The Jungle!

I did a lot of fun things last week. I had a couple midterms which were super fun of course. At the Asilo, we met a family that comes every Thursday (the visiting day) to visit a grandma/aunt/sister. There are a pair elderly folks (the man is the anciana’s brother), and also a middle-aged woman, Yolanda (the anciana’s niece), as well as some grandchildren of the woman. They are a very nice family and we spent most of the time chatting with the older man, Oswaldo, who actually used to live in the Miami for six years on a ranch owned by some Ecuadorians called the Flamingo Ranch. Because of this, he knew a little bit of English but we spoke in Spanish the whole time anyway. He liked telling the same joke over and over again which was: “Yo sé dos palabras de ingles. Uno=One. Dos=One one.” Or in English: “I know two words in English. One, one. Two, one one.” But anyway, the family is super nice and afterwards, Yolanda invited us over to her house for igo y queso (figs and cheese). Paul, Sam, Meghan, and I went to her house and met the rest of her family. They were pretty wealthy I think. The figs were reeeeaaaaally sweet but with the salty cheese were really good. We stayed and chatted for a couple hours and it was really nice. We plan to go back again this week after school.

There was a party at the asilo

Some of the ancianas took turns singing. Some were good. Some were not good.

One of mis amigas

Painting in the entryway of the asilo

On Thursday, instead of class, we got to go on a field trip to a museum of our choice. Our class voted and decided to go to El Museo de la Ciudad which is in the Old town (centro historico) area. The museum gives a history of the indigenous people of Quito/Ecuador and La Conquista of the region. We got to see some cool art and wax figurines and stuff. We were there for about 3 hours and after that long, I wasn’t really all that into it. Beforehand though, we went to a place called el centro metropolitano (I’m pretty sure that was the name) which is a library-ish place. Our assignment was to go talk with random people inside the place and ask them about the Conquista of the Incas and see how much they knew. The first woman I asked was probably about 30 and she seemed to know a lot and was pretty well educated on the subject. We talked for about 10 minutes about the Incas and just about what I was doing in Ecuador. I’ve found I really like conversing with random locals. The next group I talked to was a couple girls who were in their last year of high school and they SORT of knew a little bit about the Incas but gave an excuse that they’d studied them a long time ago and had forgotten. Some of the other people in my class weren’t being very social so my teacher forced them to go talk with some kids who looked like they were seven or so. It was sorta funny.

Painting depicting how evil the Spanish were

Life and goodness associated with las indígenas and death and darkness associated with the Spanish

On Friday, Meghan, mi madre, and her friend set off for la Amazonia and her home town of Puerto Napo which is along el río napo and is 10 minutes from the city of Tena. Her friend happened to be driving in that direction so we all tagged along. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough room for my other friends, Paul and Sam so they had to take a bus. It took us about 5 hours to get there by car because we made several stops along the way for food and also in a pueblo called Papallacta which is known for its beautiful hot springs. We only stopped for a couple minutes to take a look and then went back on our way. The drive was gorgeous. It was soooo green with trees all over the hills. We got to Tena and got Meghan, Paul, and Sam a hostal then went to mi madre’s house where her mother and brother live. They fed us fish from the river for dinner which turned out to be extremely difficult to eat because it was literally just a fish that was wrapped up in a banana leave and boiled with some seasonings. It had a TON of tiny bones and took about an hour to eat but it was tasty anyway. We talked with her brother, Pato (short for Patricio), who is a guía (guide) for tourists and helped us set up our itinerary for the weekend. Initially, I wanted to do some white water rafting because I’d read in several guide books that it was a really good place to do it but eventually decided against it because Pato said it wasn’t all that good and that I’d need to go to a different river farther away which was way more expensive to do some really good rafting. We all decided that we wanted to go visit some caves, a waterfall, and la playa de los monos (monkey beach). That night we went back to Tena with Pato who showed us a few bars, including a karaoke bar which was pretty fun. Meghan and I attempted karaoke for the first time and did a duet of Grease’s “Summer Loving” with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. It was pretty funny. I really wanted to find some Elton John to sing but sadly, they had none. After that, I went back to mi madre’s house to sleep because I could stay there for free.

Papallacta

Small village of Puerto Napo where mi madre lives

Just some graffiti

Mi madre's house hidden by trees

The next morning, I got up and ate then went to Tena with Pato. We met up with the others and went to the local market to see all the fruits and natural medicines. They were also selling clothes and shoes so we all bought some cheap shoes made by local Ecuadorian company, Venus, that were $6 a pair. They were the same kind we used when we went Canyoning in Baños and we perfect for the caves because you can get them wet and they dry really easily. And I like how they look haha. After that we took off for Las Cavernas de Jumandy. We took a taxi pickup truck and just rode in the truck bed which was a new experience for me and I rather enjoyed it. It took about 15 minutes to get there and cost $3 to enter and get a guide. Our guide was an indigenous man who was really nice. He lent us head lamps and led us through the caves and explained a lot of the things inside. We got in there and pretty much half the way we either had to wade or swim through a stream that was going through the cave. Our new Venus shoes came in real handy. There was also a small waterfall within the cave that we got to stand underneath. In addition to this, there were also some large huecos (holes) where the water got real deep. One we jumped off a ledge about ten feet above the water which was pretty fun. There were also some holes that were 1-3 meters deep but were only about 2 feet in diameter which we also went in to.

Our Venus shoes. I got black of course

View from the truck bed

La entrada (entrance)

Me popping up from the 3 meter deep, 2 foot wide hueco

Hanging out under the falls

Then we went down one of the brazos (arms) of the cave which was dry ground but had a much thinner passageway. A couple times throughout the cave we saw some big but skinny tarantulas, many crickets, and a couple bats. There were also a couple strange, colored rock formations that he called profundidades (I think). One was called the profundidad de coliflor  (cauliflower), another was la zanahoria (carrot), and the last one I don’t remember. There were also many stalactites and stalagmites as well. I hit my head on a couple which felt really REALLY good. We got to the end of the arm and turned off all the lights and it was probably the darkest dark I’ve been in (tied with Ape Caves of course). Here, he gave us some history of the caves. I couldn’t understand him very well so I sort of stopped listening but the main idea was that shamans used to use them for special rituals and I THINK there used to be gold in them and so clearly, once the Spanish arrived, they wanted it. We got to the end of the caves and got out and hiked back to the beginning. It took about an hour total to do the entire tour and I really enjoyed it.

Coliflor

Don't remember the name of this one

La zanahoria. Supposed to be good luck to kiss it? It is also known as something a little more PG-13 to R rated

I think I may have hit my head on one of those. Definitely hit my head a couple times at least.

This one went all the way from the ground to the ceiling...or vice versa?

Cool little ones on the ceiling

This guy was a little smaller than my hand

La salida (exit)

View on the way back

We went back to mi madre’s house for lunch and did some resting because we were tired for some reason. We had originally planned to hike to the waterfall that afternoon but some of us weren’t feeling all that well so we decided to do la playa de los monos instead. We took another cab ride about 20 minutes away to a town called Misahuallí which was on the bank of the conjunction of el río napo  and el río misahuallí. Next to this sandy beach, there were a bunch of trees that were FULL of monkeys. The monkeys were very tame and had no problem being around humans. They were always moving around and some played high in the trees, some played in the low trees that were at our head level, and some played on the ground. We got to go right up close to the monkeys and one of them decided to jump on Meghan’s head and try to steal her camera. We had heard beforehand that the monkeys were little ladrones (thieves) that liked to steal people’s things like drinks, wallets, cameras, and small trinkets that people carried around. There were several instances when a monkey tried to run up behind me and take my camera from my hand. After the monkey climbed on Meghan, we were all trying to use our cameras as bait for the monkeys to come close to us and climb on us. I final got one to climb on me but not for very long. There was a man who had a plastic bottle of juice stolen from him. The monkeys had some trouble getting it open and eventually dropped on the ground next to me. I picked it up and the monkey came and jumped on my arm and grabbed the bottle pretty hard. I didn’t want to let go for some reason and the monkey didn’t either so I was sort of swinging it around until it started to open its mouth and I got scared so I let the monkey win.

There was a baby monkey that we saw that stayed with its mother all the time on the ground. They would both sort of sit around and they let us get really close and I actually held the baby’s hand for about 10 seconds. Once the baby and mother would get tired of us, the baby would get on the mother’s back and they’d move to a new spot away from us. We spent an hour or so at the monkey beach just playing with the monkeys. There were also to little boys who had a fairly big snake (some sort of python I think) and were letting tourists take pictures with it for a dollar. Thankfully, I didn’t get anything stolen while we were there. One of the monkeys hopped on Meghan’s head and pulled out her hair tie and ran off with it. He put it around his neck for a bit then got bored with it and dropped it on the ground. Pato said that often times when monkeys steal cameras they try to take pictures with them. I think I would have like to see that.

Takin a ride

Some monkeys fighting/playing

Happy kid with snake

Trying to get him to mount me using the camera as bait

I made a friend with a baby!

Mounted!

Mama and baby

Conjunction of Río Napo (right) and Río Misahuallí (left)

Some lady had a birdy on the bus back to Puerto Napo

That night, we went and ate at a restaurant in Tena on the river which was pretty nice. It started raining REALLY hard while we were there so we decided to stay for over 2 hours until it let up a little. Then we walked up and down the main street in Tena looking for a place to hang out. We ended up getting some ice cream and playing cards until about 10pm when all the lights in that half of the city went out. We decided at that point, it was probably time to turn in. I took a cab home and only a couple blocks down the street there was still power. I asked mi madre about it the next day and she said it was fairly normal, especially because of the rain and thunderstorm.

The next morning the others met me at mi madre’s house and we took a 10 minute cab to the head of a trail that went to some waterfalls. A man named Humberto owned the place and led us a little way down the trail then left us with one of his sons to be our guide. His son was probably no older than 10 but knew a lot about the flora and fauna that we encountered. He went barefoot and in shorts but the rest of us went in pants and rented rubber boots. It took us about 30-40 minutes to get to the falls and along the way we saw a lot of green plants and trees as well as some armadillo tracks and an armadillo den. We got to the  (cascada) waterfall and saw several different types of butterflies including one that landed on Meghan and me. We got to do some swimming in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall which was nice because we were pretty toasty at that point. Mi madre told me that people often go to the waterfall and swim nude because it is thought of as a cleansing experience. The water goes along the earth for so long that it picks up a lot of good energy and when it comes down on your nude body it gets rid of all your bad energy and evil spirits. Of course, we all did it.

This hormiga (ant) is called a Conga. It is about 2 cm long and can kill a baby if it bites it. If it bites a full grown person, it can make them really sick for 2-3 days

Piscinas (pools) where we met up with our kid guide

This part was called the tobogan

Armadillo den

Armadillo tracks

I'm in the jungle!

La cascada

Butterfly on Meghan's wrist

Big tree at la entrada

This guy was almost as big as my palm

El Río Napo

After we got back, we ate a very interesting lunch. I’d wanted to try cuy (guinea pig) the whole time I’d been here because I heard it was sort of a delicacy. Apparently you can only find it in “lugares exclusivos” (exclusive places) and so I jumped on the opportunity of trying it in the jungle. It was marinated and roasted and actually tasted pretty similar to chicken to be honest. It didn’t have a whole lot of meat on it and the meat that it DID have was sort of tough to get to because there were so many bones but it was pretty good. The skin was rather tough and still had some guinea pig hair on it but also tasted pretty good. This was my second difficult eating experience of the weekend. After that, we had some crabs that Pato had bought live earlier that morning and cooked for us. They were about half the size of a large Dungeness crab and were about 4 times as hard to crack and eat. The shell was just about the same thickness but because they were so small, it was tough to get all the meat out. It took about a half hour to finish one crab. Third difficult eating experience of the weekend. After this we had to rush to leave because our taxi had arrived. We decided to take a taxi for the 4 hour ride back to Quito because if we took a bus it’d drop us off at the bus station which is about an hour away from our house. Mi madre said it’d be tough to get a taxi and that the taxi would probably cost $10 anyway. So instead of the $5 bus ride we took a $20 taxi ride that dropped us off at our houses. We were all thinking that $20 was super expensive but in reality, if we tried to taxi a taxi for 4 hours in the states that fee would be ridiculous haha. It’s expensive in Ecuador but probably worth it in the end because we can go straight to our door instead and don’t have to worry about getting robbed on the bus like Meghan did the week before. Oh! One more thing. Meghan got robbed AGAIN last week on the metro bus on the way to the museum. These buses are usually SUPER packed and people have to stand extremely close to each other to fit in. She noticed a guy standing pretty close to her and didn’t realize it at the time but he had actually put his hand in her open handbag and taken her coin purse (which she had bought the day before to replace her OTHER stolen one). Thankfully she didn’t have as much money in it as last time and only lost less than $15 but it still sucked. She’s just had an unlucky week. L

On that note, I think that’s everything of interest that I did in the last week. I’m SUPER pumped for this upcoming weekend because it is Carnaval (4 day festival) and we get next Monday and Tuesday off which means a 5 day weekend. It ALSO means that I’m going to the Galapagos Islands this weekend! I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say when I get back so until then, que vayan bien!