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After wasting five days in the hostel drinking beer with Australians and Brits while I was awaiting a package (which I could have quite adequately done at home) I realised that it was time to get out of Quito for a short break - if only to avoid the watched-parcel-never-arrives syndrome from trapping me at the Secret Garden forever 😉
The solution was a five-day excursion to the Amazon jungle. It promised lazy river rides, jungle hikes through the Amazon and possible glimpses of caimans (South American alligators), toucans, tapirs (pigs with very silly extended noses), pink river dolphins, anacondas and a multitude of monkeys. Alas, the larger mammals that once upon a time inhabited the area have been long poached / stolen / or just generally humaned out of the existence.
We joined the 11.30 pm bus headed for Lago Agrio, a town 20km away from the Columbian border. It is said to be frequented by members of the rebel Columbian FARC group on the weekend (I didn’t know this until I arrived, mum - honest 😉). Thankfully 7am on a Thursdsay isn’t a hot time for political dissidents and we passed the 4 hours wait for our
bus without incident.
After a rather hairy 3-hour truck ride to the entrance to Cuyabena Reserve we were taken to our lodge via a 2 hour canoe ride down an Amazon River tributary. The ride was a smooth and sublime - along glistening tannin-stained black waters amidst the hum of the jungle. We arrived at our huts which were nestled in the jungle swamp - a sight that turned my home-owning heart in sympathy for the inevitable rot that the wooden supporting struts would eventually succumb to. Apparently, environmental restrictions demand that, while the foundations of the huts can be concrete, none of the load bearing structures are given the same lenience and thus have a limited lifespan.
Within 5 minutes of arriving a scamper of fur raced up from my toes before eventually landed on my shoulder - it was the lodge’s resident woolly monkey, Poncho. He was rescued from the streets of the local town where a poacher had him up for sale. As a baby, he stands less than 25cm at the moment - but his destiny is to reach up to 75cm and become aggressive like his forebearers. When this happens lodge staff hope
the call of the wild will be strong enough to send him scampering back to the jungle in search of a mate. If this doesn’t eventuate they plan to send him to a wildlife rehabilitation centre, but, given his childhood I think he may have a rough time of it. With his background of adoring human fans and highly limited exposure to anything even vaguely resembling ‘wildlife’ the transition could be tough. For the moment, though, he is a very happy monkey who loves to curl up in your lap or have a playfight over your food (that’s if he can’t sneak it past you totally, in which case, he will).
The next few days passed in a succession of jungle trips including hikes, birdwatching expeditions, visits to the local indigenous community and medicine man, pirahna fishing, caiman and anaconda searching, canoeing and, of course, canoodling with Poncho.
The rainforest was thick and lush, the food generous and yummy, the lodgings comfortable and the walks revealing - learning about the healing properties of jungle plants. I was part of a group of excellent people, which also added to the experience. The wildlife was less evident than I hoped,
but it is the jungle and not a zoo after all, so the glimpses seemed more worthwhile for their scarcity.
The only small disappointment was the shaman and community visit, which smacked of zoo-like tourism. All the elements were in place, but the overall feel was one of showmanship. It is true that our host was a third generation shaman and, yes, he did have an impressive resume of healings that verge on the miraculous. Unfortunately this wasn’t enough to overcome the feeling that it was just another ‘gig’ for him. Daubed in ceremonial paint and draped in feathers, beads and baubles he certainly looked the part but the whole thing was destroyed for me when we were met by the mangiest, most disease riddled dogs I have come across in Ecuador thus far (and there are *a lot* of dogs here). They didn’t offer a ringing endorsement about their owner’s healing powers (or compassion). To be fair, this seems fairly normal for jungle dogs and may be more indicative of the lowly priority given to dogs in the jungle rather than any lack of skill on the medicine man’s behalf but it was still very upsetting to see
and I would have hoped a medicine man could have risen above the general disrespect given to dogs in his country.
After five days of jungle adventure, I had an overnight bus booked back to Quito - which I unfortunately missed after sitting in the wrong place for an hour 😞 Thankfully there was another one leaving soon after to catch. It was comfortable with generously padded seats that reclined to almost horizontal.
Unfortunately the peaceful coccoon of sleep I slipped quickly into was shattered twice during the night - both by men with weapons :S The first time I was awoken by someone poking my arm - when I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was a man with a machine gun standing above me! Not the most comfortable way to gain consciousness. It turned out the army was just doing random checks of bus passengers. Given Lago Agrio’s close proximity to Columbia, there is a rampant drug and illegal immigrant trail coming from up North which Ecuador is trying to keep a check of. The whole bus had to file out to show our documentation. The Ecuadorians passed through pretty quickly but, being a
foreigner I was required to register my passport number and details. This took a little while and it wasn’t long before my bus started to move forward to continue on - without me on it! Luckily, the official realised that I was about to be left behind and gave up on getting my details so I scurried away and jumped on to the (moving) bus.
Less than an hour later, the same thing occurred, but this time it was a drugs hunt. This time the process wasn’t so quick. I’m not quite sure of the details but the narcotics squad found at least 5 dubious passengers who had to be detained while we waited. I think it may have just been the Columbian passports they were holding. While the passengers waited in a holding room, police searched the bus from suspicious items. To be fair, I think it may have been more a matter of ‘high visibility policing’ rather than any real attempt to apprehend and arrest as the ‘search’ consisted of looking underseats and tapping the outside of the soap contained in the bathroom. They found nothing, and the bus continued on its way. 22 hours after leaving
the lodge I was back in Quito (I tried not to think about the fact that it would have taken me less time to get to Australia from Quito).
Anyways, after my night of broken sleep I arrived home to a goodie package from home containing three (!) tubes of Vegemite amongst other Aussie goodies which should do me well for my isolation in the Bolivian jungle 😊 I'm (finally!) starting my journey south tomorrow through south ecuador and peru and I hope to get to the animal park by next weekend.
Love,
Becx
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cath
non-member comment
OOO, little poncho is so cute!