First Missive
I’ve now been in Ecuador for about 11 days. The first 2 were spent in Quito trying to acclimatize and feeling generally icky before being invited on an eight-day tour into the Rainforest by an Aussie couple and an English couple. I hadn’t even begun to look round Quito, but how could I resist? Quito could wait!
The Rainforest is amazing. We were off motor-canoeing up the Rio Napo, close to the Peruvian border. It started with a 10 hour bus ride over the mountains from Quito to Coca in the east. The bus was a death trap with bald tyres and smoke pouring from the brake pads. The driver took a sinister glee in overtaking large oil tankers whilst going round corners. Luckily the scenery was awesome and helped take my mind off near certain death. Occasionally, people would come onto the bus to sell things to the captive audience. (You can escape these offers of food and trinkets by pretending to be asleep!)
We got to Coca and spent the night in a hostel. The evening was spent at a cafe over the road which sold, exclusively, beer and chicken and chips. This was fine, especially as we didn’t want to stray far from the hostel. The following day meant a further 2 hour bus ride to the river where we transferred to boat for a 4 hour paddle to the first camp where we were spoiled with wooden huts, flushable toilets and cold showers. After that we found ourselves under tarpaulin and mozzie nets in the middle of nowhere giving everyone ample time to enjoy a bout of 24 hour gut rot. We were in the middle of the rainforest and the main thing on everyone’s mind was protecting their bog roll ration.
On a happier note we saw spider monkeys, tamarinds and caymans (little crocs) which we ate. We also caught and ate piranhas, toucans, macaws, and a coral snake (quite deadly – although only before you kill and cook it obviously). By way of balance, I got eaten by everything from spiders to sandflies; I’m very itchy at the mo. Some of my bites have swollen to quite a size and my knees managed to get sun-burnt on even the most overcast days. It rained lots (well duh!); we got wet through - there was blood, sweat and tears and I honked like a local by the time I got back. We did get to swim in the river which became our bath and washing machine for 5 days. Yeah it was ace.
We took the night bus back to Quito from Coca. In Ecuador you have to keep your passport with you at all times as there are random police checks. We were subjected to 3 checks on the way. Everyone off the bus, passports checked plus bags. I felt sorry for the people who checked my bag - jungle clothes stink. I was glad to get back to the hostel and have a hot shower.
So we’re back in Quito now and are now swapping photos and burning them onto CDs and trying to re-acclimatize. I’m glad the others had dig-cams as my film camera got slightly soggy on the first day and didn’t work for a while. I don’t think I could’ve got any really decent photos of monkeys up trees anyway. However, I’ve nursed it back to health and it seems to be working fine now - I have a particularly good pic of a yellow and blue Macaw. Since being in the Rainforest the Pope has been buried and I’ve missed the civil upraising in Quito when a minority of the population tried to over throw the government. Will keep you posted. I start my conservation project at the end of the month and I’ll be staying around Quito until then.
Hugs Jen xx
