Amazonia and leaving Ecuador

After a few action packed days in Baños, we headed further East….into to Amazon Rainforest. We planned to spend 4 days and 3 nights at an eco-lodge (a habitat that uses sustainable building and operational practices) which can only be reached by boat. It took two bus rides to get to the canoe drop off. Kyle had learned his lesson about using the bathrooms on Ecuador busses, so he waited for a stopping point to go on this one. At the bus stop, he got off to go but, unfortunately, the restrooms were closed down for service. he was pointed to a restaurant a block away where, for $0.25, he was able to go back into a family's house and pee (while the family watched TV just outside the door). He sprinted back to the bus, which was no parked a little farther up (it had started to drive away before Nicole shouted for it to stop). It was smooth sailing after this and we reached the canoe location with few other issues (besides a confusing transition between busses in the town of Puyo).

We loaded our bags into the canoe and headed down Rio Arajuno, which is a tributary (of a tributary) to the actual Amazon river (that counts for something, right?). After a quick check-in, we learned we were the only people staying at the lodge that night. We were shown to our bamboo hut and had a bit of time to settle in and explore before dinner. Our hut was spacious, but had no electricity (they gave us candles) and now glass on the windows. It was more of a screened-in sunroom than a hut, really. As there were no restaurants or grocery stores nearby, all meals were included with the lodging and they were BIG. I mean, 3 course meals that were bigger than what we were used to eating in an entire day on our budget-friendly trip. The soup/radish salad was first, followed by a full plate of beef, rice, and vegetables, followed by dessert. We were both so full that we had a hard time sleeping the first night! Well, maybe it was the food in combination with the bugs.... While we had a mosquito net ,we both still managed to get bitten by no less than 100 bugs/mosquito that first night. Welcome to the rainforest!

We woke up our first full day to an enormous breakfast, followed by our first jungle hike (much needed to burn off those meals) - in which we learned about many of the plants and their uses in the rainforest. We ended at a viewpoint overlooking the Arajuno River and where it connected to the Napo River. We were also able to see far enough to view the closest town. We hiked down to the river and were actually given some old tire tubes tubes that we floated back down the river home on. Now, if you are anything like us, your first fear when getting on the murky waters might be “Is a piranha or anaconda going to eat me?”. While anacondas are in the area, there were none near our part of the river in recent years and no piranhas to be heard of so we jumped in and enjoyed the float. Seeing the birds, monkeys, and vegetation along the river as we floated was incredible, along with catching a few small rapids.

We had a little break and relaxed before another massive meal for lunch. At this point we were wondering if they were trying to torture us as we were absolutely bursting at the seams. But we waddled ourselves down to the river and took the canoe to Anaconda Island. Here, we visited a typical Amazonian Kichwa household where they prepared chicha for us to drink (a fermented palm drink, which reminded us of a kombucha mixed with a beer?) and shared a bit about how the Kichwa people live now vs. in the past. There were nine families that lived on Anaconda Island. It derived its name from the anacondas that use to live there before it was settled - at which point explosives were used to get rid of the anacondas. While it succeeded in scaring them to another part of the river, it created a lagoon in the middle of the island which now has a population of caiman that the families protect from hunters. They proudly shared how the have three generations of caiman still living in the lagoon and pointed out both the oldest and some of the babies.

We relaxed in the evening, enjoying the darkness settling in over the jungle, and shortly after dinner (yes, it was another big meal) went on a nighttime jungle walk. We found frogs, spiders, and more types of insects than we can name. As many creatures in the rainforest are nocturnal, our guide told us we would always see the forest come alive at night. That night, the rain started pouring down and it continued through to the next morning, where we had yet another jungle walk scheduled. We tried our best not to complain as we know it's called the "rainforest" for a reason. After a wet and very muddy morning, we spend the afternoon enjoying nature and catching up on a few planning things.

On our last morning, we woke up wet, stuffed from the food, and covered in bug bites - but we still weren't ready to call it quits. We asked if, before we canoed back to the bus stop, if we could do a balsa-wood raft excursion down the river. We spent time constructing the raft (okay, no lie, our guide did most of the building) and were given a couple of paddles and off we went. Balsa wood is very expensive back home, but it is a common building material in the area. It is ridiculously light, and makes for a great, buoyant floating device. After rafting we had just enough time for a quick shower before catching an afternoon bus back to civilization in Quito.

Our time in Quito was significantly drier - drier than both the Amazon AND our previous time spent in Quito. We did some laundry and wandered around the city a bit. For lunch Kyle ordered an Ecuadorian specialty - Cuy- which is actually Guinea pig. As Carnival was just finishing up - there was still plenty of festivities on the streets. You’d commonly see teenagers with giant bottles of spray foam spraying it in peoples faces, paint being thrown and smeared all over, and water guns and water balloons (our bus actually got hit by a few on the drive back to Quito). Fortunately, we had a great view for it as Kyle was getting a haircut at a barber right in the midst of festivities. We walked home through a bit of the chaos and had an amazing pizza for dinner, before heading back to the hostel to nap on the beanbags in the common area for a few hours. As we were heading to the airport at 1 am we had opted not to book a room (a helpful money saving technique as many hostels still allow you to use public areas after checkout). Between this and the airport - we were able to catch a few ZZZs before taking off on our next flight to São Paulo, Brazil. While saying goodbye to Ecuador was bittersweet, we felt as if we got many of the major highlights of the country and left with a good impression and feeling of accomplishment.

Additional Ecuador notes:

• You can find "gold" dollars and half dollars everywhere here! Like we mentioned, the USD is the official currency. In order to not have to order more bills from the US, Ecuadorians use the more durable coins.

• Chocolate is EVERYWHERE. They make awesome dark chocolate down here, but not so much milk chocolate.

• The machete is the unofficial national tool of Ecuador. They use it for almost every outdoor task including: weeding, digging holes, mowing, cutting down vegetation, opening fruit and coconuts, etc. Some Ecuadorians even joke that they shave with machetes...we think it might not actually be a joke.
  

Levi's shirt count: In the Amazon we only saw one guy standing along the road that was wearing a shirt, otherwise we mostly just saw animals! In Quito we saw a few more. New count: 337.