Amazonia
Trip Start
Mar 17, 2005
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88
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Trip End
Mar 13, 2006
Amazonia,
Ecuador
Monday, November 14, 2005
Our journey started by flying 30 minutes east of Quito (or an 8 hour bus ride) to a small town named Lago Agrio, which is about 20 kilometers from the border of Columbia and supposedly is a refuge for Columbian guerilla fighters and drug traffickers. We didnīt stick around to find out, and got straight into a bus that took us 3 hours away to the gateway to the Cuyabeno jungle reserve in the northeastern part of the country. There we were met by our guide whose name was Diego, and who proved to be wealth of information and showed us things that we never could have noticed or thought of ourselves. Diego gave each of us a rain poncho and put us into a good sized canoe on the Cuyabeno river where we then had a three hour motorized ride into the jungle through brown and black watered rivers
Amy walking through the swamp
. All of a sudden we were away from all civilization and twisting and turning through the jungle. It was seriously out of a movie. Despite the absolute DOWNPOUR halfway through the ride, along the way we saw a sloth in a tree and a pink dolphin playing in the river. We didnīt even realize there were pink dolphins.Our camp accomodation consisted of a thatched roof structure with no walls, a mattress with a mosquito net around it, and a separate building for a baņo and a kitchen. Basically this all boiled down to the fact that we had rustic but very comfortable accomodations that made it as low impact as possible on the environment and allowed us to listen to the jungle noises 24/7 while we were eating, sleeping, walking around camp, etc.
The first full day we paddled upriver in a dugout canoe and did some pirahna fishing along the way. Though almost everyone at least got a bite, Matt and Diego were the only ones that pulled one into the boat. Diego showed us how sharp the teeth were by putting a plant in its mouth and it instantly bit down and sliced the plant completely in half. Unfortunately we donīt have any pictures since this experience as this was a high risk "tip over into the river and swim for it" type of day. Cameras were not advised. After this we visited a village of indiginous people called the Siona people. They showed us how to harvest the root of a plant called yuca, then shred it, squeeze the water out of it, and cook it until it came out as sort of a cross between a rice cake and a pancake. Very good! The people there were so beautiful and fun to be around, especially the kids who were running around and playing. As the sun was setting and the yuca was cooking we had a flock of parrots fly right over our camp on the way to the nesting area at a big lagoon
Ants marching video
. At night we went on a walk through the jungle where Diego showed us various insects and other animals that are nocturnal. Along with many insects along the way we saw a tarantula, two snakes (non-poisonous) that were coming right at us, and a lizard sitting on a branch.Our next day we went on a long hike through the jungle where Diego showed us how to survive in the forest. Amazing stuff! We learned how to make an animal trap (you know that one where thereīs a loop that an animal steps in triggering a tree to spring and catapult the animal up into the air in a noose?), which ants were good to eat (the lemon tasting ones were especially nice), how to climb a tree with no branches using part of a vine that you affix to your feet, how to temporarily repair clothes with a sticky leaf, how to make a torch out of a certain treeīs sap, a local anesthetic that comes from squishing a leaf of a plant, and how to make roap from the fibers of another plant. We felt like we just went through boy scount survival camp, and it was facinating. Later at night we went swimming in the warm waters of the big lagoon and then looked for caymans (like crocodiles) on the way back.
On our last day we got up early and went on another venture down the river and saw Macaws (the big blue and yellow parrots), two snakes (both of which were probably 9 feet long and one of which was very poisonous according to Diego), another sloth, another pink dolphin, and flocks of parakeets.
We left with a new respect for the Amazon as it was very apparent that there are many things there that can not only kill you but also save your life. It was amazing to consider how people throughout history have learned about the medicinal and practical uses of the forest.
