Life's a Stitch

The Adventure Continúes: the Amazon Rain Forest

The bus arrived at sunset, dropping us off at a dock in Tena to board our long motorized river canoes. Upon arrival at Itamandi Eco Lodge we were greeted with tea for our orientation session. I didn’t question the guayusa tea, but looking back I get it. They served  us a heavily caffeinated drink to ensure we had energy to get through the dinner and late night jungle insect walk. 

After dinner we donned our provided Wellies (rubber boots) and set out in the dark, guided by Octavio, for our rain forest adventure. There were plenty of insects including tarantulas and a huge stick bug as one fellow traveller described as looking more like a stick than a stick itself.

The next day, C and I and three others accompanied Octavio on a boat trip a half hour down the river.

We arrived at his native Kichwa community where they live off grid, depending on nature as they’ve done for hundreds of years. We participated in a cooking demonstration and joined them eating delicacies such as giant Amazon grubs and prehistoric catfish. Dessert was chocolate fondue made from their cocoa beans.

Our visit ended with dancing and an opportunity to buy handicrafts made by the local women.

Covered head to toe, protected from biting insects, the afternoon activity was a hike through the rainforest. The highlight was seeing a family of tiny pocket monkeys swinging through the trees.

Our trip was a package tour, but I saw the very reasonable price for a stay at the lodge (under $100US pp per day), including decent plated meals, river transportation, and some activities. I’d highly recommend it as part of a trip to Ecuador.

Leaving the rain forest, our group’s farewell picture.

Ecuador

Ecuador will be divided into three: Quito, the Amazon rain forest, and the Galapagos. Every new destination gets better and better. Participating in an organized tour can have its challenges. Thankfully this trip has gone very smoothly. Today, however, our included breakfast wasn't provided due to an early flight. The hotels will usually open the dining room early or provide a boxed brekkie, but not today. Instead we hit McDonalds at the airport. You can laugh, but I find MacD's brekkie a form of comfort food, so it wasn't all that bad.

The other glitch today involved the scheduling of flights. Instead of a direct flight from Buenos Aires to Quito, Ecuador, we overshot it and flew first to Panama City, with a long layover. One member of our group is a travel agent and she agreed, the airport in Panama City was one of the most expensive she's experienced. Note to self for future travel.

The schedule usually includes a guided city tour, either walking or by bus, on the first morning at each location. The Quito tour took us to the old town and continued on foot. The first stop was the basilica, where I put on my brave face and climbed the two story ladder from the roof to the top of the tower.

It felt quite safe with metal guard rails, however, the glass landings were intimidating. What a view! My brave tourmate, Sue:

At the basilica gift shop I bought a little bronze alpaca, part of our tradition while travelling: seeking additions for our Christmas nativity. Actually, it’s a year round nativity on its own shelf in a glass cabinet.

Background story: when we moved to White Rock, a box fell off our overloaded pickup truck, C said it seemed to explode into a million pieces when it hit the highway. It was late at night and there was no way to recover it. We wracked our brains for a long time trying to figure out what we lost. One Christmas we realized we couldn't find our ceramic Christmas tree and beloved nativity. It made sense that the little lights from the tree were what C saw explode into so many pieces.

I went on a mission to try to replace our olive wood figures, the antique lead geese that were my dad's from Poland, and a variety of additions we accumulated over the years. Thanks to ebay I was able to find the most important pieces. Still missing are a painted wooden angel (a gift from one of our German students), a clear 1/2" plastic Scottie dog, and some Hallmark miniature bunnies my mother had given our children. Just one of those disappointing things that happen, relatively minor in the scheme of things, and it's fun adding new items. 

Following the tour, which included a chocolate tasting, we stayed on the bus for a four hour ride to the Amazon rain forest lodge. At the top of a mountain pass we were encouraged to walk a bit in the high altitude 4.071m (13356ft), a preview of what was to come at Cuzco and Machu Picchu.