The Amazon, Ecuador

2nd August – 5th August 2017

It’s a long one, but what an experience!

A night in a hotel bed was a lovely treat but we still had an early start, so that we could get going! Breakfast was included but we had to be down there for 7 in order to have time to eat before we left – I had scrambled eggs and fruit (a weird combination but both equally nice). Bags had to be packed and on the truck for 7.45 so that we could leave for 8.

We met the final member of the team (according to David and Rianne) who was Amber – the truck. We all piled on (with plenty of spare seats because it is such a small group) and set off on our drive towards the Amazon Rainforest! After about 2 hours we stopped for a toilet and drinks break.

During the break, Rianne gave us a tour of the outside of the truck. It has everything we could possibly need for the tour: tents, cooking utensils, chairs, tables, food boxes, drinking water etc. So we filled our water up before getting back on.

Back inside the truck, once we were driving again, Rianne gave us a tour of the inside – they have literally thought of everything, down to the little stickers to put onto your own food if you want to put it in the fridge (which is also on the truck). We all got paired up with someone else on the bus (someone we weren’t travelling with) so that whenever we get on the bus and Rianna shouts ‘amigos’, if we can see our partner then we shout ‘si’ if we can’t then at least they won’t get left behind! My partner is Judy, from Berlin. We then had to distribute jobs for the next few weeks – everyone has to do something to chip in and help. Me and Ruth signed up for jobs together; we are the back locker monitors for in the morning. This means we have to load everyone’s bags onto the truck before we leave in a morning – I’ll be inside the truck piling them neatly and logically and Ruth will be outside passing them up to me. I’m sure we’ll make a great team! For the cooking rota, I signed up to be a sous-chef – the chef has too much responsibility as they have to decide what everyone is eating and sort all of the shopping out, so I’ll just help with that as a sous-chef!

After an extra 3 hours drive, through beautiful landscapes and over very bumpy roads, we arrived at the edge of the Amazon basin. The lodge we stayed in was stunning! There was a bar area, a reception area, a pool and we had a lodge for just me and Ruth – it even had wifi, which was a bit strange for me considering we were in the Amazon!

After we had checked in, we had a short space of time to chill – the weather was beautiful and it was so hot! We sat down for lunch and it was a big one! We had four small courses and I was very full; we had courgette in a sauce with some crackers, some kind of soup with cheese and various vegetables, then we had a kind of vegetable lasagne (which was yummy) and then finished with a bowl of fruit! After eating the minimal over the last week, it was a lot to stomach! We also got a free water bottle with lunch too, so that was cool! Whilst we were sat having lunch, the rain came down – kind of expected in the rainforest – but it didn’t last very long.

Once we had finished lunch, the rain had stopped just in time for our walk! We were all provided with a pair of wellies (which came in very handy in the end) and off we went.

The walk was mainly aimed around looking at the different medicinal plants in the rainforest and it was very interesting, but I can’t remember the names of any of the plants because they were long and complicated. The first plant we saw was a leaf that you can heat up and put on bruises and swelling to help heal them. You can also use the sap from the leaf for healing purposes too. The next medicinal plant we saw was about 3 metres high; the leaves were much bigger on this plant and again they were the part of the plant that is used. If you break a leaf off and then snap it and sniff in the aroma that initially comes out, there is a smell that hits the back of your throat and is good for the flu and blocked noses. We all tried it and had the same reaction as soon as the smell hit our throats!

Not quite a plant but another thing from the Amazon used for medicinal purposes are the red ants. The natives grab a handful of red ants and rubs them on their skin to use as an insect repellent. If they leave the ants on too long, they will bite but the squashed ants on their skin is a repellent to other insects.

The rain started to come down again and it poured! The guide told us it would only last 10-15 minutes but it ended up last the whole tour (which was two hours long)!

Not letting the rain stop us, we walked further into the rainforest, where the guide found a centipede. He told us that it’s like a therapeutic massage and takes away the worries as it runs over your skin. He passed the centipede round and we had a hold, but once it got to me, it just didn’t want to leave! I tried to pass it to Dan next to me and it gripped around my finger quite hard – even the tour guide couldn’t get it off! When he eventually got it off he didn’t give it to anyone else, think I ruined that one, oops!

We went further into the jungle and found another plant which is used to make necklaces and bracelets; the tour guide made a crown out of the leaves for Rianne. He explained that when the plant is at its youngest and has just started to grow, it can be eaten. I tried it but it didn’t taste very nice – it tasted a bit leafy really!

From here we went to a waterfall (which wasn’t really a waterfall as the pool at the bottom was all dried up). Apparently a few days of sun dries up the waterfall but one day of rain will fill it back up again so I imagine it would have filled quite quickly after our walk. We had the opportunity to go underneath the waterfall but most didn’t – I figured as I was already soaked from the rain, I would go under anyway!

After this we looked at more trees and what they are used for. One tree was called Huasquila (the same name as the lodge) which means vine tree (huas meaning vine and quila meaning tree). The guide told us that some poorer families use the roots of the tree for their home as they are so high, each section between the roots is a different room in the house. The guide showed us a fruit which they don’t really use for food, instead they dry the inside part and use it to make buttons for clothes. The last tree we looked at in detail was a Dragonblood tree. When the tree trunk is slashed, it bleeds a red sap which is used for treating cuts and open wounds, as well as stomach problems.

It was interesting to find out that the first language they learn is Quichua (the Ecuadorean native language) and then they don’t learn Spanish until they go to college. They can then choose to learn English then too if they want to!

We walked back to the Hostel and had chance to chill for a little while before dinner. Dinner was another big one: soup for starter, fish for mains and chocolate cake for dessert! We also got a free welcome cocktail that went down nicely with the food. During dinner there were lots of duck noises coming from the pond in the hotel grounds (right next to where we were sat), only they weren’t ducks, apparently they were frogs! I had to do a very quick walk back to the lodge, in hope I didn’t see any!

Lay in bed, all we could hear we’re different animal noises coming from the forest around us, but they didn’t bother me and they didn’t stop me from sleeping! Ruth, however, did stop me from sleeping, as about 1am she woke me to tell me there was a spider in our bathroom. Spiders aren’t something that bother me so I told her to go back to sleep but Ruth was not happy. She didn’t want to sleep and wanted to get it out – she obviously didn’t realise she was staying in a jungle. She left the room (with just the one spider in) and went to reception (through the jungle) to get someone to move the spider. She didn’t have much luck so just put a towel under the door to stop it coming in the room. At 5am she got up again and tried to get some help from reception to move the spider but when she came back, it was gone and she couldn’t see it anywhere.

Once Ruth had woken me a second time, I decided I may as well just stay awake as the sun was rising and it wasn’t raining. Breakfast was a feast, once again (we are treated very well here). We had the choice of cereal, toast, fruit, eggs and/ or pancakes. It was a good start to the day and filled us ready for our hike.

The three hour hike consisted of looking at lots of different plants and trees and learning and what the natives use them for. It’s strange to think about how they discovered these medicinal remedies and uses because a lot of them involve pulling the plant apart completely.

We tried the saps from some leaves (which is a cure for an upset stomach) it tasted very bitter and we all had the same reaction, we ate a leaf (which is used to numb a sore throat), the guide then cut and peeled a cane from a bitter cane tree which tasted very lemony but good and we tried another bitter tasting fruit which was also quite nice!

The guide also showed us how to use his machete and explained that there is a tapping ritual to get rid of all bad energy before using it. He also made a couple of crowns from the leaves of one of the plants.

Later on the walk, we had chance to swing on the vines of some of the trees. That was pretty cool and we had to shout ‘pacha mama’ or something like that (probably not completely accurate) which means Mother Earth, so we get a blessing as we swing. We also had the chance to swing on a vine shaped like a seat which was uncomfortable but equally fun!

Next on our hike, we went into a small cave. It was about 60 metres long and was pretty dark at times (even though we had head torches on). We made our way through, seeing scorpion spiders on the way, and came out the other side.

Once the rain started to come down we were shaded partly by the trees so it wasn’t too bad, but our tour guide cut us down some very large leaves and we had our own Amazon made umbrellas! He then also decided he didn’t want his stuff to get wet, so he put his bag inside mine and still left me to carry it. A bit further through the jungle, there was a waterfall to shower under. No one else wanted to shower besides the tour guide, so he stripped down to his swim shorts and in he went. After his shower he took his bag out of mine, put his dry clothes in it and then put it back in my bag! It was funny because it was like the norm to him and off he went.

Back at the lodge we had another large lunch. Today’s menu included a small empanada for the first course (with cheese inside and sugar on top), then we had another soup (which I think was pumpkin flavour) with popcorn in! The next course was steak with veg – very fancy for lunch and then we finished off with melon in a sauce. A lot of food for lunch time, I definitely won’t go hungry staying here!

Pretty much straight from lunch, we got in the truck and drove about 20 minutes to some caves – only 7 of us went though, with the same tour guide as the morning and David to drive us.

Inside the caves was very cool! We all got a head torch from the place and we had our wellies from the lodge and off we went. It was much better than expected: I could see much more than I thought and it was much wider than I thought! A few metres in, we came to a lagoon; it was about 2.5 metres deep and once we climbed up we were able to jump off the edge into the lagoon – that was pretty cool! We had to put our head torches on the side before we jumped and as I put mine on the side it slid down and it was like it was slow motion as I tried to catch it. I did fail and it fell into the plunge pool but the guide rescued it and it still worked!

We carried on walking past lots of stalagmites and stalactites shaped in different formations – some looked like cauliflower and some like broccoli. We got to a dead end in the cave and stopped, turned off our lights and sat in silence for a bit. We back tracked slightly and then turned up another part of the cave. We came to another waterfall bit with some plunge pools: 3 metres deep, 2 metres deep and 1 metre deep. I was plunged into the 3 metre pool but I couldn’t reach the bottom.

We head out of the cave and back towards the truck. The weather was gorgeous again now so it didn’t take us long to dry because we plunged fully clothed.

Back at the Hostel again we had time for a super quick shower before it was time for the chocolate making workshop.

We had the same tour guide again and he showed us the cocoa pod – so what the cocoa looks like when it grows on the trees. He cut it open and inside were the little pods, we tried them raw and they were sweet but you could only keep them in your mouth for a few seconds. He explained that these need to be left out in the sun for 6 days to dry out, before they can be used to make chocolate.

Once the cocoa had dried out the beans needed roasting in a pan for about 15 minutes (I had a go at stirring them but it was very hot!). After they were roasted, they needed peeling, so we rubbed the beans between our hands and put the peeled beans in a dish. After all the beans had been peeled, they needed grinding. I also had a go at this – it was easy in the beginning, then became difficult in the middle and then easy again at the end.

After it had all been ground down, we added sugar and cinnamon and some milk. It then needed heating again so it was put back on the fire. I didn’t volunteer to stir here because others needed a chance. The guide ran off quickly at this point and because the mixture was boiling the pan was taken off the fire – I think it was too soon because when he came back, he put it back on. Once it was runny, it was served up with a piece of apple and a strawberry. It tasted quite nice but was dark and I’m not really a fan of cinnamon, but I still ate it. It also had quite a texture to it, so the guide said we probably should have put the powder back through the grinder again to make it finer.

We had a short break then before tea. Dinner tonight was soup starter again, followed by chicken and some vegetables. Dessert was a coconut cake thing which I didn’t really like, so I gave that a miss but that didn’t matter because I was still full from lunch anyway! So much food!

After tea we sat around and had a chat with each other before bed, ready for an early start. We had to bug proof the lodge with towels at doorways to stop any bugs coming into the bedroom!

After a night full of rain, day three began with breakfast again. I didn’t eat as much as I previously had because they gave so much food and the air was very humid so I wasn’t as hungry.

We set off for an early start of a long day and drove for just over an hour to a little restaurant and boat port (when I say boat, they were more like canoes). We all got on our life jackets and sat in twos ready for the boat trip down the river; we were on the Napo river which is a tributary off the Amazon river. After about half an hour, we arrived at Amazoonica, which is an animal sanctuary in the Amazon.

Amazoonica takes animals from the ministry of environment, who confiscate animals from people who keep them as pets illegally. They nurture them and look after them and if they are well enough and strong enough to survive on their own, they release them into the area of the Amazon surrounding the sanctuary (Selva Viva). They monitor them in this area to make sure they are happy and coping well; if they don’t cope, they take them back into the sanctuary. Some animals are too comfortable with human contact and don’t have a killer instinct because they were brought up around humans, so they wouldn’t survive alone and are kept in the sanctuary. We saw a range of macaws and parrots, some monkeys, tapirs, ocelots, tortoises (which all have a hole drilled through their shell – which is like their vertebrae – by their previous owners so that they could keep them tied up) and turtles, toucans and more. Although it was sad to hear all the stories of how the animals were treated in the past, it was good to know they’ve been rescued.

After about an hour tour, we got on the canoe boat thing and head back towards the truck. The boat took a lot longer to get back as we were going upstream and it was quite a struggle for the little motor on the back – I thought we were going to need to get some oars out to help! We pulled up beside a small island and saw some monkeys swinging through the trees as well.

We got back to where the truck was parked and went to the restaurant there for some lunch. As it was so hot and humid, I wasn’t overly hungry at lunch either but I ate some of what they gave me. It was soup for starter (obviously) and then chicken and rice for the mains. Luckily there wasn’t any dessert with lunch.

We got on the truck again and drove about 20 minutes to a monkey beach. The monkeys were all playing in the trees at the back of the beach and were very used to having people around. We took some photos but that’s as far as it went for us – some others had them sat on their shoulders and heads. As we were walking away, I felt something hit my hand; thinking it was a child I looked down and a monkey had stolen my drink from my hand. It ran up the tree and was hitting it on the branches trying to get in it. He eventually dropped it and one of the men told me off as though I had given the monkey the drink! It all happened to quickly but it was funny! We paddled our feet in the river before walking back to the truck.

After another 10 minute drive we arrived at an Amazon community (Familia Kichwa Tiyu Yaku). It wasn’t quite what I imagined a tribe to look like, but they’re a modern day tribe, so it’s slightly different.

The first woman showed us how the pan for gold in the river. Apparently the strong current carries tiny pieces of gold down the river through the river bed and after a long process of collecting the sand with pebbles in a bowl made from a tree root, and washing the bowl out in the river (by swirling it around), tiny fragments of gold are collected in the bottom. It’s quite a lengthy process for such a small amount of gold. This is then sold for $40 per gram.

Next we went to a pottery demonstration, where a different woman showed us how, using only natural resources from the jungle, the community make pots and bowls. It was very impressive to see how neat it looked considering it was done by hand and it’s impressive to know that it is made using resources and tools from the jungle. She said it takes about a week to make a pot completely.

Finally, we had a go at the blow dart. The natives would use the blow dart for hunting, but obviously we only used it for practice on a wooden macaw. Our tour guide demonstrated first and then we had the chance to have a go. It did take me three attempts but I got there in the end! It was hard to aim and as the pole was 2 metres long, you had to aim higher than the macaws head, but I got there eventually!

After an action packed day, we got on the truck and went back to the lodge – the truck was so hot (as we’d had no rain all day), so it was windows down and eyes shut for most people. We got back to the lodge about 5.30 and had a dip in the lodge pool. Although we didn’t actually go in as we were leaving the next day and didn’t want to get our clothes wet.

Dinner was another large meal: warm slices of beetroot for starter, soup, chicken and homemade chip with veg and a pineapple Crème Brule type thing for dessert. Then after dinne some of the group went on a night walk with our guide. As much as I am determined to face my fear this year, I just didn’t fancy facing those frogs in the dark – hearing them was bad enough – so I sat that one out.

Once everyone was back from the night walk, the guide put on a bonfire for us with his friend playing the guitar and singing. As the fire was set up next to the pond and the frogs sounded extra close tonight, I watched from a distance but it was still lovely to hear and see!

Staying in the Amazon has been an experience and something I will not forget. I’m so glad I didn’t actually see a frog, but like I said, part of me would like to face my fear at some point on this trip. We will see what happens!

To travel is to live, Katie x