I have been stung by a scorpion

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Yes thats right folks, I have now returned from 5 days in the Amazon and during my time there I was stung by a scorpion. Heres how it happened: I was in the canoe and it began to rain. Went to put on my poncho and the scoprion was inside it so it stung my finger. I didnt know what it was but it really hurt. So I was kinda going "ouch ouch ouch" and no one knew what was going on. And then a girl in the front of the canoe stood up and said "ok everyone be calm but there is a scorpion on Lisa´s head". On my head! It must have run up my arm. So our trusty guide Dario raced up the side of the canoe, grabbed the scorpion and chopped its stinger off (which unfortunately killed it). I got a photo though. So anyway it hurt like a real bad bee sting for one day and has been numb ever since. They say it will go away ... lets hope it does.

Other than that I had a wicked time in the Amazon. Here are some of the highlights: fished and ate pirhana; saw pink river dolpins; ate lemon ants; swam in the same lagoon as pirhana and anaconda (although unfortunately I didnt see any anaconda); visited a sharman (who gave me a remedy form my sting although I am a little sceptical if it helped); visited a local indigenous community and made yuka bread; hung out with jamie the parrot; got up close with taranchulas and scorpion spiders; saw many monkeys and a sloth ... and the list goes on. I went out there with a few people I had met in Quito. We stayed in cabanas at a place called Samona Lodge in Cuyabeno Reserve. It was cool. No electricity or hot water but very tranquil and relaxing. Although we didnt actually get much time to relax because we were constantly doing things. It was great though. The Amazon is so beautiful, the diversity in the rainforest is amazing. One day we actually got lost in the jungle though but luckily our trusty guide Juan managed to get us out of there (although he was also to blame for getting us into there!). He and a few other brave souls had to paddle out to the lagoon in a rather untrustworthy looking canoe we stumbed across to get us help. There were no oars so they used planks of wood instead. The canoe quickly filled up with water. It was funny.

Oh and we also saw lots of stinky turkeys. Oh the stinky turkey - it cant really fly or run fast but it has no predators because it tastes really bad no one will eat it. What a great defence mechanism! The best really. So smart.

The journey to the Amazon was my first experience on a long distance bus. Only 8 hours (which is short by South American standards) but possibly the worst 8 hours of my life. Reclining seats they advertised ... hmmmm. We took a night bus thinking "yeah we will sleep the whole way". Turns out that was a pipe dream. The bus played constant ecuadorian music the whole way really loud. Also we were rudely woken by police in the middle of the night in the pouring rain to check passports and bags. We arrived in lago agrio at 5am in the morning. There was nowhere to go and nothing was open. We were conned into paying $2 to sit in the reception area of a hotel to sleep for 5 hours. After that it was a 3 hour van drive and a 2 hour canoe ride to our final destination. What a mission! But totally worth it to get deep into the jungle.

Other than that, since my last blog I have spent a few more days chilling out in Quito. It has become like my home away from home here. Visited the markets at Otavalo which was nice. Brought a beanie and a wallet. Very exciting. Also have made the obligatory trip to the equator. Stood with my legs on either side of the equator (both real and fake). Its funny because there is a hugh monument on the equator but turns out they got it wrong when they put it there. The actual equator is about 200 metres away from the monument. At the real equator they do a number of "experiments" to prove that it is the equator such as balancing an egg on a nail and showing how the water runs down a sink hole in opposite directions on either side of the equator. Apparently its all a hoax but I was impressed. Also amongst other things they have a shrunken head (the highlight for me) and a mini galapagos islands random.

We also visited a crater community. We were told that this community lived inside a volcano crater so we were imagining an actual crater all rocky and mars like. We were curious to see why people would live inside a crater so walked up the volcano to look inside (a 15 minute uphill battle) to find it was just like a community inside a nice grassy valley. Slightly disappointing but ah well it was quite funny at the time.

Anyway that was another long blog. Heading to Canoa on the coast tonight on another over night bus. Wish me luck. Chao.

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