bit more artistic than Romulo and made some of us ladies crowns and painted our faces. It was fun to be fussed over =) trip!
Tomorrow.. I don´t know what we will do. I think maybe go up on the Telefonica, I think its called. A brand new tram up into the mountains. It´s supposed to be awesome. Wednesday I think we will head to Papallacta. Hotsprings! And I really want to go to Baños, especially since Tungarahua is smoking and gurgling away. How cool!
Alright, that is the latest from Ecuador. I´m off!
Hope you all are well.
Love,
Kara
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