Quito and Cotopaxi (photos)

March 24, 2012.  Quito.

This is it, the final countdown.  Our plan had been to travel around and then stay in Quito for the last few days to shop and relax.  Well, we shopped but we didn’t relax, at least not today. 

We started our day at 8am (well, that’s when we got out of bed).  We had to get to the travel agency to get our stuff.  It was a bit urgent because my camera memory card is full.  It topped out at the River camp.  I had to use Val’s camera to delete some pictures (remember my camera’s LCD screen is smashed) so that I wouldn’t miss the chance for photos on our community visit.  I have a second card in my underwater camera but that was in my bag with Sonia.  So we stopped there, back to the hotel.  Dropped off laundry, had a Coffee Tree breakfast and then back to the hostel to mentally prepare ourselves for the Saturday Market. 

I am almost out of money so we stopped by the bank machine.  I took out $300 thinking that would last until we leave.  Ha.  It’s all gone.  Same for Val.  The market was great.  I knew some things that I wanted.  Mostly a sweater or two (plus one for Tanya, my only friend with the wherewithal to ask me to pick one up for her) and some alpaca blankets.  But it was a bloodbath (if money were blood).  Those tiny Ecuadorian women can sell anything, at least to me.  I was weak.  I was tired.  I bought and bought.  Jewellery, blankets, coffee, socks, sweaters, purses, gifts, I don’t even know what all. 

We ate some weird street food instead of break for lunch.  It was a bowl of popcorn, tomatoes, dried bananas, onions, dried corn kernels and sauce.  It sounds bizarre, it was bizarre but it was quite tasty.  I didn’t take any pictures at the market but I’m sure there will be some pictures posted of my awesome new stuff. 

When we went back to the laundry to pick up our clothes, there was another, small, actual artisan market there too.  I bought some onion marmalade.  It is delish, we had a lot of samples.  Then morning purchases dropped, laundry dropped, we went to the regular (open all days) market.  Val found some sweaters there.  Now with the many blankets and sweaters, Val is going to have to find a new bag for our flight home.  I didn’t buy as much (but I bought way more in the morning).  A couple of ceramic birds.  More coffee, chocolate.  A baby llama for Chris.

We had a menu del dia (I don’t even know what it was, meat stew of some sort) for $2.  I seriously don’t know how a small family restaurant can serve soup, a dinner, real juice and a dessert for $2.  We tip 50%.  We got back to the hostel at about 6:30, exhausted.  Val has been watching American Idol while I uploaded the last post and wrote this one.  It is not even 9 pm and I am going to crash.  I only got about 5 hours sleep last night.  Plus, we are on the third floor and I must have gone up and down those stairs 15 or more times today. 

Tomorrow, we are going on a day trip to Cotopaxi.  Pick up at 6:50 am.  So off to bed for me.  After Idol ends. 

March 25.  8:29 pm. Cotopaxi (back in Quito).

If there is a hell, my personal one is going to involve mountains with unstable soil. 

We got picked up late because the bus had a flat on the way to pick us up.  It was a long drive to the mountain, made even longer because we had to stop and get the tire repaired.  So, the plan was to go to Cotopaxi National park to the parking lot and hike up the Refugio (Refuge, basically base camp) then return to the bus and mountain bike down to a lagoon for pick up and home.  Who have I become that I even agreed to such a plan.

Our group was an interesting mix.  A Canadian girl, Diane, a Dutch girl, Rose, a couple of guys from Venezuela and some sundry others. We finally made it to the parking lot, after traveling 16 km from the highway over logging roads.  We started up and I was immediately out of breath.  We were at 4500 meters.  But I was convinced by Val and the guide that I could do it, despite my better judgement.  It didn’t look too far but it was steep.  Our guide, Juan Carlos, said it is only 300 meters.  What I didn’t figure out until the end of the day was that he wasn’t talking distance, he was using altitude.  So, it wasn’t 300 meters away, it was 300 meters higher than where we were starting. 

The way up was a straight shot up a dirt road.  How hard could that be?  Well, let me tell you:  it was brutal.  I think today was the same amount of energy expended as the Andean hike, just compressed into half the time.  The air was so thin.  The dirt on the road turned out to be loose sand and gravel.  It was so hard to walk on.  Imagine super soft beach sand, add rocks and make it a 40% grade.  Rose, the Venezuelans, and Val and I tailed the others.  Poor Rose, she was having a very hard time.  We kept thinking she was going to pass out and keel over.  She was weaving and staggering.   It took over an hour to get to the base camp.  The view was beautiful, but really it didn’t change much from the parking lot so the payoff wasn’t great.  This was another example of a day less about enjoying ourselves than about challenging ourselves. I just kept my eye on the goal, the Refugio.  It seemed so close but took so long to reach.

When we finally made it to the hut (actually a rather large building with a huge yellow roof), we went to the bathroom and listened to other hikers puke.  At least we didn’t throw up.  We were at over 4800 meters.  I was developing a nice deep hack, which I later learned is so common it has a name, the Cotopaxi Cough.   I couldn’t even chuckle without coughing up a lung.   And it was cold, 4 degrees.  I got to wear my new alpaca sweater (featured greatly in photos).   The fog kept rolling in and out, exposing the summit of the volcano, lovely glowing white. 

Cotapaxi: 

On the way up

The landscape on the way there



Our first view of the mountain



Our Van, with bikes on top



the parking lot for our ascent to the Refugio



Here we go, that's the trail in the background



The bottom, it doesn't look so bad here.  But doesn't it look cold?  That's because it was. 



So far so good.  That's Rose beside me.



The Argentinians on the right, our guide on the left.  Our usual view, looking up our group.



The view looking back.



Hard to see, but this is our first view of the Refugio. 



She looks like she is happily posing, but this was really an excuse to rest. 



Finally the clouds parted and we could see the summit.  Beautiful



 The Refugio

It looks so close but it was still 30 minutes (or more) away at this point.  Really! 



I made it!!

Proof



Val and Rose coming up behind.  Val stayed with Rose to make sure she didn't die. 



Inside.  Warm.  Sitting on real benches. 

We had a nice rest in the hut and then Juan Carlos suggested we should continue on for another 100 meters to the glacier. Still not getting the code of altitude vs distance, 100 meters seemed ok. And Juan Carlos said it was easier than the first part. Well, of course, by now you know what easy means here. It means: not easy. Granted, it wasn’t as steep but the path was covered in snow. Again, brutal. The same five straggled behind. We were pretty close but we came upon a bunch of rocks and Rose looked like she was going to die, so Val, I and Rose sat out the last 20 meters. I watched the others up above. While the rest of the group was above us, it was foggy, no view. Then they started to come back and they were all sliding down an icy rock. I was so glad to be on my rock seat. As it turned out, they didn’t make it to the glacier either.

 The next leg:  onward to the glacier.

It looks desolate, but it was very beautiful



I can't believe how much I am smiling, I could barely breath.  Maybe I was just happy to stop for a minute



The path.  Do you see a path?  I couldn't see a path.



Just follow the other hikers, that's the path.



I'm done.  I will wait on this rock until it is time to turn around or until I freeze on the spot.



Val too.

When they reached us again, we started back down.And the sun came out.Which made the snow very slippery.I fell down a couple of times. Plus, I was so tired, my legs were getting wobbly.We all had bought chocolate bars on the way up.I kept trying to remember to eat a bit of mine.It was hard to eat and really hard to drink water.One cool thing though.We saw a fox.He crossed our path a couple of times.Juan Carlos told us there was a family of three on the mountain.That was a nice bonus. Oh, another place with Condors that I didn’t see.We made it back to the Refugio and then headed down to the bus.It wasn’t as bad as up, but it was still super hard going down.My shoes were full of sand and rocks. I managed to stay upright though for the rest of the time on that horrible, crumbly, loose dirt road.

 The Fox

I finally made it back to the bus, where everyone was putting on their bike helmets.  The bike ride was supposed to be 12 kms, 9 or so downhill, the rest on level ground to the lagoon.  But, just as I was reaching the bus, a huge black cloud rolled in and massive booms of thunder started.  As the guide and the driver were taking down the bikes from the roof of the bus, it started to hail.  Big pelting hail.  Just standing there, it was biting against my face.  I looked down the hill and could see that it was raining at lower levels.  Nope, I was out.  Val folded when I did. 

To bike or not to bike

That's hail swirling around



Nope, not gonna happen



The rescue.  It was raining so hard, they all tried to huddle under that tiny roof.

More Cotapaxi pictures (as we drove away).

Wild horses live in the plains below the mountain



Notice the condor.  hmmph

But the rest of the group went forth.  Juan Carlos didn’t go.  Val asked him why not.  He said, of course not, it is raining.  We felt a bit wimpy.  But it was horrible out.  We stayed in the van to follow the bicyclists.  Then we had to pick up Rose on the way.  Then one of the Venezuelans.  As we were driving, the hail turned to rain and started to come down even harder.  The dips in the road were filling with water.  They were beyond puddles, I would call them ponds.  At about the half-way point, we came upon the rest of the group, huddled under a sign with a tiny roof.  They were drenched.  And miserable.  As soon as we opened the bus door, they all piled in and said we had made the right decision.  They were soaked through and freezing.  Val and I already were happy with not going, but now we were even happier not to be in their shoes.   One last girl, Laura, an Australian, had carried on alone to the lagoon but had to be rescued by strangers who drove her back to the bus.  We had to go and pick up her bike.  We found the bike being ridden by some Ecuadorian visitors to the lagoon.  Also, there was a new bird there, an Andean Gull. 

We were running very late.  We were supposed to go for lunch after the bike ride, around 3pm.  We finally arrived at the restaurant at 5:15. We were all ravenous.  All we had to eat all day was my chocolate bar and some sugar covered peanuts that Val had bought.  Chicken in BBQ sauce.  It was delicious.  Or not, we were so happy to have food, it wouldn’t have mattered. 

We reached our hostel around 7:30 and we watched the results show from last night’s American Idol.  That show is very addictive.  Now Val is watching a dance show.  And I am going to read a bit and hopefully finish my book.  I don’t want to bring The Onion Field home, it just isn’t that good. 

 March 26.  8:25 pm.  Quito.

It is our last full day today.  We needed to find Val a new bag because she had bought way too much to try to fit into her backpack.  We decided to start our day with a Coffee Tree coffee and continental breakfast.  But the coffee machine was broken.  We were so disappointed, we wandered around for about 15 minutes trying to figure out what to do.  It was kind of sad.  Eventually, we just went back and had tea with our breakfast.  TEA!!!   But we came up with a plan B.  Return to the Basilica coffee shop that we had visited on our first day in Quito (so long ago) and have another delicious mocha.  Plus, bonus, it is also a gift shop.  A few more things bought.  Oh, did I mention the stop at a bank machine to replenish the coffers. 

Then we slowly made our way toward Old town.  We just turned every time we saw a church spire, keeping our eye out for a place that might sell a huge suitcase.  We happened upon a market for locals, lots of plastics and kitchen gadgets.  But this market was particularly cool.  There was lots of metal work going on.  Men welding stuff.  And stalls with used clothes and shoes.  There were a few used bags but none were quite right.  But then we found it.  A giant duffle bag.  Pink and green stripes with only a couple of holes and a musty smell.  For cheap.  Perfect. 

A bit more shopping. I found a beautiful ceramic hummingbird that I loved so I bought it.  We ended our morning shop at a supermarket where we bought weird stuff because we are insane and have no concept of weight or space needed in luggage.  Then another visit to the tourist market in the afternoon where I bought a nice little gift for Kirsten and Tommy to try to thank them again for contributing to this computer.  I love having my little notebook, it makes the blog so much easier.  I can`t imagine traveling without it on future trips.

Anyway.  We had dinner at our Mexican restaurant again, fajitas with extra guacamole again.  It is like a revisit of our first day here.   Back in our room, we just tried a pre-pack.  My extra bag ripped open at the top.  There will be some duct tape involved in my luggage.  I have three bags.  One checked, one carry-on and one ridiculously huge ‘personal bag’ full of alpaca blankets. That counts as a purse, right? 

Our last day in Quito (my last four photos)

We went on Air Canada’s website this morning to see what our baggage allowance is.  As usual the info is clear as mud.  AC allows one checked bag up to 50lbs, plus the carry-on and personal bag.  An extra bag is $70.  But, if we start our trip with another carrier (we are, Avianca) they will determine our baggage allowance for the trip.  So we checked Avianca.  They allow TWO checked bags of up to 70lbs EACH!!  But, back at the AC website, they mention that if we have to recheck our bags, we might have to follow AC rules.  We do have to recheck our bags because we have to go through customs in Toronto.  But, for some reason, a second bag for domestic flights is only $20.  But will we be domestic or international at that point.  Ack. Air Canada (shake fist in air)!  It is just too confusing so we are just going with one checked bag each, although Val’s is gi-normous.  And I am saddled with two bulky carry-ons, neither of which has a functioning zipper (one is a grocery bag).   Those of you who get an alpaca blanket for Christmas better love it.

Medical updates:  Val's feet and legs are recovering nicely and peeling up disgustingly.  Tummy trouble overcome.  And her cough from the beginning of our visit is long gone.  My cough has diminished greatly since I descended from 5000m.  and finally, the radiant cat is alive and well back home.

I am going to post this now and then go to bed.  Next time you hear from me, I will be back in Victoria, enjoying sleeping in my own bed, with clean pajamas on, and two angry cats ignoring me to teach me a lesson about leaving them with Chris who ‘tortures’ them with attention and wet food (or so they will claim).

Thanks for reading this beast.  Pictures next week hopefully.

Cuyabeno River. Guacamayo Ecolodge (photos)

March 20, 2012.  6:38pm.  Cuyabeno River. Guacamayo Ecolodge.

Last night I posted while we waited for our laundry.  No problems there, it was ready on time and fresh and clean.  It was so nice to take a proper shower and put on clean dry clothes (even if the shower smelled like sewer).  Then we packed up what we hadn’t left with Sonia at the travel agency and headed to Esmeralda bus station.  Our overnight bus to Agro Lagrio was pretty swank.  Plush seats that reclined right back.     And I had even prepared a makeshift pillow but putting my shawl, my pyjama bottoms and my towel in a pillow case.  I was set.   As soon as the lights were out, so was I.  But the road was very windy and I swear it was gravel & dirt for much of the way.  Certainly, if it was paved, it wasn’t paved well.  So, it was much like being on the boat.  It was rocky and rolly.  Then to add insult to injury, it started to pour rain.  Not an issue, you assume since we were inside a bus.  But you are wrong, so wrong.  My window leaked and every time we took a left curve (often) an arch of water would spray off the window and into my face.  Refreshing. 

But we made it to the ugly oil town of Agro Lagrio at around 6am.  Our pick up for the camp was at 9:30 am at a hotel in the centre of town.  So we and all of the other tourists from the bus invaded the hotel’s restaurant and planted ourselves there for three and a half hours.  It’s ok, I spent $2.60. 

We got picked up with 6 other people who completely ignored us on the bus.  They all spoke French and never even threw us a glance.  I was thrilled to be a part of such an awesome group.   One woman seemed particularly off putting as she didn’t even speak to her own group.  But then, after more than an hour, her boyfriend turned to her and said (in English) “I just told them your name is Krista.”  So she was a lone English speaker in her group and they weren’t even speaking to her.  We cornered her by the bathrooms when the bus finally stopped.  I said that I noticed she spoke English and that I was glad we would have someone to speak to in our group.  She told us that the rest of them speak English too but that ‘they just don’t’.  This poor woman has been travelling with her boyfriend and his sister and brother in law and none of them speak to her in English.  She said this trip has been a nice way to learn to live internally.  So sad.  I can’t believe she hasn’t ditched the lot of them.  The other two Frenchies are not travelling with her crowd but the boys all got on like a house on fire and talked non-stop for the entire trip.  Anyway, we promised her we would speak to her in English that she can understand (she is American).

The bus ride took two hours before we reached the river.  Then we had a bit of lunch and got into a very long motorized canoe.  That was super cool. It was almost two hours to camp on the canoe.  Lots of birds.  We saw two new toucans today.  But the best one was later in the day, a Hoatzin.  Picture to follow but it is like a crazy forest tree chicken. 

This isn't our boat but it is basically the same.

Jungle



Anahinga

William, our guide on the first day.

More Jungle

Anyway.  As we were heading toward camp, the guide, William, handed out our rain ponchos and said it might rain.  Of course, two seconds later, it starts to pour.  We all whipped on our ponchos but it was raining so hard that the rain was coming in the neck and down the sides, soaking my shirt and pants.  It was pelting so hard, I had to put my face downward.  Fortunately, the ponchos were big enough to cover our small bags we were all carrying.  And they had tarped our big bags.  During the pelting rain, Val turns to me and said I had a cricket on my head.  When she tried to brush it off when the rain died down a bit.  But it just jumped to her head.  And then into her hood and onto her face.  I had to grab it off her eye at that point and flick it off the boat.  No stowaways allowed, at least not face crawling ones. 

The bug is in there somewhere, obscured by raindrops. 

There he is

It's raining. Or as William says "Welcome to the jungle".

Some Sights from our Canoe Trip to Camp

Anaconda

Monkeys jumping across the river

Aren't they cute?

Soon it stopped raining and we continued onto the camp (not that we stopped when it was raining, we actually sped up, but we were able to look at stuff again). We had our little debrief, water here, breakfast at 8, blah blah. Then we got our cabin. Toucan Hut. Two bunk beds (we both took the bottom) but they assure us that we get it to ourselves. And a private bathroom. But no roof. Just a steep thatched cover about 5 feet above the walls and 25 feet above the centre of the room. The cabin is perched on stilts over the river and the floor has spaces between the boards. So, as you can imagine, there are mosquitos. I am fully slathered in DEET again. But it is so much cooler here than Puerto Lopez so our nets will be fully used as well. The cabins are all connected by raised walkways. There is a communal dining area. There is a tarantula living in the thatch over our table. Really, it is as big as a robin. Fortunately, it didn’t move much.

Walkway from the dock to the cabins and dining room.  Our first view of Guacamayo Ecolodge.

view from the bird tower, our cabin is the one top centre.

View from our deck (notice the rain).

Our deck and hammock

Val enjoying the dining room hammock.

 We had a 90 minute break before our next outing so I had a little lie down.  I cannot tell you how excited I am to have a bed.  A real, full sized, not moving, no damp clothes in the corner, I can sit up in it, bed.  Hallelujah. (I am in it as I write this, can you tell?).

Our afternoon outing was to go to the fresh water lagoon for a swim.  Val is so pus ridden on her leg that she doesn’t dare swim in this brown water.  And I never want to wear wet clothes again unless there is a chance of a shark encounter, so I also declined.  But we both went along for the ride.  More birds. And an anaconda.  And four species of monkeys (in the morning and afternoon).  At one point, there were squirrel monkeys crossing the river by flinging themselves from one tree to the next on the other side right over our heads.  It was fun, there must have been 25 or more of them.  We all held our breath when the mothers with their tiny clinging babies went flying, but everyone made it, of course.  That particular couple of minutes was crazy.  There was another monkey species in the next tree and a toucan nearby.  I didn’t know where to look. 

When we got to the lagoon, it started to rain.  The lagoon is huge.  William told us during the dry season, it doesn’t even exist.  But when the rains start, it fills up in a matter of hours.  Our boat driver’s name is Jefferson.  He looks like he is 15.  When we got to the middle of the lagoon, there were some other boats.  William whipped off his shirt and jumped in.  I guess no dock.  Then Jefferson jumped in.  Two of the Frenchies took a quick dip.  I am guessing because they felt they should because they got right back in the canoe.  Then the whitey-tourists (us and the other boats) huddled under our ponchos and watched the Ecuadorian guides play in the water.  It was quite funny.   I was sitting there, wondering why I was sitting there, in the pouring rain.  Finally William got back in the canoe and I thought, excellent, let’s go back to camp.  But then we all watched Jefferson swim around and play with an inner tube for another 15 minutes.  I thought we were never going to leave.  There weren’t even any birds to look at.  Just other canoes full of tourists under ponchos watching their guides swim, and I imagine, also wondering why they were there.  Eventually William yelled at Jefferson that it was time to go.  Yay.  He got into the boat and started the engine.  We moved closer to the other canoes.  Then the engine turned off.  Val looked back and said “he’s back in the water” just as I saw him float by on the inner tube.  I laughed so hard I was crying (although hard to tell with all of the rain) it was so ridiculous.  I guess he really is just a 15 year old kid. 

Our first trip to the lagoon

Watching Jefferson play, I think we were wetter than him even though he was in the water.

Please, Dear God, let us go back to camp. 

Finally, finally we left the lagoon.   And happened upon Amazonian pink dolphins, who are currently gray, on our way back to camp.  Very cool.  No pictures.  They aren’t like the Sea World dolphins who jump up on the shore and pose for you.  These ones just skimmed the surface a bit, although Val saw a snout.  We met a guy from Montreal at dinner who said we have seen more in our one afternoon than he has seen in his four days.

The Hoatzin

(AKA Crazy Forest Chicken; AKA Stinky Turkey)

The coolest bird ever

Back to camp (uh oh, I see a recurring theme) where we had dinner.  Which I was able to eat.  Very exciting.  Val and I are going to switch groups.  The Frenchies are going with William and we are going with the English crowd tomorrow with another guide, a woman whose name I can’t remember.  Val and I are bad influences and have convinced Krista to come with us – come to the dark side, the English speaking dark side. 

Now I am in my glorious bed.  So, good night.  I plan to sleep tight.  Or at least sleep. 

March 21.  9:19 pm.  Cuyabena River.   Guacamayo Camp.

Oh, I slept and slept.  10 wonderful hours.  I don’t think I even moved.  (I am back in my bed fort now and still LOVE it).  And then for a while before breakfast I had a bit of a post sleep rest in my porch hammock and watched the monkeys run around in the trees overhead.  Have I mentioned that I like the jungle. 

We met our new group at breakfast.  I call them the super models.  There are two groups of three.  Two women and a man from England and Norway and two men and a woman from Scandinavia and South Africa.  All of the women are so beautiful, they literally could be models.  Two of the men are also very pretty. The third guy, the South African is odd and not beautiful.  We like this group.  They are all very funny although the odd guy (no one introduces themselves here?) took a bit of getting used to but now we see his dry dry humour. 

After breakfast, we went for a hike in the ‘Saladera’, the dry land.  We had to wear rubber boots.  As you can imagine, I was not too excited to go for a hike in rubber boots but I put in my orthotics and away we went.  As it turned out, the shoe wear was the least of my worries.  We took the canoe to the first dry land I have seen since we left the bus yesterday.  Our new guide, Sulema, is very good.  And speaks English, unlike William (although, we suspect William is a better spotter but not a better explainer).  She gave us lots of lessons on trees and bugs etc.  We only saw one new bird, a Screaming Piha.  It isn’t very pretty to look at but as the name implies, it screams so it moves up a notch or two on the interesting list.

Sulema

Val liked the bugs

We walked for an hour or so and the trail was a bit muddy but I was wondering why we were wearing the huge rubber boots.  But then we came to the low part of the ‘drylands’, a misnomer if ever there was one.  How do I describe the ‘swamp’ area.  Well, it was a swamp so I guess ‘swampy’ will do.  Lots of deep, standing, very muddy water.  With small tree trunks laid out in the water, usually fully or partially submerged, that you are supposed to use for walking.  Or in my case, for getting to the middle of the deepest bit and then falling in.  Yup.  Up to my waist in muddy water.  Val has a picture which I am sure will be as hilarious as it is unflattering.  We all had a good laugh.  I managed to keep my camera above water so no harm done.  Although my new pants were saturated.  And there were big mud clumps all over me.  A pair of undies and a tank top died for that little adventure.  But I saved the pants.  (The socks are on life support but I think I may just declare them dead and pull the plug in the morning). We had another half hour to walk back to the canoe.  That was squishy.  My backpack got a bit doused on the bottom too but nothing inside was affected so all is well.  And I pretty much destroyed the bench on the canoe as we travelled back to camp, and strangely, no one would sit with me. 

Here's me crossing a not-too-deep bit, just before I went in to the deep bit.

It is hard to see how filthy I am in this picture, but trust me, my pants were soaked through with mud.

Here are the super models swimming later that day (so you can see how beautiful they are)

Well, not everyone swam

Jefferson is his innertube again.



We stayed for the sunset

Back to camp where I took a shower and scrubbed my clothes.  Lunch and then a snooze in my hammock, followed by a nap in my bed.  It’s a hard life.  I actually got a bit of reading in too.  I think I only read two pages of my book on the Sulidae.  We also met a another resident of the dining hut, a boa constrictor.  Just a little one, but still.  Plus, the tarantula was on the move, running (slowly) along the rafters about 3 feet over our heads.  (At dinner, there was a frog too but we assume he will just be eaten by one of the resident predators so I didn’t get attached, but he was cute).

These are both TERRBLE pictures but it was dark

the Tarantula

The Boa Constrictor.

During this break, Val tended her legs.  I get to assist on all medical procedures performed on the porch.  Her right leg blistered up pretty good.  So, there has been some lancing with safety pins and then wrapping in gauze.  It is finally starting to look better.  The swelling has gone down and we can see that Val has an ankle again, so that must be good.  She is out of gauze now but the seeping has stopped, I think.  One of the flipper-ripped blisters on her foot is starting to look a bit infected but that will have to wait for Quito.  Plus, Val’s tummy is also not happy with her recent activities.  It started on the boat but hasn’t cleared up so Val is going to break down and take the Cypril tonight (Sp?  Antibiotics). 

At 4 in the afternoon, we went out on the canoe to look for wildlife and for another lagoon swim.  This time we saw lots of birds.  Of note:  Blue and Yellow Macaw (no picture) and a Tiger Heron (posing nicely so picture to follow).  And we saw another dolphin.  Then a bit of time at the lagoon.  This time it wasn’t raining (we were lucky today, it only rained while we were in camp for lunch) so it was more enjoyable to sit in the boat while Jefferson swam.  And some of the supermodels swam too.  We were there for the sunset which was unimpressive but nice.  After the sun set, we went Cayman hunting.  Caymans are crocodile things.  They hunt at night so it has to be dark-ish to find them. (But first we found a new Poutoo (long tailed).  I got a picture but it just looks like a stick.)  To find Caymans, you have to shine your light along the tree line to try to see them by their glowing eyes.  Unfortunately, no Caymans for us tonight. 

Some Birds

Other Critters

A squirrel monkey



A bad picture of a capuchin monkey

I can't remember what this one is, but it is black and very fluffy

The sloth, take my word since you can't actually see it.

tiny little bats

Sulema with her Piranha catch.

Dinner and bed.  Amen.

March 22.  10:36 pm.  Same place.

I am a bit drunk.  The Swedish/South African half of the super model troop brought their own rum to the camp so I had a few drinks after dinner.  Plus, I only have about 15 minutes left on my battery so I shall make this short and edit tomorrow. 

This morning, we went piranha fishing.  We didn’t catch anything but Sulema caught a lovely red piranha.  We were supposed to start our day at 6:30 am at the birding tower but it was raining.  we didn’t get going until after 10am.  We will try again tomorrow. 

In the afternoon we had our cultural portion of the Amazon.  We went to a local village and a woman made up Yucca bread which was very tasty with jam.  The kids were cute and I fed one of them bread (cassava) through the slats of our ‘meeting’ area.  We were basically penned in, not sure if to protect us from them or them from us.

The Village

The village dock with kids

All of the houses looked like this. 

Harvesting Yucca.

Cutting back the brush to find the tree with roots (those frond-y leaves are the yucca tree)

  

One of the strong young men pulling the roots out of the soft earth

The root, extracted.

then our lady used that huge knife to deftly remove the skin to get to the meaty interior

Peel off the skin

found, dug, peeled, ready for use (I am not going there).

 Then a Shaman dropped by to tell us his experiences.  Remind me to tell you about the British half of the super model troop going to the village tonight to take some sort of hallucinogenic drug with the Shaman.  It is supposed to induce visions and vomiting, not necessarily in that order.

Making Yucca Bread

First she cleans off the dirt (using dirty river water)

The fire heating up

Then she grates the roots (that big white thing to the right is a grater)

Then she smoothes the grated yucca into a woven wrap

then she twists it until every drop of liquid is extracted. 

then she breaks up the now powdery yucca into a flour like tecture.

Testingt the pan on the fire to make sure it is hot enough

Cooking the bread, it is like a big unrisen pancake

The finished product, ready for jam and eatin'

And sharing

waiting patiently for the rich tourists to leave a bite of leftovers

The Shaman

First he told us his story in the 'hut'

then a demo of healing outside.  It was getting dark so it is a bit blurry.

Back to the camp for dinner where we watched an epic showdown between the boa constrictor and the tarantula.  Well, it wasn’t that epic, they met at the corner over our table and then the spider sauntered away casually, as if he had already been thinking about going to the other side of the tent.  Then we all drank rum with two new people.  A New Zealander man and a South African woman (a couple) who work on yachts.  Also fun folks.  We are so glad not to be stuck with the Frenchies.  Poor Krista who ended up never coming with us on the English excursions.

Today we saw a sloth.  That was cool.  And more monkeys.  I tried to make a list of the monkey species we have seen but I can’t remember them all.  My computer is yelling at me.  No way to charge here.  Must go to sleep.  Rum is tiring.  

March 24.  7:08 pm.  Quito.

Yesterday was spent on the bus so I am posting a day late.  But first I should go back a bit and finish up the jungle adventure since I wasn’t too descriptive on Thursday. 

We finally found a cayman.  Quite the let down.  Just glowing eyes at the edge of the river.  Yawn.  It was quite far back to camp from the village and poor Jefferson had to bring us back in the pitch black of night.  He borrowed Val’s headlamp.  Which was fine, except then we could see all of the bugs that were whipping into our faces.  Now I know what it feels like to be the grill of a moving car on a Saskatchewan road at night.  Everyone kept blowing their noses to get the bugs out.  I must have gotten a dozen in my eyes and I was wearing my glasses. 

A quick recap of the English/Norwegians who went back to the village to experience taking the hallucinogenic drug with the Shaman.  They came back the next morning looking pretty rough.  Apparently the guy, Steve, had a very frightening experience and was convulsing for the first hour.  He could see demons pulling him toward hell.  The Shaman had to step in and wave leaves over him.  Which, Steve claims, worked.  The Norwegian girl, Carolina, saw a woman spirit over him protecting him.  They all say they had an amazing experience.  You couldn’t pay me to try that. 

The next morning, some of us met at 6:30 am on the bird tower.  No rain so it was great.  Lots of birds.  I was the only birder so the rest of them just wanted to see the same species of toucan over and over.  But I saw a new Trogon.  And the best bird in the world.  The Scarlett Macaw.  (Guacamayo, the name of the lodge is the Scarlett Macaw in Spanish).  We see them in pictures and movies and in pet stores.  But to see that magnificent bird flying over our camp was truly awesome.

Breakfast, a quick pack and then into the canoe to meet the bus back to Agro Lagrio.  Then onto the eight hour bus to Quito.  This time we took it during the daylight (the first four hours).  It was a bit terrifying.  Much of the road was gravel/dirt.  The curves were sharp and the drop offs steep.  At one point, we were on two tires, bounced to the other two before we stabilized.  Even the Ecuadorians looked a bit worried at that point.  Eight hours is too long on a bus.  Once we reached Quito, confusion reigned.  It turned out we were going to the south bus station which is an hour cab ride back to town.  But by the time we figured out what was happening, the area we were in was too sketchy to get off, so we went right to the bitter end.  We figured the cab would be no problem since it was now 11pm and the traffic was light. 

So, once we got off the bus, we found the taxi cue and jumped in the first one.  We were in and our bags in the truck when the driver tells us he will have to charge us $15 because of the heavy traffic.  We said no, but before we could get out, he yelled $12 at us and drove away from the curb.  So we were stuck.  But Val told him we would not pay $12.  The traffic was so light that what had taken over an hour previously took 25 minutes.  But what a long 25 minutes.  The cab driver turned out to be completely crazy.  Val’s professional opinion: drugs.  He ranted at us the whole time about the traffic and how heavy it is.  It was bizarre.  And a bit scary.   We finally reached our new hostel, Queen’s Hostal or Hostal de la Reina, depending of which sign you look at.

This is already too long so I will put today’s excitement on the next post. 

BTW, checked online today and see that the Air Canada strike has been quashed.  So, I guess back to work next week.  I know we are leaving soon because thoughts of work keep creeping into my brain.  For the first three and a half weeks, I forgot I had a job.

A second BTW.  I had hoped to get my pictures posted before I got back but the Wifi at this hotel is pretty weak.  It doesn't work in the room so I am sitting in the hall to post this.  so, pictures when I get back.