|
  | |  |
Jungle day 5: Adios mosquitos
Entry 17 of 95 | show all | print this entry |
|
I woke up bleary-eyed, enjoying the pleasant parting gifts that the friendly jungle mosquitos had given me all over my body the night prior. Memories to carry with me to Quito, of course. Our schedule was slightly different today, as it was our last. We had two excursions and one and a half hours of class at the lodge and then our remaining hours of class in Coca city before we caught our bus back to Quito. Our first excursion at 7:30 am consisted of a long walk through the reserve, which we had visited our first night. It was so wonderful to be walking around rather than simply sitting on the hard canoe seat. My first bit of exercise this whole week! The reserve is home to a huge variety of plants and animals, including 25 caimans (we obviously did not see them in the morning though), tortoises, jungle rats, monkeys, birds, deer, and much more. We were able to see the reserve's oldest tortoise, a 75 year-old female, which Jose had to lift out of the mud to show us.
She was huge--she weighs 50 pounds! Here is a close up of her peeking out of her shell.
We also saw a bird that is actually called a "stinking turkey" because of how it looks and smells, some baby frogs, fish, and tons of fascinating medicinal plants. One tree, for example, called sangre de drago, had tons of machete marks on its trunk because it has a milky like sap that aids many different illness. Some scientists apparently have been studying this sap in combination with other medicinal plants (achote I believe) in hopes to find a cure for several forms of cancer.
We also saw a plant called "ajo de la selva" or garlic of the jungle, which smells exactly as you would think and acts as a condiment as well as an insect and predator repellent. Not sure if I would rather stink of garlic or be bitten by mosquitos...We then climbed a 15-meter high tower overlooking this lagoon
, and afterwards went out in the small canoes around the lake in search of other animals. It was unbearably hot and humid. I was dying in my long shirt, pants, and knee-high rubber boots, which were all necessary for bug, water and sun protection. However, we definitely got to see some cool stuff. Here is a photo of some bird nests hanging from a tree in the middle of the lagoon
, and a picture of some of the lilies and other plants floating in the water.
We got back to the lodge around 10:25 am, with barely enough time to grab our books and meet our teachers for class.
It was far too hot to think in any language, let alone in Spanish, but I managed to have a decent class. I had once again been a bad student and failed to prepare a talk on the article Olga had given me, but it was fine since today was purely about conversation so as long as I spoke about something that was fine. I opted to give Olga a slide show of my pictures from the past few days and a full explanation of our morning excursion, which I figured would be far more interesting for both of us than discussing a dry article on globalization. We then got into a somewhat interesting conversation about internet and technology, trying to fill the time until lunch.
After lunch, we left for our second excursion of the day, a 20-minute walk to a 40-meter high lookout tower. I was once again happy to be doing a little hiking, and aside from the intense heat and humidity and our guide Eduardo's suffocating B.O. (I forced Brandon to walk ahead of me), the walk was very pleasant. The tower was very impressive.
It was built around a massive tree and had two platforms at the top.
The first platform was a little above the level of the jungle canopy while the second, somewhat more treacherous one was perhaps 15 feet above it.
The views definitely were worth the climb--trees, trees, and more trees in every direction. It was quite breathtaking and liberating, similar to seeing the horizon for the first time in four days during our canoe adventure on Thursday.
We headed back to the lodge around 2:15 pm, giving us just enough time to shower and pack for our 3 pm departure. Although I did not get to eat piranha or swing from vines and I certainly did not improve my Spanish as much as I had hoped, all in all I am quite thrilled with my week in the jungle. After getting some ice cream (I can't even explain how badly I have been craving it all week!), we finished up our class time back at the hostel from 4:30 until 7 pm. I was a little nervous that I would have problems thinking of things to talk about, but it ended up being fine. We talked about religion (got to explain what Judaism was once again--always a reliable time filler here), Latin American politics and culture, and also reviewed some vocab that would be useful for my travels. So, overall I had a great experience with Amazonas and for anyone looking to study Spanish I would certainly recommend my school. It was not the cheapest, but I believe it was money well spent. Now I am eager to be out and about on my own--no more class! YAY!!!!
After grabbing dinner at the same restaurant as our first morning in Coca, we caught our 8:30 pm bus back to Quito. The ride back was NOT fun. We had a pretty nutty passport control around 9:15 pm--everyone had to get off the bus, girls in one line and guys got to be fully patted down in another line, while the bus was searched. Apparently this is pretty standard. I got a kick out of watching the police officers all talking to their friends on their cell phones as they carried out the searches. After we re-boarded the bus, Brandon and I popped Ambiens once again. However, unlike the ride to Coca, it was hot as hell and I had trouble sleeping. I guess I managed to get some rest though, because I have absolutely zero recollection of the second passport control around 3:30 am. Apparently, Zayra woke me up, told me to put on my shoes and take my backpack off the bus with me so everything could be searched, but I only half put on my shoes and gave my backpack to her. I then proceeded to stare blankly at the police officer as he searched my bag, asked me questions and inspected my passport, and finally after a few minutes he gave up on me and told me to get back on the bus. I was so freaked out when Zayra told me about this! It is a miracle that I did not trip and kill myself down the bus steps, lose my passport or other valuables (how they made it back into my money belt is beyond me), or get in trouble with the officials for not cooperating. All I can recall is the bus stopping once for a half hour when we had a flat tire and a bunch of guys had to fix it (I kept hearing the word "lardrones" or robbers but Zayra reassured me that everything was fine) and I remember feeling the bus rock back and forth, shaking fiercely and moving rapidly downhill and being convinced that we were going to fall off the mountain, but I really cannot differentiate between what was real and what was the Ambien-Malarone cocktail talking...
We got back to Quito around 7 am and I spent the day doing laundry, catching up on my journal, playing with my camera, and enjoying my return to the world of internet, cell phones and electricity. It was a very chill day, much needed after the week's activities. Aeda and I had dinner together and I treated her to ice cream and cookies, as there was hardly any food in the house (not too surprised). I waited to hear back from my uncle Gustavo as to whether or not he still wanted to join me in Mindo, but he never returned my phone calls, so I guess I will be going by myself early tomorrow morning...A part of me wants to stay put in Quito for my remaining five days and just plan out my next couple of weeks. I just got back and the thought of immediately returning to a humid climate is not exactly appealing to me at the moment. However, I also feel like I should check out somewhere new at least for a day or two. I figure I will get there mid morning tomorrow, get a room, do some hiking, see some mariposas and colibres, and enjoy some quality alone time after my week with Brandon and my professors. We'll see how it goes!
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from Ecuador or try a new search. |
| |
| Table of Contents |
| 17. | Jungle day 5: Adios mosquitos - Coca, Ecuador Oct 27, 2006 (  10 ) |
|
|
|
|
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
7 votes 
