I’ve Got the Amazon Twitch

Saturday we got up for breakfast at 8 which was coffee, juice, bread, cheese and an egg. After breakfast we went to get ready for the day’s activities. Half of the group was going on a hike while the other half went tubing then we switched. I was in the hiking group so I put on my red rain poncho and rubber boots they loaned us and I was ready! We all took pictures in our ponchos because we looked so ridiculous.

Unfortunately our ‘hike’ was really just a walk down the main road we came in on. We saw a really sweet spider- spotted by yours truly- and learned a little about plants. Then we came to the school we had passed on the way in and saw how lacking it was. It was kind of sad. From there we went into someone’s house for some cultural demonstrations. The house was very bare and not very weather proof.

Our tour guide told us all about the customs of the area regarding cooking and we ‘helped’ make chicha- a traditional drink made in this region of yucca. They had some piece of boiled yucca that a girl put in this giant wooden bowl and she started mashing it with a big pestle. Then we got to try while the guide took our picture. When I tried to do it left handed he yelled at me! We tried the chicha- not the one we made- and some tea which was pretty good. Then a guy came in a played the violin for us. When he finished we were allowed to try playing it too but none of us could. We also tried to play this seashell and I was the only one that could get any sound out of it. I knew there was a reason I stuck with trumpet all those years! 

From the house we continued on the road back across the scary bridge- which is much more nerve-wracking on foot- and ended up at this building with a big covered patio where we got ready to go tubing. I don’t know where but I thought I heard that we shouldn’t wear shoes unless they for sure wouldn’t come off in the water. Since I only had my flip flops I just left them and went shoeless. Was that ever a bad idea. We kept walking on gravel and rocks- it was so annoying!

We took trucks back up to where we started, got our helmets, lifejackets and tubes and we walked down to the beach to get started. Our guide, Octavio, and his sidekick Cosme, were going to guide us down the river. I assumed that tubing would be like going down a lazy river. Unfortunately this river was far from lazy. We had to lie on our stomachs and use our arms to navigate the rapids. We were told not to push off from rocks but try to swim so you go around them. That was much easier said than done. Where ever the river wanted you to go, you went. No matter what I did I could almost never steer myself.

One of the very first rapids I went over had a log running across my path at the bottom so I got stuck. Two other people had ended up going that way in front of me but by the time I realized what happened I couldn’t do anything. Octavio was holding up the log- it was more like a branch I guess- so I could go under it but I didn’t quite fit. My big head- or my helmet, whatever- was stuck on the branch and I couldn’t get free. By this time I was turned around, facing backwards, and my face was being pushed by the branch into the oncoming current. I felt like I was going to drown if he let that branch go. Eventually with one little heave the log relinquished its hold and I was free to spiral directly into another log. This time I wasn’t wedged underneath it so I could much more easily extricate myself from its grasp.

 

For the most part tubing was fun. I got really frustrated when I was trying so hard to swim in one direction only to float down in the opposite one. I also kept getting stuck on rocks that were just under the surface. I would be stuck like a beached whale on my tube and Cosme would come dislodge me. Finally he asked ‘que le pasa?’ what is happening to you? I just told him I didn’t know!

We would stop and collect the group at the still waters but at one they jumped off a cliff. There were a bunch of little town kids swimming in this area when we pulled up our tubes to the sand bar. I was one of the last in line so I was last up to the cliff. As soon as I got up there I started having a panic attack. I was shaking and hyperventilating a little and even started crying. There was no way I was jumping off that cliff- I had to go back down immediately. So I sat on the sandbar freaking out and watching everyone try and fail to kill themselves.

Christina was up on the cliff for about 20 minutes trying to gather the stupidity to jump but she never did. They all tried to coax her down- Chris yelled “Venga! Venga! Sigue no más,” like guys on the buses, but she still wouldn’t go. Finally she walked down the hill and we finished the second half of the trip. There was a cave that looked cool but I was afraid that my exhausted arms wouldn’t allow me to get out so I just hung around outside.

The very end of the trip was on land, if you can call it that. We had to carry our tubes on the shore which was just rocks for a long time. I had no shoes so I let one of the guides carry my tube. There was no way I was carrying that thing. By then I was exhausted and really frustrated. Then we made it back to the patio building and we had lunch. They gave us plantain soup and a whole fish with rice, beans and yucca. It was pretty good but the fish was hard to eat because of the skin and bones.

After lunch we went back to the hostel and me and the roomies took a 3 hour nap. It was delightful. Not too long after we woke up we had dinner. This time we got shrimp skewers for an appetizer and goulash for dinner. It also came with potatoes and peas. Dessert was this strange fruit with slimy grey seeds called Granadilla (I have too many pictures already but see it here), as well as a fruit salad. After dinner we talked and then played cards at the table. We played Go Fish and Fantan. It really brought me back.

Then we went to Danielle and Chris’ room to play more cards and then just talk for a while. We stayed up pretty late and when Bianca and I got back to the room we were surprised to see the others were asleep, including Kevin, lol.

Emily and the cocoa fruit

Sunday we had breakfast again at 8 and it was the same except they asked if we wanted ‘salchichas’ with our eggs. Salchichas are basically hot dogs but they tend to eat them at breakfast. They were pretty good. After breakfast we waited around a while till we could make chocolate! Near our cabin, down closer to the river, was this little hut where they had started a fire in the fire pit. We roasted the dried cocoa beans, hulled them and then ground them twice. The first grind looked like coffee grounds, but the second one ended up being kind of liquidy.

Then we took the paste and cooked it down with some milk and sugar. And then voila! Chocolate! It was a really thick dark chocolate sauce you had to eat with a spoon. We shared a plate between two people and I was really wanting some strawberries to eat with it!

After said deliciousness some of us opted to go on a real hike, not the walk we did the day before. We got ready and headed out past the pool and into the ‘jungle.’ First we stopped at some cocoa plants and tried the fruit. The bean is surrounded by this milky-white goo. It looks and sounds gross but it tasted really good- as long as you don’t bite the bean, which I did at first. If you just kind of suck on the bean the white part kind of tastes like watermelon but more tart. 

Our hike was also led by Octavio who told us a lot about the plants we saw. He explained the medicinal properties of some vines- good for snake bites- and other interesting tidbits. Near the end he told us to walk down the path some, stop and stay facing that direction. We did for about 5 minutes until he told us we could look and Emily L, Kevin and a USFQ student ‘guide’ who is from the Napo region, had leaf headdresses! The boys had big leaf hats and Emily had a similar headdress to the one the violin player had- just made out of leaves- and they all had a red flower in their mouths that looked like big red lips. It was funny but ridiculous too.

The hike was fairly strenuous because we had to go fast so we could eat and check out on time. At the very end we went to this greenhouse where there are poison dart frogs. Octavio grabbed two out to show us. They were so cute! One was red, yellow and blue so it’s called an Ecuador frog. 

After the hike we went for a quick swim before lunch. It was really nice. Lunch was rumored to be tacos but when they brought out the salad, cucumber salad, beet salad and tuna salad I was wondering where the taco stuff was. Then they brought out the tortillas and people made wraps with the salads. I felt that was taco sacrilege so I just ate the parts separately. After our faux tacos we packed up and got ready to leave. First though we had to merchandize. A bunch of us bought Hakuna Matata t-shirts which were really cute. It was kind of a hassle and Alex tried to buy mine but it was worth it.

Finally it was time to leave. We piled into the ‘taxis’ again and headed back to the bus. Danielle, Chris and Emily L stood up for part of the taxi ride for a more extrem ride. Then we took some pictures on the bridge and got on the hellishly hot bus. Eventually we opened all the windows and the vents and it was as cool as it was going to get in there. After a nap, Danielle and I shared headphones again.

At our bathroom stop the bathroom was the worst I’ve seen. The toilet was just kind of running and there was no flush button/lever, just a wire sticking out of the tank. Plus there was no water in the sink. During the break we broke out the leftover food and I was very happy to have another two spoonfuls of peanut butter with nutella.

The bus ride home took a lot longer than to get there- at least it seemed like it did. By the time we got back it was dark. At the university we called two taxis, one for Cumbaya and one for Quito. When I got home I just had tea and bread for dinner and it was perfect.

Hasta luego,

Caitlin