Blogs from East, Ecuador, South America - page 4

Hola Amigos! This Blog will document a 15-day adventure I took recently with my good friends, La Familia Simonello (no, that's not salmonella!) Julia, Michael (hubby) & Michael (son, age 12) were repeat visitors to the coastal hotel I manage here in Ecuador, but they hadn't seen much of the rest of the country. I planted a seed when they came last November, setting forth ideas for an itinerary which would include Andes & Amazon adventures. They took the bait and flew into Quito on July 9th. My friends Annie & Orlando who started up "The Laughter Club" convinced me to join them in donning a clown wig to meet Julia & family at the airport! Since Julia & her two Michaels are all great photographers, I didn't bother shooting any photos of my own. The ... read more

Today, instead of talking about my journey in Ecuador, I would talk to you about a topic, which touched me, while visiting the North of the country. What do you think about when we hear Amazonia ? Mostly, we will relate this word to tropical forest, rivers, crocodiles, tropical birds, amazing fauna and flora in general. Well, I could notice how, in Equador, all this is in danger. Why ? Because of the oil industry! When you drive from Quito to Lago Agrio, you can quily realize this fact. You will indeed see very quickly the pipelines along the road, like bridges over the rivers, but also crossing some people’s yards and the forest. It was the first pipelines, I was seeing in my life and to see them, so close to the Amazonian forest was ... read more

Day 29 Today we were involved in many of the community activities. Firstly the red die in the seeds of a rambutan like fruit was used for face painting as a bit of fun & as a means to show how it is used in cosmetics as well as food colouring. The red colour is also believed to scare away bad energy. We then walked through their communal farm area to find out about all the characteristics & uses of the various plants & trees & to collect various fruit & vegetables (incl limes, oranges, yuca - a starchy root vegetable used to make chicha, a staple energy drink/food for all the family as well as a more alcoholic drink when left to ferment up to 2 weeks. We also collected various aromatic green leaves to ... read more

DAYS 27 7am mini van pick-up to get to the Quito bus station for a 6 hr local bus trip to Tena which is a hub town for the north east region. Stopped for lunch before proceeding to the jungle. The local buses were one of our security concerns before the trip but were quickly eased. In all cases our luggage will be stored in a separate under bus compartment from start to finish of our journeys & therefore we only have to manage hand luggage. The bus was very comfy & had a wide screen TV playing crap movies dubbed in Spanish, thankfully there was plenty to see out the windows.Once we cleared Quito (both slum & affluent areas) we took a mountain road nth-east through lush country mainly following a pass through massive Andean ... read more

Diane and I set off for Archidona, a jungle village just slightly further into the Amazon Basin than I’d driven before. She has old friends, a kind of adopted family she met 30 yrs ago. Casimiro Mamallacta is a shaman who performs rituals and ayahuasca ceremonies. I agreed to go along with her, told her I wasn’t interested in doing ayahuasca (a hallucinogenic drug extracted from a vine) but that I’d enjoy meeting the family and learning about their culture. Diane said she was not planning to take part in a ceremony either. Our plan was to stay a few nights in some rustic cabanas that Casimiro’s sons have built. Diane was last there just over a year ago, and she told me that although I might want to bring my own sheets and pillow, they ... read more