The Jungle - The Rest of the Story

The Swiss

We woke up on day two of our jungle stay and were glad that we were able to talk our hosts into letting us sleep on the upper level of the main house in our hammocks rather than the serial killer cabin they had given us. All the other cabins where quaint little native looking buildings, with billowing palm roofs and woven bamboo siding, not to mention they were equipped with ample lighting. Our cabin on the other hand was at the very end of the lodge next to the jungle. You got to it by walking down a long boardwalk that was not lit at night. With my imagination it could be a slightly edgy trek. Once you got to the cabin it was made of old moldy boards and looked like the first cabin ever built. It had a light bulb so useless a candle would have worked better. So we made sure we had our head lamps if we had to go there at night. We only went there when we had to shower or change. The hammocks were wonderful though and they are quickly becoming our first choice when it comes to choosing a bed.

The Lodge

So we climbed down from our roost and went to change and get ready for breakfast. It was a meager serving of eggs and I think pancakes. It also came with all the watered down juice you could drink. Our Swiss friends were the best at begging for more food, which would become a common occurrence since most of our meals left us hungry.

A Squirrel Monkey

After breakfast we loaded up on the canoe and headed up the river in search of wildlife and at some point fish for piranha! I had been looking forward to that part of the trip since I found out about it at the travel agent. We wound through the river stopping to look at colorful parrots and funny little squirrel monkey jumping from limb to limb. It was already a much better start than the previous day. The canoe ride took a good two hours so by the time we got to the lagoon the sun was really intense due to the whole equator thing so we decided to stop for lunch. After lunch we were surprised to find the place overrun with more squirrel monkeys and capuchin monkeys. We spent some time staring into the trees and snapping lots of pictures.

Capucin Monkey

After we wrapped up the photo shoot we went to the nearby lagoon in search of the infamous pink dolphins. We were happy that we spotted them right off the bat, since many other people we had talked to had not been able to see them during their stay. Our crazy guide started stripping down to her skibies and insisting we do the same. Before we knew it she was in the water. I soon followed suit because I really wanted a chance to swim with the dolphins. Laura was in pretty soon after. Well, unfortunately the dolphins stayed comfortably out of our reach, but we did have a nice swim. On the way back to the lodge we stopped at one of our guides piranha holes and started baiting our hooks with pieces of meat. I can honestly say I have never used raw beef as bait before. Those crafty little piranhas are good at picking the meat off without getting hooked. I’m sure the hooks we were using didn’t help matters. They looked like they had been used in some of the early great white fishing expeditions. I say this because they were giant, old and rusty and bent open. We are fishing for something with the mouth the size of a nickel at best. How could the little fish get its mouth around such a colossal hook I ask? Well, I did manage to hook a fish. It wasn’t a piranha. It was a much larger green fish with black bars down its side. I can’t remember what the guide called it but she said it was really good to eat. Too bad it got off when I tried to lift it into the boat with my rod, or you could call it a stick with a line tied to it. We did manage to get a few and we ate them at dinner that night. They were really boney and a bit fishy… not my favorite. However, they were a welcome addition to are meager dinner portion.

Me with Bessie

After another cold shower, we hung out with the gang at the lodge playing cards. We were teaching the Swiss how to play chicken berry slap or as the French call it The Battle of Corsica and it was quite amusing. The games got heated and everyone was out for blood or I guess cards. It all went downhill when I noticed something extra on the sofa. I told Phillip one of the Swiss guys to stand up and move away from the sofa slowly. He looked at me confused but moved anyway. When he looked down he saw a giant tarantula crawling towards him. After that everyone was too concerned about where Bessie (the tarantula) was to concentrate on the game.

Laura Making her way through the jungle

The rest of the trip was spent exploring more of the jungle. This time with the addition of a guide for our guide so she wouldn’t get lost again. We saw some really cool insect and fungi. We also saw huge termite mounds and many different types of ants. There was one called lemon ants that tasted like a drops of lemon when you ate them. Yes we tried them. There were the famous leaf cutter ants that from a distance you thought the leaves were walking. There were another that you could rub on your body and it would give you a citronella like smell. I don’t know if that had any usage or if the native just liked the smell. There was also another ant that if it bit you felt like you had been shot and you felt very sick for days. I stayed clear of those so sorry no pictures.

We also went on a late night Cayman spotting expedition. Finally! To add to the already comedic nature of our stay, the driver of the boat had no light so he couldn’t see his way through the river. Laura was nice enough to lend him her headlamp. Then, not twenty minutes into the hunt, our guide’s 3 dollar Wal-Mart special flashlight gives out and I am forced to lend my headlamp to her as well. We managed to spot a few small Cayman, despite all the problems. On the way back I guess the driver was over the trip, because he was flying down the river and it was impossible to spot anything. I mentioned this to our guide but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

Leaf Cutter Ants and Bride's Veil Fungus

I know it seems like I have more negatives to say about this trip than positives, but we really did have a good time. I mean we were in the Amazon jungle, a completely foreign and exotic place to us, so even the few things we saw were fascinating. Oh, I forgot to mention we never went to visit the indigenous family that was suppose to show us there way of life and how to make Yuka bread. That was part of the trip that we paid for, but that’s it I promise there is nothing else bad to say.

We packed up our stuff and headed on our way back to the main road to catch the overnight bus back to Quito. We boarded the bus at around 7:30pm. The second we stepped on we were assaulted by an overwhelming smell of urine. It was as if someone went through the bus peeing on everything. It didn’t matter if you sat at the front of the bus or the back. I didn’t think I was going to make it because we had to be on this bus for 11 hours. It didn’t seem to faze Laura. She was asleep in no time. It took me a little longer, but I finally managed to sleep a bit as well. Somewhere on the ride we were awoken by a man yelling at us. When we looked up it was a man dressed in army fatigues holding an assault rifle. We looked around for help from the other passengers but the bus was completely empty. Finally we woke up enough to understand what the man was saying. It was simply a checkpoint, and we needed to get off the bus and show our identification. It was rather humorous after the fact. We had no idea what was going on. The rest of the bus ride went smoothly and we made it to Quito around 6:30am.

Our guide taking us through the swamp