Getting to the Amazon

We left beautiful Mindo behind and hopped a bus to Quito to start our next adventure in the Amazon. Laura wasn’t feeling well but we thought, or I should say hoped it would pass quickly. We enjoyed our drive through the cloud forest covered mountains and got off just before Quito in La Mitad Del Mundo. This is a town built around the equator. There is a monument to mark the spot and of course a tourist based town around it. It was two dollars to enter so we paid so we could take our picture on the equator and peruse the other interesting museums on the premises. There was a cool insect museum that showed many bizarre critters of Ecuador. I managed to sneak a few pictures before the curator yelled at me.

Laura still wasn’t feeling well so we left early and got on another bus to head to Ofelia, the north bus terminal in Quito. From there we caught another bus into La Mariscal area of Quito to finalize our Amazon trip at the Ecomontes office. After we finalized everything and paid we then had to figure out how to get all the way to the south bus terminal. The man that booked our trip was heading home so he offered to take us to the trolley and show us which one to get on. If we would have known how the trolley was going to be we would have taken a taxi. After a ten minute walk with our packs on we reached the trolley where we had to fight to get on. It was so packed that you couldn’t move. Laura was feeling even worse at this point and the crowded conditions that included all sorts of interesting smells not to mention the heat, was making her feel even worse. She just sort of dangled from the hanging hand grips and swayed with the trolley. At least if she would have passed out she wouldn’t have fallen.

We finally reached the terminal and bought our tickets to Cuyabeno. It was 8:30 at night when we got to the terminal and would be getting on the 9:30 bus to the Amazon, which wouldn’t arrive till 8:00 the next morning. We had been traveling on a bus or trolley for almost 24 hours by the time we reached Cuyabeno. The bus ride there was ok except we felt like we were traveling in a refrigerated truck. We didn’t manage to sleep much and when we disembarked the bus we were a bit delusional. We also hadn’t had anything to eat since we left Mindo the day before other than an empanada at the last bus terminal. We bought our park entrance permits and followed our guide to what must have been at least a 20 foot motorized canoe. We then wound through the jungle watching the trees fly by and ducking under vine covered, overhanging limbs. The warm breeze on the river was a refreshing contrast to the tundra inside the bus. We arrived to the lodge about twenty minutes later. There was a line of palm roofed cabins with rooms open to the elements. In the middle of all the cabins was the main house where we met our host and the other guests. We ate a quick breakfast and got ready to start our first day in the jungle. As ready as we could be on no sleep and very little food, but hey it just adds to the adventure, right?

Christina