The Jungle

Well...I think I am starting to realize that I am really bad at keeping a blog....I don't actually think I like keeping blogs because I don't really know who I am writing to and that is really hard for me. I mean I know I am writing to friends and family...but it's kind of hard I guess, I really prefer writing to one person I guess. I am still going to keep the blog, but that is why I don't update very often.

Ok, anyway I said a while back I was going to talk about my trip to the jungle, so here it goes. I went to the jungle during Halloween weekend with five friends (Jen, Ali, and Alia from Linfield, Angela from OSU and Spencer from Southern Oregon). We went to Cuyabeno and stayed in a place called Jamu Lodge. We had this arranged through a tour guide/salsa teacher who was one of our tour guides for our city tour at the beginning of the year. We left on a night bus on a Thursday night..it was about an 8hr bus ride to a place called Lago Agrio, where we were supposed to find our tour guide, named Hector. So, we arrive around 7am in Lago Agrio, well actually the bus stopped in Lago Agrio on the street and people started getting off the bus and we all kind of turn to each other and go "Are we here? Where are we?" and finally we ask someone near us and he says yeah this is Lago Agrio. So, according to the directions we were given, we were supposed to get off in Lago Agrio and then walk a few blocks to a hotel where we were meeting our guide, Hector. We asked this guy next to us if he knew where this hotel was and he said, yeah I am going there also, so we followed him (Rodrigo) and another guy who was with him (Marco). We thought they were on the tour also, well at least that was my impression at first. We got to the hotel (we never would have found it without Rodrigo and Marco) and there was no one there, so we went next door to a restaurant to eat breakfast. While we were sitting there, Rodrigo got up and left, and we were just talking with Marco and he said that Rodrigo was our tour guide and we were like "well our paper says our tour guides name is Hector", I started getting a little antsy because we had been sitting there for almost 2 hours and we hadn't found Hector. Rodrigo came back and said that the van was ready and we told him about Hector and he told us that Hector was the driver, but wasnt working. He did have a shirt that said Jamu Lodge on it (where we were going), so we went with him. I have to say I was still a little suspicious, but they were really nice and seemed like they knew what they were doing. After a 2 hr drive we arrived in another place, where we were eating lunch and then taking a canoe to the lodge. Alia and I had put down that we were vegetarians and so during lunch there were two vegeterian meals for us and that was when I finally really trusted that we were with the right people. A joke of the trip became asking where Hector was because we never found him. We then had a 2 hr canoe ride that was really beautiful and then we arrived at the lodge. We happened to be the only people staying at the lodge and it was really nice.
The next few days were full of canoe rides where we saw monkeys, dolphins, lots of birds, crocodiles (at night), and lots of insects. Our canoe driver was a man named Edmundo and we would always hear Rodrigo say "Vamos Edmundo (Lets go Edmundo)", but at first we didnt realize he was saying "Edmundo" and we heard "El mundo" and we all thought this was some kind of saying that meant everyone, lets go, but then we figured out that it was Edmundo, so poor Edmundo got a nickname of El Mundo.

We also went to a nearby village where we learned out to make yuca bread and we also went to a Shaman (not sure how to spell it) and listened to him talk about his profession. We ate really good food at the lodge and during our afternoon break time they would give us lots of really good popcorn and we would lounge around in hammocks and attempt to do the homework we brought with us. We went on a couple of hikes where we saw really interesting plants and our guide, Rodrigo, would explain the importance of everything. He showed us a lemon ant tree, that naturally had lemon ants all over it and had us try them. I watched Jen try one and was like "oh yeah I can do that too" and then when it was my turn, I got one ant on my finger and was like "no, no i cant do this" and Jen was very supportive and told me it would be okay :) She told me to just smash it on my tongue, but not to lick my hand because i had DEET all over it. I then lost the ant and then Rodrigo told me to give him my hand and he would give me another, I gave him my hand and he gave me, not just one ant, but about 15-20. I stared at my hand with ants in it and actually literally started to jump around because I didn't want to eat, but I finally convinced myself to eat them and licked my hand of ants. At first I only could taste the DEET, but then I could taste a little bit of lemon, but then I mainly just tasted dirt because there was a lot of dirt in the ant pile.

Ok, well I think those are all the highlights of the trip. We made it back to Quito, with a few stops on the way, meaning the bus got stopped for checkpoints because we were close to the Colombian border, so that was a new experience also. We also had a hiliarious bus driver assistant guy who kept us entertained everytime we had a stop....he was SO funny I can't even explain it. We made it back to Quito Monday night and then I had class early the next day. :)

Well, I think that sums up the Jungle trip, I took lots of pictures and have three albums up for it, so here are the links:

Jungle Part I: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025918&l=8c3b6&id=65202295
Jungle Part II: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026183&l=0cebe&id=65202295
Jungle Part III: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026185&l=c90a0&id=65202295

Hope you all are well! (not sure if anyone is actually reading my blog anymore because I never update it, but if you are hope you are well and email me sometime! :)

Peace,
Nadia