Gira a La Amazonia 2012

   This time two weeks ago, I was crawling through the trees and leaves and learning about the culture and medicinal plants. I was swimming through historic and rich rivers full of piranha and a world of unknown creatures. I was interacting with indigenous residents and learning about their culture. All of this is because this time last week, I was in the Ecuadorian Amazon Jungle, and what a trip of a lifetime it was! 

Day one: We left our local Rotary Club, in Machala, just before 5pm and off we went. It took us a good 12 hours to get to our First destination: Quito, the capital city. We made many stops along the way, including the picture of us with the giant pineapple! I'm still not entirely sure why the town had a giant pineapple in it, but we stopped none the less.... But anyways, we took two 15 seater vans but despite the amount of room, we had a lot of trouble finding comfortable sleep. We were in those vans from 5pm to 6am the next day when we finally arrived in Quito at the airport that would take us to our first stop in the Amazon. 

The Giant Pineapple! 

We were SO. TIRED. 

The Group on the Plane

FINALLY leaving! 

The first River shot we could manage

   Day two begins when our plane touched down in the Oriente. We landed in Lago Agrio (or Sour Lake) at about 9am and our day was off and running from there. The tour guides from our Camp picked us up at the airport and away we went. It was two hours from the airport to the entrance to our camp and along the way we saw a toucan and incredible nature! We finally arrived to a big... hut of sorts... and ate our lunch. I had originally thought we were staying at this giant hut, but it turns out that our lodge was another 3 hours away by boat. So after lunch, we loaded up in the boats and headed to our lodge.
   On the way to our lodge, we saw more toucan, an anaconda, and even a couple families of monkeys! Going through the jungle felt like a real life version of the Disneyland ride Jungle Safari in Adventure Land. I kept expecting a motorized hippo or crocodile to come up out of the water. While there were no hippos, we did see some crocodiles, but we'll save that for another day! The trees, river, animals were all astounding and to think that I wasn't just on a ride was what kept surprising me. This was the real life and I was really experiencing the Amazon Jungle!

When we finally arrived to our lodge roommates were quickly chosen and cabins divided. My group included my two best friends Maria and Deborah. They go to school with me and it was easiest to share a cabin with people you know really well. We were in the Toucan cabin at the very far end of the lodge.

Every bed was equipped with a mosquito net to protect us!

My friend Alyssa and I in our dining hall

A little place for relaxation

   After a quick minute of relaxation, we were told to change into some long pants for a night hike thought the jungle. Equipped with our flashlights and our brave faces, we ventured into the dark jungle in search of bugs and nocturnal animals. What we found was plenty to make your skin crawl. I'm not a fan of the dark in general and being in the jungle in the dark nearly brought me to tears! I didn't take any pictures that night because I had forgotten my camera in the lodge. But like I said, the creatures we saw were enough to make your skin CRAWL.

       Day three was our biggest day. We went for a long three hour hike in the jungle where we learned what plants could be used to save our lives in the event that we get stranded in the jungle. Up hills we hiked and through mud we trudged. It was really something to be able to experience the Amazon jungle from the very heart of it. It was gorgeous! We saw a lot less animals than in our boat because our group was pretty loud, but all is well- we still had an incredible experience! 

There was a vine that we could swing on,
so much fun! 

The group mid way through the hike. Behind us, you can
see that there is a hole in the tree that we could crawl in

A tree that produced wax that the indigenous
used for candles

Finally done! And OH oh oh so tired! 

   After hiking we enjoyed a nice, refreshing lunch. A quick change into our bathing suits and were off into the boats again, only this time were fishing for piranha! Armed with 2 kilos of raw beef we set out to catch us some dinner. Except for I'm kidding, we released all of the fish we caught.

First catch of the day! Germany- 1 Rest of the World - 0

Our tour guide, Luis, showing us how to take the hook
out of the fish, which we weren't allowed to do because the
teeth were too sharp!

A good view of those sharp teeth! 

All of us were standing, made me so nervous! 

   Most of us caught fish with the exception of a few... I was one of the few. I felt a significant tug one time and in my excitement, I flung it over the boat. Oops! When I ran out of meat, my "fierce" determination to catch a fish lead me to attempt to catch a fish with a caramel candy. Safe to say my efforts went without positive results. After fishing we headed to a close by lagoon and met up with the other group we were with and went swimming in the lagoon while we watched the sunset! We even went skinny dipping! If the water wasn't as muddy as it was, there would have been no way I would have done it, but HEY, how many people can say they've been skinny dipping in the Amazon Rain Forest! After swimming we got back into to the boats and hunted for crocodiles. We ended up finding a lot of them, a lot more than I had originally expected. Our crazy tour guide practically hugged one! 

Some friends and I with amazonian mud on our faces! 

There he is! The crocodile liiives! 

    Another day over and yet another great day afterwards! Our fourth, and final full day was a trip into a local village to learn about the local culture. We got to hear their language, called Pinecoco and they showed us how to harvest yucca and make a nutritional bread with it. Later in the day, the village Shaman came and talked to us, giving us some of the history behind being a Shaman, or a witch doctor. He was getting to the age of training other Shamans to take his place and he told us that the road to spiritual enlightenment is one of challenges and pain and only a small handful of the men who train actually make it. It was a very rewarding day and a great learning experience!

Arriving into the Village

A local woman chopping the excess
yucca tree

Just an average boat ride in the Amazon... 

   Our last day was a pack up and head home day. Before we left, we all got up at 5am to watch the sunrise. The sky was full of clouds, but was was something wonderful to see the jungle emerge from the fog. We left the lodge at about 10 and left in the plane around 5pm. We stayed a while in Quito and enjoyed the cool weather. It was about 50 degrees in Quito which is the coldest weather we've been since we've all been here. It was so refreshing! We all slept the majority of the way home, only waking up once! Right before we all went to sleep, though, we passed "El Mitad del Mundo" or the Middle of the World. I'll be back there later and I'll make sure to take lots of pictures! 

  

   In other news! I have switch families and and I am so much happier! I look forward to getting to know them and getting to see Ecuador with them! Additionally, I received my itinerary and will be land in PDX at 10:10PM on May 20th! See you then, friends! 

Lastly, I got my email for the Galapagos and I will be heading there the 16-20th of March. Funds are increasingly low on my end and any financial help that you all are willing to give would be much appreciated. I am especially tight financially being that I will be heading to Western Washington University in the Fall. Let me know if you would like to help! My personal email is marlee.chavez@yahoo.com I look forward to seeing you all soon and in the meantime: MORE POSTS TO COME (: