Week in the Amazon Rainforest

Jungle Adventure

We set off Sunday morning from Quito for the Amazon Jungle. After about two hours on the bus we stopped for a special treat, hot springs! At Pappallacta there are natural hot sources of water since the water is under a volcano, they pipe this water into various pools around the place. There are probably about 10 pools of varying temperatures. Some are so hot you can´t touch them, some hot tub temp, some bath water, and some freezing cold. After relaxing in the hot water for awhile you are encouraged to dunk your body in the freezing cold so that your body doesn´t go crazy. After seeing the director of my program, a nearly 50 years old-adventurous-Ecuadorian dive headfirst into the cold water I knew I had to do it. It was probably the coldest I have ever felt!

After that we continued on our journey, arriving after about five hours at a Jungle Lodge along the River Napo, a tributary to the Amazon River. The directors split our group into two groups. And my group of 11 people got up the next morning at 8 for a hearty breakfast of pancakes and fruit and set out for a school. We arrived at a one room schoolhouse in the Amazon. There were about 25 kids at the school. In the rain forest of Ecuador there are Indian or ¨indigenous¨ tribes of people who speak their own languages and live off the land. They were some of the people able to remain free of the Spanish influence during the conquest in the 1400´s. Many people after the Spanish arrived were forced into Catholicism and speaking Spanish. Anyhow, at this school the kids appeared very poor, very dirty and holey clothes, and most wore no shoes. They ran to greet us as we got off the bus. I felt I was really in a third world country. Most of them knew a bit of Spanish, so after regaling us with some newly learned Spanish songs, and of course the Ecuadorian National Anthem, we set out on our task. We brought some paints and paper and did some painting with the kids. They ranged in age from 4 to 13 (1st to 7th grades) and had two teachers. Most of them walk to school and if they want to continue to the higher grades, called ¨colegio¨they have to find transportation to one of the bigger cities, at least an hour away.

After that, we were scheduled to do a ¨minga¨, or a communal work activity. We had to plant bamboo trees all along the edge of the school yard along the River. These bamboo trees grow to about 30-40 feet within three years so they´d provide some much needed shade to the scorching hot school, and also their roots would spread to help prevent erosion. After a demonstration from a 10 year old, we were handed machetes and told to go about clearing the land of the high grass and plants. After that we hoed, and dug holes for the trees. The kids went back and forth down to the river filling up pop bottles with water to give our plants some water. It was some tough manual labor, but it was really rewarding, it made me think of many of the people who live in the jungle for whom planting cacao (cocoa for chocolate) is their way of life.

After a lunch of some kind of fish complete with a head, eyeballs, and bones we set off for a tour of the surrounding area. We walked around for about an hour with the father of a couple of the students. He pointed out what they use all the trees and plants for. One plants leaves are used for roofing of all the houses. And we got to sample about 10 different fruits and seeds from the trees. They were delicious. Cocoa beans are covered in a sweet sticky covering and we sucked on those for awhile. Then we tried some lemons, people here love to eat lemons. There were a bunch of berries. Then we stumbled upon the man´s parents house. His probably 70+ year old mother was sitting outside on a bench with her pet monkey. It was a simple house, built high up on stilts to prevent flooding. Around it she had some beautiful gardens. So many amazing things can grow in the jungle, there is so much water, humidity, sun and heat.

After that the kids challenged us to a game of soccer. Then we went down to the river to get in our motorized canoe and head for our destination that night. I didn´t want to leave the kids, they were so nice and cute, I loved it. Soon after a pleasant ride down the river, we arrived at our next Jungle Lodge. This places is owned by an Nebraskan named Tom. We came to Ecuador for PeaceCorps when he was 35 in 1988, and has been here ever since. His place is beautiful. He has a great part of the river for swimming, a big swing where you can swing over the river, and a bunch of beautiful cabanas complete with hammocks. He also has a pet Woolly monkey named Mona. Unfortunately she only likes boys so she ignored the girls most of the time. But one morning I got up around six to read and since I was her only option she took a nap on my lap for awhile. But she was kind of like a badly behaved toddler. After leaving me she peed on the couch, stole my pen and took it high up into a tree, and stuck her face and hands in the sugar bowl and licked her fingers!

We went for a turtle feeding in the evening. Tom has three man made ponds for turtle and fish breeding. He is trying to encourage others in the communities to breed their own fish, because when they fish in the River they often just throw in sticks of dynamite to kill the fish. In addition to being bad for the environment, we met a few men with hands blown off because of accidents. He had about 200 tiny yellow spotted turtles, and 400 big Giant River Turtles. The Giant River turtles can become one meter large!! Enormous!! He also has a pond full of tilapia. While he was talking we heard the loud noise of chainsaws and he said much of the protected forest is illegally cut to sell for lumber. Sometimes it is people´s only option to feed their family, so he is trying to introduce other options like these fish breeding ponds in communities, so people can just walk out to their pond and grab a fish big enough to feed their families. People also eat the turtle eggs and meat.

Five years ago Tom married an indigenous woman from deep in the rain forest, only reachable by a half hour on a plane. She lives with him here and the next morning taught us how she and her people make pottery. It was beautiful stuff.

After hanging out for the day, relaxing, laying in hammocks and swinging on the swing we had to return to our original jungle lodge.

Here, an indigenous man cam to give us a talk on Shamanism. A Shaman is like a village doctor. He believes that trees and plants have spirits and he can suck the evil out of a person and similarly send evil to other people. It was a little wacky, but he told us stories of his father and uncles who were shamans, he believes they were killed by other shamans who were jealous of their power. He didn´t become a shaman because of the danger of the profession. Apparently in the school we visited a young boy was recently taken out into the woods and killed by a Shaman because he was looking intelligent and precocious enough to become a Shaman on his own.

Later that night we took a night walk with our flashlights to try to find cool animals that are active at night. We saw two bright yellow and black frogs, that are venomous, a tarantula, a scorpion, and countless other large insects. All our adventures were facilitated by a Spanish speaking guide.

The next morning we had our much anticipated hour alone on the jungle. Each person was brought to a different section, where they couldn´t see anyone else and left there for one hour. No instructions were given, but I think the idea was to really listen to the different animals and sounds, and become more focused and aware of the surrounding nature. I walked around for awhile trying to make friends with a bright yellow and black spider, watched a few conga ants walk around, and layed on a log and listened. Conga ants are famous for being huge, about the length of half of my index finger and vicious, their bites are extremely painful. The hour went by in a flash and it was great.

After that we took a long canoe ride to Amazoonica. It´s an animal rescue center in the Jungle. They get most of their animals confiscated form the airport. Many parrots, toucans, jaguars, and monkeys were saw were attempted to be exported for sale in the US and Europe. Other animals were made pets, but later grew too big and crazy. They had a pack of those mean pigs that attack people like in ¨Old Yeller.¨The guy advised that if we saw one to run. Other crazy animals are Cappuccino Monkeys, they monkey we saw had killed ten other monkeys over time when another monkey was put in the enclosure with him. The guide told us the story of seeing dogs approach cappuccino monkeys in the jungle, not knowing what they were. The approached monkey screams and about 90 other monkeys show up and attack the dog, basically tearing it apart. They are vicious!!

Later we had a talk form a conservationist who told of of plans to build an airport right in the Amazon. After all the amazing things we had seen, the idea of a big loud airport was just unfathomable. Apparently it is being financed by the Brazilians who want it for shipping access to the Pacific Coast. But the people are being told it will bring more tourists to the jungle with the opportunity for increased money made from eco tourism. The petroleum companies just built a road into the jungle, and even that has had a huge impact on life. The man told us the insects, birds, and other animals will be happily making noise until a big car drives by 50 miles an hour and all goes silent as they are scared. It´s a very fragile environment.

After a delicious breakfast the next morning we set our to return to Quito. Now, I´m back in Quito. At noon today my new home stay family will come to pick me up at our hotel. Their is a single mom and her 23 year old daughter. The mother is in the catering business and the daughter is a student who enjoys playing the guitar and volleyball. Their apartment is located near the beautiful ¨central park¨ of Quito called La Carolina, so I am excited to start running again before classes start at nine everyday.

All is well here! Spanish classes have ended so now we have culture and development lectures, a different topic everyday in Spanish of course. At the end of this month we start our Independent Study Project. During the month of November, we have to go somewhere in the country, live along in a community or in a hostel if necessary and conduct research. I´m trying to decide if I want to go back to the jungle or go to the beach areas on the coast. Our research is all interviews and talking to locals, and the objective is to contribute something to the local community with our work. I have been thinking of perhaps working on some sort of farm, or in a school, or with a craftsman, or with a doctor who practices natural medicine. I really have no idea but I hope some ideas occur to me in the next month!!

Thanks so much for everyone´s emails! I so appreciate hearing from everyone!!