rainforest

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I survived the night bus fine and even the humidity of arriving at the petrol town of Lago Agrio (which is where I am at the momnet trying to kill 4 hours of time before our bus leaves) The lodge was 2 hours by bus into the reserve and then another 2 hours by canoe-
and the humidity was horrible--
That first afternoon I was really homesick It was really frustrat ing being in one of the most interesting places in the world and be homesick
We went to a massive lagoon to swim and watch the sunset and watch pink dolphins (which were grey because of the water temp but still amazing as it was the one thing I really wanted to see) and that cured my homesickness..
Its amazing to be in the rainforest swimming and watching the beautiful sunset....

Ithen the next few days we went for walks and learnt about different plants etc found in the jungle. Its amazing you can find everything here that you need. Lianas with water in them, to make rope, trees to cure malaria, stomach parasites, antiseptic , stop bleeding,stop you feeling hungry...
I ate the tooth paste plant, which you use twic e a week and my tongue is still dyed bright blue from it two days later.

There are also plants to write with and those that release dye when you swqueeeze them, soap plant...
I know that everywhere you go there are plants that provid e exzactly what we need but the rainforest is such a neat example..

Then there were the animals..not as many as I thought there would be actually but interesting, a few snakes, birds (mostly dull coloured) the dolphins, lots of monkeys but I didnt get good pictures of them, Spiders at night when we went on the night walk. Scorpion and wolf spiders scared me, specially seeing as you couldnt see them at night!

Tarantulas hung around our lodge which was basic..huts and hammocks. They were ok because they dont really look like spiders. Also my fear of spidfders in England is obviously a luxury I can afford, because here although the wolf spiders etc creeped me out they are the size of a hand and they certainly didnt stop me looking at them..masybe the little black ones in england are in my genetic memory as scary...
There were quite a lot of insects.

The best animal other than the dolphins we saw was a caiman.
It was a big one, over two metres and we went at night and wen right upo to it in a canoe. It juyst hangs there in the water with its mouth open looking like an incarnation of evil. The guide was making it jump out of the water to get meat, it was terrifying because it was less than a metre away. At one point iot disappeared under the water and ewe thought it had gone and then it resurfaced right next to me by the side of the canoe. If I had put my hand down I would have touched its head..I screamed when it first came up...

Also we went piranha fishing, I just fed them my meat but other people caught them.. I dont like fishing its exciting until you catch them and the havbe a hook through their eye and are gasping for breath.

You probably will hardly believe it but I ate live lemon ants.. they live in a special palm tree and you lick them up and the tast like really strong lemon, and a grub!. Our guidde started cracking coconuts open tha tw were on the ground and i thought wew were going to get yummy coconut and instead we got scarab larvae!! Apparently they lay their eggs and the grub eats the coconut for a few months before emerging. I felt really guilty for biting it when it was alive but wanting the experience won over.. When you bite it it bursts violently which freaked me out and I spat it out.. but actully it tasted so good..like extra creamy coconut milk that i picked it back up and ate the rest...the outside was tough like gristle though
Also tried the cocoa beans. They are coated with a flesh which is an indescribable taste and sucking them is meant to be an appetite suppresant,. The actual cocoa is purple and bitter..

Wre also went to a village which is a wierd mix of old an new world..totally cut off but they have full football kits ( I took pictures because it made me think of you .) and western clothes..
We saw yucca bread being prepared etc. I liked watching the kids, they all hang out in a big group like their ownn community lugging the babies around with them. I really like that. However the women look far older than their years, reproducing all the time..and there are hardly any old people so maybe the shamanism isnt quite so great!!

the lodge itself was really peaceful. No electricitty so when the sun set at 6 30 everyhting was done by candlelight. Ecuadorian food is pretty rough, but the guid told us stories about the deep jungle where there are three wild tribes living. THey solve everything by killing apparently, and often they warn the loggers etc, by leaving their signs and when they doont leave they kill them with wooden spears that can pierce the side of a canoe..

Apparently once when he went he saw 20 or 30 bodies pierced through by the side of the river and some were still alive. A helicopter was called when he got back but of course it was too late...It was cool, like real life ghost stories being told surrounded by jungle noises..
Apparently tour groups can go and there the jungle is full of animals, much easier to see than where we are, but its dangerous and tourists are regularly roobbed of all their possessions and some have been killed.. Of course I want to go...but not this trip!!
It was actually quite a relaxing time..just what I needed, lots of time cruising in the canoe and lying in hammocks and getting fed!

I left a day early because I met some reallly nice people and a girl called MAria who is travelling alone too. I was going to go straight to puerto lopez but instead ioi am going to go a bit south to banos and riobamba for a a couple of days with ehr and then on to puerto lopez and back to quito. A lot of travelling but it is really good to have company..It means I can have fun agaiun instead of being loinely.

now I have about 20 mosquito bites which i dont think is too bad considering I have been in the jungle..I didnt buy antimalarials with me because i thought tthey would be chaeper here...I was right..60 cents for a week but its just chloroquine and youou are meant to sart it a week bfore and i was too late. However they dont have the fatal form of malaria in theis region apparently. so it should be ok

also a sad thing. Alhought this is called a reserve,, ecuador is running out of oil so last year the government passed a new law to say you can yuse reserves for petrol so fdeforestation has already begun. This is the most diverse part of forest in the whole of the amazon in terms of the flora and fauna it supports but they reckon it only had a 7 to ten year history now he oil companies are here...tragic..

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Comments

[granny]

rain forest
I loved your blog. Unlike so many bloggers, you write about the country and people not just about yourself which makes it much more universally interesting. Maybe you won't shriek at english spiders anymore. Curiosity is the best route out of phobias and nonsense.