Advertisement
Published: April 16th 2008
We recently traveled as a group of 19 people, 16 students between the ages of 15 and 18 and three teachers. The trip started in Quito, Ecuador where we visited the colonial architecture of the presidential palace and the plaza, the cathedral Basilica, the Virgen de Panecillo and the volcano Pichincha by way of the teleferico.
From Quito we headed into the oriente. We spent two nights and three days in San Fransisco de Borja at the Campina del Quijos. The owner Don Carlos was great to us and we really enjoyed the zip lines and secenery of his beautiful little resort. It was by far the coziest accomodation that we had the whole trip with the comforts and feel of a resort. It is clearly the kind of place where the owner has restored and maintains the buildings out of love for the location, not out of necessity, making the experience of staying there exceptional. The food was fabulous and the kids were very happy and comfortable there.
We then spent a night at the Hostal Austria in Tena and had some time to make phone calls and get some laundry done before heading into the jungle to the area of Alto Pusuno where we stayed at a lodge known as Vulture Swamp Farm owned by the Yanguez family. They were incredibly welcoming and the food was great. While we were there we enjoyed several day hikes, swimming in the Pusuno river, and beautiful wildlife (tucanes, jaguarundi, monos, etc.) on the land that they are maintaining as a preserve. The kids got to make coffee, chicha, chocolate, and cheese in the traditional ways. We learned a lot about Quichua culture and our guides Pablo Cortes and Jerson were wonderful, personable and best yet, knowledgable gentlemen who were great at connecting with the kids while sharing great infomation about their culture, the biology and history of their region of the world.
After three nights at the Yanguez family's jungle lodge, we hiked to the community of Alto Pusuno to participate in the 25th anniversary of their school. They had a parade and we played a soccer match between us Gringos and the Alumni of the school. We brought some donations for the school with us and the kids had a chance to donate the items directly to the children of the school. It was a great experience and the kids were very lucky to have our guide set us up with such a great cultural experience. That day we continued on to the Lower Pusuno Region and Suchi Pakari Lodge. We hopped a canoe into a small village in search of some ancient birds and did some gold panning before crashing for the day.
The trip continued on with a day of motor-canoes in the Napo River and visits to a village where we got to see a woman making pottery and a man carving balsa-wood figurines. The kids went on a shopping mission and made the demonstrations well worth the time invested by the artisans. Again, it was great of our guides to take us to the source so that we could meet the people making the goods as opposed to just buying them at a random market. We also visited Amazoonico animal rescue center in what was the most surreal experience of the trip. Our guide there not only spoke English very poorly (the kids would have better understood him in Spanish), but he swore and referred to the genetailia of the monkeys in a very inappropriate manner. In addition, the feel of the "rescue center" was that of a foreign presence (I didn't see a single Ecuatoriano working at the center) and the guide said a lot of inaccurate and condescending things about the quichua (indigenous) people of the region. The kids continued on and had a great time splashing each other as we headed into Ahuano where we were able to catch pick-ups into Tena.
The next day we spent white-water rafting with Rios Ecuador. The experience was listed as the highlight of the trip for a number of the kids and we will keep that as a part of the itinerary always. The weather was great and the water was low, giving us lots of time to pirate each others rafts and push each other into the Jatun Yacu. We brought a ball that made for a great kickball faceoff while the guides prepared our lunch (which was also delicious). Other than some sunburns and being exhausted from a GREAT day the kids were able to enjoy a special dinner at the Marquis in Tena that night.
The next day was a travel day back to Quito and we went biking in Cotopaxi National Park with the Biking Dutchman the day after. What a blast that trip was (although not for the faint of heart). We had been rafting only two days before that in hot sunshine and were whipping snowballs at each other as the bus struggled to get through the snow to the refugio (which it was never actually able to do). We started the trip about a kilometer from the usual starting point due to the snow (which I think was a blessing considering the terrain). The first few kilometers were tricky and a lot of the kids (and I) crashed, but with controlled speeds and lots of padding, no one was seriously injured (only scrapes and bruises). The kids that did not list rafting as their highlight listed this as the best day of the trip. We really had a great time and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
The next day we went to Otovalo where the kids bartered away their parent's paychecks and got some great deals on some wonderful things. The market on Saturdays is great and well worth the drive North from Quito, we should have scheduled the whole day for it. Next time we will. After the market, we had a great lunch and headed back into Quito to get a warp speed tour of the Working Boys Center with Madre Cindy before going to pack and catch our flight out. The center is a great facility and aids thousands of families with health, education, food, etc.
The trip was "life changing" for the kids and was pulled off flawlessly by our guide/agent Tarquino Yanguez. I chose not to use a tour company, but instead work with a local who is starting his own tour business with a degree in eco-tourism. The bus, the guides, the meals, the entire experience were perfect and I cannot imagine the logistics that went into feeding 19 hungry bodies in the middle of the jungle on a full day hike. There was a crew following us everywhere we went and all of the people that got our money were locals, no corporate profits from us... yay! We would especially like to thank our guide/agent Tarquino Yanguez and his family for their work in creating the wonderful eco-lodge at Upper Pusuno. Also, the people that were able to make it happen, our guides Pablo and Jerson, Gloria, and our driver Giovani. For more information about booking a similar trip, please contact me, I would be glad to put you in touch with Tarquino.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0382s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Pattie Randolph-Clark
non-member comment
great job
Hey Trish...and everyone else....you guys rule. What a great time....what great kids, what great chaparones. I am soooooo happy my daughter got to go on this trip, with such fantastic people. I think that adventure...with safety in mind...is where life is taking us all......and I am proud that you all had the time of your lives, learned more about Spanish...and about Ecuadorian culture and learned about yourselves... As long as you all shall live, you will never forget this trip. Ya hoo. So much better to be this active and involved than on a regular "boring" tour, with too many amenities and too much controlled tourista kind of stuff. This was great! Kudos to Trish and the other two chaparones! Pattie