Quito to the junlges of Tena

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Day 19: Quito to the jungles of Tena:

We all left on the bus at 8am. Although it was a 28 passenger bus with only 22 passengers, because we had so much luggage, we filled the rear storage compartment, the back one and half rows of seats, and still had to put some on the roof. The trip was supposed to take 4 to 5 hours, but with all the bathroom stops, congestion, and road work, we didn't even get into Tena until after 3pm. The missionary leaders needed to do some last minute shopping, so we all got off in Tena to use the bathroom again and do a little browsing/shopping. The leader said it would take another hour from Tena to our "lodge", but again it took a bit longer. I couldn't believe how deep we were going. We travelled on several small paved roads for a long time, then turned off onto a dirt road. I figured that must be about it, but then we travelled for quite a while on a dirt road until we turned onto a road so small, with foliage overhaning the road to the point we were almost forging our own trail. Finally, we turned onto a very short road that ended at the river, and our lodging.

After unloading everything, we went to find our rooms. All the men were assigned rooms in the top floor made of bamboo with lots of ventilation, so we all had mosquito netting on our beds. The ladies got the bottom floor, finished rooms, so they didn't necessarily need the netting, but still sprayed bug spray all over the doors and windows, especially after seeing the bigger-than-hand-sized tarantula in the family cabin next door! We all sprayed mosquito repellent on our shoes, pant legs, arms, hands, and some even their face and neck. By this time, it was getting dark, and since they still didn't have the electricity working yet, we ate a bit earlier than planned. Dinner was very good spaghetti with meat sauce, and a decent salad. We all got plenty to eat, then went over the details of the upcoming days and had evening devotions. After working on this blog a bit, I hit the hay, with netting in place.

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