Life in the Amazon

After the long bus ride into Teña, a town on the outskirts of the Amazon jungle, we all swung by the store for supplies (gifts for the children we were going to meet, rum and flashlight batteries for us) then got picked up in trucks and taken into the jungle. Right as we were hiking up the path to the houses the sky let go and it started raining with thunder and lightening- pretty crazy to experience in the jungle. The family was waiting for us with lemonade and their little girl even carried Lisa's day bag up the hill, she was so cute. We dropped of our bags in our cute little cabañas which are little thatch roof huts with beds (mosquito nets included) and a candle because they don't have electricity and then headed for dinner. All our meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday) were home cooked traditional, local food by the family we stayed with. Each meal was more delicious than the last and we all agreed it was the best food we've had since we got to South America. The first night was Tilapia fish which is now commonly found in the Amazon after being introduced from Africa 30 years ago. Each meal had a new kind of local tea to try and lunch and dinner always had a different type of soup to start with. Everywhere in Ecuador meals are served with Ahi which is a homemade salsa that is delicious!

The family we stayed with is part of the Quichiua tribe, one of the five main tribes in the Amazon. The sound of the jungle at night is incredible. It sounds exactly like the sound tracks you buy to help you fall asleep at night. There are birds, frogs, and insects chirping with the sound of fronds blowing and water rippling. It goes on all night long!

The sound of the Amazon in the morning is a little different. The family's roosters start crowing at about 4:00am and they do not stop until after breakfast! Not as pleasant as the night sounds.

Our first full day in the Amazon we spent hiking. In the morning we followed a creek bed and hiked up a series of waterfalls. Before we left each of us had our face painted with a traditional Quichiua symbol using dye from the inside of a seed. Courtney had mountains that represented where all the spirits live and Lisa had a medicine bag. We also each got a traditional woven headband to wear. Hiking in the Amazon was a very cool experience. It smells very unique. Really moist and earthy (sort of like pine mushrooms) and fruity all at the same time. A very rich and pleasant smell, especially after it rains. Unfortunately none of the pictures we took really captures how impressive the jungle is with the extent of the different types of plants and the height of the trees because everything is the same vibrant green! Some of the waterfalls we had to climb up with ropes which was an added adventure. We stopped halfway up to stand under a waterfall (bikinis and gumboots - we're going to make it a new fashion) and at the top of the hike went swimming in the small pool with a waterfall cascading into it. Along the way we saw butterflies (one type is a very neon blue and is the size of a small bird but they were too fast to get on camera flying - the picture is of one with its wings closed), grasshoppers and treefrogs! Lisa was ecstatic about that as seeing a treefrog in the Amazon has been on the bucketlist since about grade five. On the way back down we both decided to rappel the largest waterfall without the safety harness just holding the rope which was pretty thrilling!

After lunch we hiked to a viewpoint of the Amazon. It looked like a scene out of National Geographic. All around us (including the morning hike and in our camp) was primary rainforest as far as you can see. It was really neat to see the canopy trees and all the smaller ones beneath. We found a lemon tree along the way which is not named for its fruit since it doesn't have lemons but for the edible ants that live on it. They actually taste like lemon, we all ate a few. On the first hike Lisa got to experience another type of ant - the fire ant! It really does feel like your arm is on fire when you get bit! We also saw a "6 o'clock" cicada and just like our guide said at 6:05 back at camp we heard the cicadas start to sound. After the hike to the viewpoint we stopped and gave our selves clay facials from a creek bed. Apparently our five minute treatment would cost $75 in a North American spa once they import the clay there! Our skin is now nice and smooth ;)

That night we had a cultural session put on for us by the family. It was really interesting! They showed us some traditional songs and dances and we all had a chance to try playing their handmade instruments. There was also a short shaman ritual to restore balance and harmony to an individual which was very relaxing. We got "Siepte Essences" to rub on our faces. It is an infusion of seven flowers that relaxes you while you sleep. We also got taught about a traditional wedding- oh yeah everyone Courtney's now married ;) The whole evening was very interesting and we felt privileged we got to learn more about their culture.

On our second, and sadly last, day in the Amazon we went white water rafting with two other group members. Rafting in the Amazon was an absolutely incredible once in a lifetime experience. We were literally travelling by river through the Amazon jungle, through untouched rainforest, all day with noone else around!! We saw a flock of parrots during the day which was also really cool. The scenery was amazing, lots of smaller waterfalls and overhanging cliffs with vines and other plants cascading over. However we couldn't just look around us the whole time because the rafting was hard work! All four of us decided we wanted to do the higher skill level of rafting (bigger, higher and longer rapids) and we were glad we did. There were just the four of us in our raft with our guide Tim who was very friendly and we all got along great. We all joked around all day and spent a large part of the day laughing and pushing each other into the river and stuff- a hoot! The rapids were huge! Much bigger than we were expecting, but also much funner! A lot of the rapids have only one "line" or path through them for the raft that you can take or else you will flip the boat. So when Tim told us to paddle hard, we did!! At the beginning we did not hit the right line (it took us a while to coordinate paddling between the four of us) so we got stuck in a "washing machine" rapid - it spins you around in a circle. When that happens you have to jump to the high side of the boat which is constantly changing as you spin around. Somehow we managed not to flip and made it out, which we kept up the rest of the day. The other boat with us flipped twice. Not something we wanted to try! It poured (really, really poured) for a lot of the day so the guides were a bit nervous when we got to the canyon we had to portage. We hiked through the jungle, more like bushwhacked since there wasn't a trail, which was difficult because our guide told us to "not touch anything because you'll get stung by lots of bees"... thankfully no one got stung! At the end we had to rappel down a rock face (in a harness this time) and then clamber over some smooth and slippery rocks (without a harness) while watching the raging river below. It was a little scary! Tim had told us that when it rains as hard as it was that in as little as half an hour the river can flash flood in the canyon we were at since right above it five rivers meet. So we were a little nervous sitting at the bottom waiting to go as the river got higher! Everything turned out okay though, the rain slowed and no flash flood. Right after the canyon we had to make it through "Paranoia", the hardest rapid of the trip. We watched the other boat go first and flip but we managed to make it through (yay we rock!) We stopped at a beach for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed the soggy burritos, pineapple and chocolate cake - it had started back up raining by this point. We also went for a little swim. One of many throughout the day. during the calm spots between rapids we would jump out of the raft and swim. Swimming in the Amazon! It still sounds crazy even after we have done it. Near the end of the day Tim asked us if we wanted to try floating through a rapid section not in the boat. So of course we all had to try it! It was quite scary- We had to swim out to the middle of the river and line up with the centre of the rapids. We got sucked under twice but you pop back up quickly. It was really cool and we were all glad we tried it. We also went "surfing" on a washing machine rapid near the end which was really fun. We purposely got ourselves stuck in the circle and then tried to stay in jumping from side to side for as long as we could. Really fun!

After the guide and a driver drove us back to our home stay and we were all having so much fun still that he stayed for a drink (or two, or...) We went into to Teña to small a bar/pool hall and had a few drinks and a fun time. When we got back to the camp there was a HUGE storm. They call them electric storms here. There was thunder and lightning and a torrential downpour all night. The thunder was so loud it sounded like a bomb going off in our cabana! It was a little hard to sleep through. We've never been in a storm that loud!

Early the next morning, after no sleep, we were off on the bus to Banos. More on that to come!

Being in the Amazon was so much more than either of us could have imagined. It's both a surreal and magical place that neither of us will ever forget.

Picture 1 - Viewpoint from the afternoon hike
Picture 2 - where we had lunch on our rafting tour
Picture 3 - being silly on our waterfall hike
Picture 4 - tree frog!!
Picture 5 - Hannah and Court getting a clay facial
Picture 6 - butterfly
Picture 7 - our Cabana
Picture 8 - a Tarantula at our camp about 15cm long (they like to dig holes and come out at night)
Picture 9 - the view from the deck of our cabana
Picture 10 - viewpoint from the afternoon hike
Picture 11 - Hannah, Alice, Jenny, Court & Lisa with our face paint and headband
Picture 12 - Lisa rappelling down a waterfall
Picture 13 - viewpoint from the afternoon hike

We can't change the order of the photos on the blog...apologies for the random order!